Introduction and History

GOV TV is the local government access cable television channel in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, New Mexico. The FCC has defined government access channels as "intended for use by local governmental bodies for informing the public about what is happening in government".

Originally called City Cable, the station began transmitting on channel 30 of Jones Intercable Inc., with a staff of two in 1981. GOV expanded programming to include coverage of Bernalillo County government meetings and events in 1984. The GOV facilities underwent extensive remodeling in 1985 when government offices moved in to the new Government Center building. 1992 saw an elaborate re-engineering and rewiring of the facility greatly boosting the production capacity of the channel. In 1995, the channel acquired a two camera mobile production van.

The channel is currently operated by the City of Albuquerque Media Resources Division of the Cultural Services Department and is funded primarily through the City's general fund. Additional funds, equipment and personnel are provided by Bernalillo County Government .

Today the full time staff has grown to five with several part time contract personnel. In 1999 Jones Intercable Inc., was acquired by Comcast . GOV TV is currently cablecast on channel 16. Current production levels exceed 20 studio shows per month. In addition, one or two live call-in programs are normally aired each month.

The primary mission of GOV TV is to bring the public meetings of the Albuquerque City Council and the Bernalillo County Commission to the home audience. Our outreach has previously been strictly limited to local cable subscribers of Comcast . We're happy that we can now reach a wider audience via the Internet. We're now offering live webcasting and pre-recorded streaming video of numerous local government meetings and programs on our web site. All of our live and pre-recorded streaming video can be accessed from the GOV TV Home Page.