Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 2, 1 February 1995 — OHA plans interactive TV show [ARTICLE]

OHA plans interactive TV show

by Jeff Clark Hawaiians who can't get away from work or home to participate in OHA meetings will soon be able to interact with trustees via television and telephone. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs plans to broadcast a live interactive TV program to whieh the public ean phone in with questions and comments and then watch and listen as trustees, staff and |expert guests respond. Tentatively scheduled to begin in March, the show will air Sundays at 5 p.m. on 'Ōlelo public access TV ehannel 22. A pre-recorded version of the Sunday program will air several times during that month on 'Olelo and on neighbor island cable access channels. The Board of Trustees approved the six-month pilot project Jan. 3. Ellen Blomquist, OHA public information officer. said the one-hour program will be an effective

way for Hawaiians to ask questions about - and voice their mana'o on — OHA programs and services. "Our newsletter, our TV and radio campaigns, and broadcasts of board meetings are effective, but only to a point. These are primarily one-way affairs," Blomquist said. "The interactive TV program, however, will allow for participation - for give and take between the trustees and the people they serve." The six shows will be loosely structured around OHA's standing board committees, i.e., Budget, Finance and Policy; Planning, Eeonomie Development and Housing; Education and Culture; Health and Human Services; Land and Sovereignty; and Legislative Review. Watch future issues of Ka Wai Ola O OHA for broadcast schedules, whieh will also be announced over radio.