ThinkTV and CET Form New Regional Company: Public Media Connect, Inc.

The Boards of Trustees of ThinkTV (Greater Dayton Public Television) and CET (Greater Cincinnati Public Television) announced today that the organizations have formed a regional, non-profit public broadcasting and media corporation, Public Media Connect, Inc. David Fogarty has been named President of the regional organization and of both CET and ThinkTV.

ThinkTV and CET continue as locally-based non-profit companies. As subsidiaries of the new regional corporation, both organizations retain their identities and will provide their respective public television, on-line and educational services to the Greater Dayton and Greater Cincinnati communities. Staff and facilities will remain at their current locations.

The formation of Public Media Connect, Inc. follows an announcement in late October 2008 that CET and ThinkTV would consolidate operations to strengthen their non-profit activities.

“As CET and ThinkTV continue to serve their local communities, Public Media Connect offers significant opportunities to share resources, promote greater operational efficiencies, and increase the reach and impact of private and public support. We believe strongly that in today’s non-profit and media environment, a shared regional vision for CET and ThinkTV offers the best opportunity to grow local programming and educational services,” said Bryan Dunn, chair of the CET Board.

ThinkTV Board chair, John Danis noted, “ThinkTV and CET are the most widely-used non-profit services in the Dayton and Cincinnati metropolitan communities. Bringing the organizations together through Public Media Connect is a new regional model for public broadcasting. As our metropolitan communities grow more closely together economically with developments along the I-75 corridor, innovative partnerships can offer real opportunities for the future.”

ThinkTV and CET are the licensees of public television stations WPTD/16, WPTO/14 and WCET/48, which serve the greater Dayton and Cincinnati communities. In addition to their broadcast services, the organizations provide a variety of educational services to regional schools and early childhood caregivers. Both CET and T ThinkTV have developed innovative Internet, on-line services including www.cetconnect.org and www.thinktv.org.

About David Fogarty

David Fogarty has been President and General Manager/CEO of ThinkTV since 1993. Prior to being named President of the organization, he was Station Manager and Director of Broadcasting and Telecommunications. Mr. Fogarty has extensive experience in broadcast and public television, having held roles as Manager of Broadcast Projects and Senior Producer at Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul-Minneapolis, Minnesota; an international communications consultant in South America; duties with the United States Peace Corps in Colombia; and work in corporate communications. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and guest lectured at a number of academic institutions. He began his professional career with ABC News, New York in national documentary production. He is Vice President of Ohio Educational Television Stations, Inc. and is on the Board of Directors of the National Educational Telecommunications Association. He has served on the boards of a number of non-profit, community, cultural, educational and human service organizations.

About ThinkTV

ThinkTV is a non-profit, public media corporation. Each month, its non-commercial broadcast stations, WPTD (Dayton) and WPTO (Oxford/Cincinnati), are watched by more Ohioans than any other public television organization in Ohio. The stations serve the 3.5 million people of southwestern and west central Ohio and reach more than 20 percent of all of the state’s school districts. ThinkTV is an Emmy award-winning producer of local and state-wide programming, developer of innovative technology and standards-based curriculum for classrooms, provider of professional development training for early childhood caregivers, and an active community partner offering multi-media content and distribution services to non-profit and business entities. For more information about ThinkTV, visit www.thinktv.org.

About CET

CET is Greater Cincinnati’s leading provider of education and enrichment in both living rooms and classrooms, reaching more than 2 million residents, 470,000 students and 37,000 teachers. Through PBS and local programming, CETconnect.org, innovative multimedia curriculum projects, parent workshops and professional development for teachers, CET positively impacts our community with rich and diverse resources. CET was the first licensed educational television station in the nation, the first high-definition public station in Ohio, and, through CETconnect.org, the first public television station to offer a community-based public media on-demand service. For more information about CET, visit www.cetconnect.org.