Cable channel JTV in Jackson, Mich., is unique, writes Bart Hawley. “We make the claim of being ‘The World Leader in Local High School Sports Television’.” In addition, claims Hawley, JTV is the “only 100% local television channel, producing 100% of our completely hyper-local content in-house. We are locally owned and employ 14 full time […]
Cable channel JTV in Jackson, Mich., is unique, writes Bart Hawley. “We make the claim of being ‘The World Leader in Local High School Sports Television’.”
In addition, claims Hawley, JTV is the “only 100% local television channel, producing 100% of our completely hyper-local content in-house. We are locally owned and employ 14 full time professionals and several part-time and talent staff.”
Hawley is writing in response to the Market Share story about WRAL’s Friday Night Lights football coverage.
“I enjoy reading your stories and everything on TVNewscheck.”
JTV has been on the air for 16 years, providing local content to an under-served portion of the Lansing-Jackson market. There are six broadcast stations in the market, all based in Lansing, primarily covering the Lansing area, about 30 miles from Jackson.
In addition to carrying high school sports — more than 38,000 high school student athletes have had their games air on JTV — the channel is also home to The Bart Hawley Show, its flagship program.
The Bart Hawley Show is a daily two-hour live talk show and has had more than 26,000 guests in its nearly 16 years of production, according to Hawley and is, he claims, “America’s only live, daily, local, two-hour television talk show.”
Hawley says “if it’s happening in Jackson, it’s happening on The Bart Hawley Show.”
JTV reaches approximately 80,000 households. According to Wikipedia, Jackson has a population of approximately 160,000 people.
So having fun with the numbers, about 25% of Jackson’s high school athletes have appeared playing on JTV, and almost 20% of the population have appeared as a guest on the The Bart Hawley Show, if you assume all of the guests were local.
That’s pretty local by my book.
Although JTV covers high school football, boys and girls’ basketball and volleyball, state limitations prevent it from carrying any of the games live.
But during football and basketball seasons, the channel carries three, sometimes four, complete games, crewed by two camera operators, a play-by-play announcer and color commentator, and include games graphics, instant replays and in-game features.
JTV also airs weekly specials like the High School Scholar Athlete of the Week program and six community lifestyle shows covering food, home and garden, events, business, music and arts, etc.
So is JTV the only 100% local TV channel in America as it claims? I don’t know, but it’s great for Jackson.
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