Facts About AETN

Here are many interesting things about AETN that most people may not know:

Helping Educate Arkansans

• Arkansas IDEAS (Internet Delivered Education for Arkansas Schools) has proven to be a trend-setter in software and hardware design for educational purposes. Developed and maintained by AETN and the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), the Arkansas "IDEAS" portal allows teachers in Arkansas to purse their professional development online with multiple options of Arkansas Department of Educational approved courses available to them at no charge. This is an anytime, anywhere educational tool designed with teachers' busy schedules in mind. Visit the Arkansas IDEAS portal at www.arkansasideas.org.
• AETN Scholar is the first and only instructional television channel provided for use in professional development for educators and resources for classroom use. The channel is broadcast full-time over-the-air as well as carried on several cable systems throughout the state of Arkansas.
• AETN provides an extensive library of streamed video for inclusion in lesson plans, classroom presentations and student projects. There are nearly 50,000 video clips, approximately 5,000 full-length instructional programs and more than 20,000 images correlated to state education standards. These video selections are available at no charge to Arkansas educators.
• AETN produces educational and instructional videos, interactive Web sites, lesson plans and streamed videos to address a variety of topics such as child abuse prevention (A Walk Upstream) and bullying (Leave Me Alone). The response has been especially positive with school counselors, parents and students.
• AETN uses advanced technologies to produce virtual tours available online that allow educators and students to visit historic sites in Arkansas, such as the Governors Mansion, Central High School Historic Site and the Arkansas Nine Monument.
• AETN conducts technology workshops teaching the use of Videostreaming, PowerPoint and Arkansas IDEAS for Arkansas teachers. There have been more than 4,000 teachers participating since the workshops began.
• AETN remains on air overnight five times per week during the school year to provide schools the opportunity to record instructional programs to be used in the classroom.
• AETNs electronic newsletter and coordinated Web site for educators, StationBreak, reaches almost 5,000 educators each month during the school year.
• AETN actively solicits input from educators to develop, design, produce and distribute resources to meet classroom and professional development needs.
• AETN broadcasts GED-related programs, which have enabled thousands of adult students to work on their educational goals, including a GED diploma.
• AETN produces teleconferences (via broadcast and satellite) for state agencies, educational institutions and businesses to meet their training and teaching needs.
• AETN and the Arkansas Governors Quiz Bowl Association coordinate efforts to share the accomplishments and abilities of Arkansass outstanding scholars. These efforts include the Web site and live broadcast of the final rounds of competition of the annual Arkansas Governors Academic Competition with almost 250 teams participating in the statewide events.
• AETN is producing a series of multi-media Reading First professional development resources. The project includes videos, lesson plans, and virtual tours of appropriate classroom set-ups.
• AETN was selected as one of only four public television networks to participate in the national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) initiative. The focus of the project is to create fun digital education for middle school classrooms.
• AETN's STEM project is developing a digital library of searchable bite sized media content for science, technology, engineering and math. Partners in the initiative include public television networks in Maryland, Kentucky and Alabama.
• AETN's early childhood programs include parent involvement workshops conducted throughout the state. AETN's early childhood specialists model positive parenting and introduce adults to the rich resources available at no charge from AETN and PBS.
• AETN works with ABC Programs, Head Start organizations, H.I.P.P.Y. (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) groups and other childcare providers throughout the state to provide parent involvement resources and professional development for early childhood educators.
• AETN's Arkansas Technology Institute week-long summer sessions bring educators together at the AETN facilities for intensive hands-on technology training sessions. Participants then take what they have learned to present to their peers.
• AETN's week-long Kids Computer Academy sessions include not only computer software and safety, but allow children to experience television production. Participants who have completed grades three through five have fun while they learn, connect and grow with others.
• AETN has produced a multi-media professional development project showcasing Arkansass geographic regions. The project provides lesson plans, PowerPoint classroom presentations, video and other resources.
• AETN is one of only five public television networks nationally selected to develop major projects in 2009 to coordinate with the American Experience series We Shall Remain telling the story of Native American peoples in this country.
• AETN will provide extensive multi-media and professional development resources for Arkansass First People project.
• AETN's In Their Words multi-media oral history project remains a vital conduit for Arkansass World War II veterans to share their stories of the war. More than 500 oral histories have been recorded and archived for study. An extensive Web site allows visitors to explore these experiences. AETN hosted and recorded a Word War II Veterans Tribute Tour to visit the World War II National Memorial. The interactive In Their Words oral history project is available online at http://www.intheirwords.org/.
• AETN is a partner with four southern state public television networks (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi) in cooperative efforts to efficiently provide programs and services, increase revenues and decrease expenses. One past project created a training series entitled Going to School to help parents and childcare providers know how to best prepare and nurture a child in their first years of school.

Television That is Valued and Watched

• More than 210,000 households (or more than 500,000 viewers) watch AETN each week. On average, about 11,000 homes are tuned to AETN during any evening quarter hour. Each day, more than 60,000 homes are tuned to AETN. Nearly one-half of all Arkansas television viewers turn to AETN first for programs that help people learn.
• Viewers are about evenly split between men and women during evening hours. During daytime and weekend hours, nearly one-fourth of viewers are children under age 12 while women account for about forty percent of viewers and men account for about one-third of viewers.
• AETN is a commercial-free television service that is free over-the-air to nearly every Arkansas household, regardless of income.
• While much of childrens television embraces violence, coarse language and commercials, AETN continues to provide Arkansas with an education-driven, non-commercial and violence-free childrens television service.
• On its analog and primary digital channels, AETN provides more than 40 hours of programming per week for pre-school children helping to prepare them for school. AETN provides more non-commercial, trust-worthy, childrens programming in one morning than commercial stations do in an entire week. Additionally, AETN and broadcast more than 100 hours of programming each week for school-age children, providing additional instruction in key subject areas like geography, science and social studies something rarely found on commercial television.
• AETNs mission is to serve viewers with life-long learning opportunities, not to serve advertisers and create profits for shareholders.
• On repeated surveys, eight out of ten television viewers say that they know that AETN is using telecommunications to provide life-long learning opportunities for all Arkansans. Three out of four television viewers believe that AETN is Arkansas leading source of high-quality education, information and entertainment programming and provides more education and information benefits than most other television.

Community Supported Television

• About one-fourth of the AETN budget is funded by private sources through efforts of the AETN Foundation. This money is used to help acquire, produce and broadcast general audience programs to Arkansans.
• Currently to supplement state and federal funding, about 17,000 contributors annually contribute almost $1.8 million to AETN through the AETN Foundation. The AETN Foundation also receives more than $220,000 from businesses, state agencies and foundations to underwrite programs and projects. More than $80,000 in donated advertising is received each year.
• More than 1,000 individuals and businesses volunteer annually, providing almost 5,500 hours of service valued at more than $108,000 to AETN.
• The AETN Membership Hot Line provides personal service to more than 2,500 contributors each year.
• The AETN Foundation Endowment annually generates income that is used to help pay for programming on AETN. More than $500,000 has been donated to the AETN Foundation Endowment through bequests, memorial or restricted gifts.
• Opinion surveys consistently show that Americans value public television as a unique educational and cultural resource that generates a high return on their tax dollars.Providing Special Services to Help Arkansans
• AETN is Arkansas' only statewide television network, with six digital transmitter sites and thirteen microwave sites, bringing the AETN broadcast signal to more than 95% of the state.
• AETNs four studios help produce and transmit teleconferences, training and electronic town meetings to address the needs of Arkansans in a cost-effective manner. AETN has provided interactive distance learning for many state agencies and organizations, including the Department of Education, Department of Emergency Management, Head Start, Department of Human Services, and the Secretary of State.
• AETN provides descriptive video (DVI) for visually impaired Arkansans and closed captioning (CC) for hearing impaired Arkansans. AETN also provides, at no charge, a separate audio channel on its broadcast for the Arkansas Information Reading Services for the Blind, which provides local news and information for the visually impaired of Arkansas from 8:00 10:00 a.m. and noon 2:00 p.m. daily as well as national news and information throughout the remainder of the day.
• AETN provides free technical consultation services for Arkansas schools. AETN also serves as the technical infrastructure for the states emergency broadcast system.
• AETN's Viewer Services responds to more than 4,000 phone calls from the AETN viewers and nearly 1,000 letters, cards and e-mails annually, providing personalized program-related information to AETN viewers.

Productions About Arkansas for Arkansans

• AETN produces more than 100 hours of original programming annually featuring the people and places of Arkansas, as well as issues of local, national and international importance to the state. AETN receives hundreds of telephone questions and comments during each live call-in program.
• AETN seeks and secures national and foreign markets for AETN programs, successfully enhancing Arkansas' image outside its borders. Several AETN productions have been in the past or are currently being televised outside the state The Lost Squadron, Aging Successfully with Doctor David, Saving The Eagles, The Long Season, and Precious Memories: Our Vanishing Rural Churches through PBS, while Arkansas Outdoors has been seen throughout the world via syndication on the Outdoor Life Cable Channel.
• AETN offers multiple outreach components for every public affairs program including: viewer access to elected officials, public opinion makers, community leaders and other experts; free information packets, hot line telephone numbers, online web site information and other resources.
• AETN annually wins local, national and/or international awards for its productions more than 340 in the past forty years. The coveted EMMY award has been received for six (6) AETN productions: The Edge of Conflict: Arkansas in the Civil War, When Lightning Stuck: Saga of an American War Plane, Precious Memories: Our Vanishing Rural Churches, The Sound of Dreams, The Forgotten Expedition and Charles Banks Wilson. Sixteen (16) additional EMMY nominations have been received for AETN productions. AETNs audio CD production of the Trout Fishing in America episode of AETN Presents: On The Front Row series was nominated for a Grammy in 2008.
• AETN regularly partners with many freelance and independent producers, writers and musicians as well as state agencies, universities and other non-profits to further enhance the AETN library of programs about Arkansas and disperse program information statewide.
• AETN is podcasting and videostreaming several programs to viewers to further utilize new technologies as a convenience to viewers.

Communicating The AETN Story

• The AETN Magazine providing program schedule information and highlights, network news, upcoming events, volunteer information, Foundation news, technical updates, outreach, education and production news is mailed to about 18,000 AETN Foundation contributors each month.
• AETN keeps Arkansans informed by providing program promotion and press releases to more than 100 media outlets statewide. AETN mails thousands of program related outreach packages to schools and viewers. AETN tells its story nationwide through regional and national publications.
• Annually, AETN shares the AETN story by providing AETN speakers to dozens of civic organizations throughout the state as well as conducting tours of its network headquarters for all interested groups of 3rd grade and older during regular business hours.
• AETN web site (www.aetn.org) has hundreds of pages of information about AETN programs and services and includes links to PBS; programming web sites; state, regional and national educational resources; and program underwriter home pages. On average, more than 7,500 homes visit about a dozen pages on AETNs web site each month.

Trustworthy and Efficient Use of Resources

• Annual audits by independent professionals of AETN and the AETN Foundation financial records reflect high quality business practices, which safeguard all resources available to AETN.
• AETN employee and applicant statistics are representative of the cultural and racial diversity of the state, helping AETN to better serve Arkansas needs.
• More than two-thirds of AETNs annual operating budget comes from state tax dollars provided by the state legislature. About eleven percent of the budget comes from federal tax dollars as a partial match to locally obtained funds.
• Since 1966, AETN has received more than $11.3 million in restricted grants from the federal government for new and replacement equipment. These funds have been matched more than $30 million in state and private dollars to help acquire, replace and maintain AETNs broadcast and production equipment. Former Senator Dale Bumpers called AETN and Public Television the best example of the public-private partnership.

Revised: 04/08/2009