WNIT Public Television is Michiana's PBS Station

Mary Pruess
President and General Manager
WNIT Public Television

As you may have seen, WNIT Public Television has recently announced a major expansion of facilities and services that will include a relocation of our primary facility from the campus of the Elkhart Area Career Center to downtown South Bend. After major renovation, WNIT will inaugurate a new studio and offices in the building currently occupied by WSBT-TV.

We have cherished our time at the current location, but our 20-year-old modular buildings are past their useful life and have not kept pace with new and developing technologies. With our lease expiring in 2008, our Board of Directors engaged in an extensive two-year search to meet the needs of both WNIT and our community.

We elected to acquire the current WSBT studios, a 30,000 square foot, technically-adaptable building that will become a public communication center for the future. The acquisition was made possible because of a significant in-kind donation from Schurz Communications. It enables WNIT to provide Michiana with new and emerging media services, and it will allow citizens to participate in civic discussions and problem solving in innovative and unexpected ways. Since the new facility is already a television station, it is economically adaptable to WNIT's current and future technology needs. It provides adequate office space and ample community meeting areas. Our channels, call letters, towers and core programming will remain the same.

The foundation of WNIT's success has always been our partnership with the community, and we are seeking to strengthen and grow that partnership with a new communication center dedicated to media in the public interest.

That partnership is evident in the recent announcement that WNIT Board member Carmi Murphy has been awarded the 2006 Public Television Leadership Award. She received the award at the closing banquet of the annual PBS Development Conference on October 6 in Baltimore, Maryland, for her energy and dedication in her capacities as chair of the Board (1997 - 2000), chair of the Development committee and co-chair of WNIT's 25th and 30th anniversary galas.

The PBS Leadership Award recognizes individuals who, through their sustained commitment, have secured major funding for public television and whose efforts have resulted in lasting benefits to their station. Carmi Murphy has served WNIT as well as the greater Michiana area for many years. It is people like her who enable WNIT to be involved in our community with quality programs and outstanding educational services.

Change is part of life, and change is part of the broadcasting industry. In the next few years, we will switch from analog to digital transmission, relocate to a larger and more technically advanced facility, and face increasing competition from a multitude of cable and satellite channels. In this sea of changes and challenges, our membership has served as a rock of stability and inspiration and further evidence of WNIT's strong partnership with the communities of Michiana.. We look forward to many more years of working together to fulfill the promise of public broadcasting.

WNIT. Television worthy of your trust.