Welcome

1.1 The Organization. Community Television of Knoxville is a private, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Community Television of Knoxville serves as the public, education, and government access channel for the City of Knoxville and Knox County. CTV is controlled by a Board of Directors, which is described in the CTV bylaws: "One director shall be nominated by the Mayor from his staff; one director shall be nominated by Council to represent the Council on the Board; one director shall be nominated by Comcast Cable Company, the franchisee, or its successors; one director shall be nominated by Knology Media Company, the franchisee, or its successors; one director shall be nominated by Council from those religious, charitable, scientific, or educational institutions which have shown financial and physical support for the public access channel; one director shall be the Chairman of the Cable Television Committee of the Knox County Commission, or the Chairman’s designee; two directors shall be nominated from the community volunteers involved in the production of television programs through the public access channel; and the remaining directors will be nominated by the other directors herein above enumerated, except that the Council may appoint members to the initial board without the directors’ nomination. When the board is composed of six, seven, or eight members, two of those members shall be appointed from the active volunteers of CTV. When the Board is composed of nine, ten, or eleven members, three of those members shall be appointed from the active volunteers of CTV. All nominees must be appointed by Resolution of Council."

Funding for CTV comes from contracts between CTV and the City of Knoxville and Knox County to provide Public and Government Access, and grants from participating cable service providers. Our general operating hours are as follows:

Regular Office Hours Mon – Fri 10 am – 3 pm
Media Drop Off (mail slot) Sun – Sat 24 hours
Portable Equipment Checkout & Return Mon – Fri 1 pm – 9 pm (by appointment)
Studio Facility Use Mon – Fri 1 pm – 9 pm (by appointment)
Edit Facility Use Mon – Fri 1 pm – 9 pm (by appointment)

During periods of inclement weather, such as a large amount of snow, tornado, or thunderstorm, hours may vary. CTV will be closed for a “snow day” when Knox County schools are closed due to severe weather.

Our mailing address and other contact information is listed below:

Community Television of Knoxville
808 State Street
Knoxville, TN 37902
Phone: (865) 215-8848
FAX: (865) 215-4337
E-mail: ctv@ctvKnox.org

1.2 Introduction/History. The mission of CTV is to serve the community by providing a public forum for local residents, organizations, and government. With a distinguished 29-year history of service to the community, CTV is the largest provider of public access in East Tennessee. CTV first went on the air on Christmas Eve in 1975. Eleven years later (1986), it became chartered as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. Accessible in more than 100,000 homes 24 hours a day, CTV serves a wide constituency, including residents, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and local government agencies. CTV provides informative, educational, and cultural programming not available anywhere else on television. Programs and Services include technical training and access to the facilities and equipment necessary to produce television programming of interest and concern to our constituents.

1.3 Non-Discrimination Policy Statement. No individual will be denied access to CTV equipment, facilities, or channel time on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, age, physical disability, religious or political belief, ability to pay or due to the nature of the programming interest.

1.4 Definitions.

“Advertising or Commercial Promotion" shall refer to any material, which promotes any business, product, service, private school or commercial event. This includes, but is not limited to, business, product, service, private school or commercial event descriptions, publicity or endorsements.

“Broadcast” used as a verb shall refer to the transmission and/or communication of a project, program, and/or other material through any medium including, but not limited to, cable television, wireless television, phone systems, internet streaming, and internet communication and/or transmission of any type and used as a noun shall refer to the project, program, and/or other material being broadcast.

“Candidates” shall refer to any person to whom one or more of the following applies: (a) any person who has made a formal announcement of candidacy, (b) any person who seeks to qualify for nomination or election by means of a petitioning process or as a write-in candidate, (c) any person who has received contributions or made expenditures, or has given consent for any other person or campaign committee to receive contributions or make expenditures, with a view to bringing about the person’s nomination for election or election to, or retention in a public office, (d) any person who appoints a treasurer and designates a primary depository; or (e) any person who has filed qualification papers seeking a public office. Current public officials are not automatically deemed to be a defined candidate unless one or more of the above criteria apply.

"Channel" refers to the channel on any video service provider’s system operating in Knoxville or Knox County that is administered by CTV and rebroadcast of the channel, including streaming, transmission or other communication on the internet.

"Equipment" shall refer to any and all media equipment available for the production of community access programming.

"Facilities" shall refer to the property not directly related to the production of community access programming currently under control of Community Television of Knoxville.

"Resident" is defined as an individual whose principal abode -- i.e. the home, house, apartment, facility, structure, etc. - within which the individual lives the majority of the time is located in the City of Knoxville or Knox County.

"Producer" shall refer to a person who has paid his/her access fee for the current year and successfully completed a CTV training workshop and/or demonstrated to CTV staff a sufficient working knowledge of the facilities and equipment available to them.

"Executive Producer” shall refer to a resident who has paid their access fee for the current year as a CTV producer, acknowledged their specific role in the production of a project, and signed a CTV Producer Agreement Form, accepting full responsibility for the content of all programs associated with that project.

"Nonprofit Organization" refers to any organization that is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt organization and also registered with the State of Tennessee as a non-profit corporation.

"Outside Programming" is defined as programming which does not involve a City of Knoxville or Knox County resident in the production of the program. State franchising requirements provide that CTV should cablecast eight (8) hours of original programming per day. It is the policy of CTV to give absolute preference in cablecasting to all locally produced programming that meets CTV programming and production policies. However, there are occasions where local producers do not produce a sufficient amount of programming to permit CTV to satisfy the eight-hour original programming requirement on a daily basis. In such circumstances, CTV staff may, in its discretion, select original programming from non-local producers to air only so far as is necessary to attain the eight-hour original requirement. Staff is encouraged to enter into reciprocal arrangements with other public access stations to swap programming that is known to comply with CTV’s programming policies. Preference should be given by CTV staff to select programming that covers subject areas in which there currently is little or no local programming, so as to provide a more diverse selection for CTV’s local viewers.

"Indecent Material" is defined by the courts as the repetitive and deliberate use of language or material that depicts or describes, whether directly or by innuendo, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory activities or organs. For example, extreme physical violence or degradation, nudity, graphic depiction of medical procedures, and repetitive use of profanity would be considered "indecent." Profanity includes, but is not limited to, words such as those identified in FCC vs. Pacifica.

"Obscene" is defined by applying the “Miller Test”: (a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

"Late Night Time Slot" shall refer to program broadcast times between midnight and four a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

“Video” shall refer to any pre-recorded program submitted to CTV for air, regardless of format or media upon which it is recorded.