Starting this month, the City of San Marcos and Palomar College will begin airing more San Marcos-specific programming on San Marcos Television (SMTV) as part of a cooperative agreement struck between the two agencies last year.
San Marcos TV is a Public Education and Government (PEG) channel that can be seen in San Marcos on Cox Communications Channel 19, Time Warner Cable Channel 24 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99.
The agreement allows for Palomar College to air programs produced by their Emmy-award winning television department on the city-run cable channel daily from 4 to 10 pm. Programs during this timeslot may include Nature’s Cathedral: The Geology of Yosemite, Math in Your World and Se Habla Español. When Palomar College is not airing their programming, the city will air Council meetings, other city informational shows or county programming.
“By pairing specific city and college resources, we’re able to expand local programming to residents, students and other interested parties,” said Communications Officer Jenny Windle.
“This partnership with the City of San Marcos is a win-win for the both entities,” says Norma Miyamoto, Dean of Arts, Media, Business and Computer Science at Palomar College. “Community members and students alike will benefit from this prime-time opportunity to watch the outstanding educational videos produced by our PCTV department.”
As part of the agreement, the city agreed to provide a fiber connection from the college to City Hall, which allows the college to transfer programming digitally to SMTV for broadcast to San Marcos cable and AT&T subscribers. The fiber installation was completed in late March 2012.
In return for the fiber installation, the college has been providing television production services. Two new program concepts have been launched as part of this agreement: “Discover San Marcos,” which is a series on the history of our City; and “Spotlight San Marcos,” which is a quarterly news program updating residents on special events, programs and projects in the City.
The college also provides field coverage for city events like the annual State of the City Address and the bi-annual Education Forum.
The programs can also be viewed online at www.palomar-tv.com and will eventually be available at www.san-marcos.net as well.
