Pennsylvania Cable Network
PCN (the Pennsylvania Cable Network) is a Government-access television (GATV) cable television network dedicated to 24-hour coverage of government and public affairs in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It features live coverage of both Houses of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as well as other forms of informational and educational programming.
The bulk of PCN's operations are located in Harrisburg, the commonwealth capital, but it also has bureaus in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
PCN's president and CEO is Brian Lockman, formerly C-SPAN's vice president of operations.
History
The non-profit Pennsylvania Educational Communications System (PECS) was founded in 1979 by George Barco, who became the first president, his daughter Yolanda Barco and Joey Gans. It was funded by eleven Pennsylvania cable television companies, and provided a network for distributing Educational-access television programming from Pennsylvania State University. George Barco died in 1989 and Yolanda Barco became president in 1990. She renamed it the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) and began to reposition it as the state's "educational, public affairs and cultural cable TV network."[1]
In 1992, PCN began moving away from a strictly educational format, with its coverage of Governor Bob Casey's "Capitol for a Day" town hall meetings. Two years later, it began televising daily coverage of the General Assembly. PCN ended its relationship with Penn State in 1996, and assumed full responsibility for the network's operations and programming. Its funding comes from the cable companies that carry PCN, and it receives neither commonwealth nor federal funds.
Coverage
The majority of PCN's programming is live, unedited coverage of both houses of the General Assembly, press conferences, and meetings of various political and business organizations. PCN's programming also includes tours of museums and manufacturing facilities, educational speeches and presentations, and cultural programming, as well as Weather World, a fifteen-minute weather program from the Pennsylvania State University Department of Meteorology.
Unlike most public affairs networks, PCN also broadcasts high school athletic events, including football and basketball games, wrestling matches, and state championships. PCN entered into a partnership with USA Rugby in 2012 to broadcast college rugby matches.[2]
See also
External links
References
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- ↑ Rugby Mag, PCN to Air St. Joe's v. Ship, Sep. 25, 2012, http://www.rugbymag.com/men's-dii-college-/5891-pcn-to-air-st-joes-v-ship.html
