What I’ve been up to for the past couple months…

**Update:** This press release was timed to coincide with an article in the [East Bay Express](https://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-03-15/news/cityside_2.html), whose reporter Kara Platoni, writes about the station: What does a smart but tiny television station do when it realizes nobody’s watching? It reinvents itself by taking on a second life in an entirely different medium. This month, the Peralta Community Colleges cable station, formerly known as PCTV, is officially redubbing itself “peralta.TV” and launching its new, matching Web site. Rather than fiddling with the cable box or waiting for the show they like to come on at 10 p.m. on a Friday, viewers can simply download shows for free. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Josh Wolf Outreach Director peralta.TV 900 Fallon St. Oakland, CA 94607 E-mail: inthecity@sbcglobal.net Web: http://peralta.tv The New Evolution at PCTV: peralta.TV Now Available Throughout the World * Oakland, CA – March 15, 2006 – For over 20 years, PCTV has delivered unique, informative and educational programming to the East Bay community. Today, that quality programming is now available to anyone with an internet connection; in recognition of this exciting new direction, the Peralta Community College District has launched a new website and adopted the moniker peralta.TV. The new website for peralta.TV (http://peralta.tv) is built-on the CivicSpace Labs engine and offers a plethora of interactive and dynamic features: a community calendar showcasing the various events happening at the Peralta Colleges and throughout the greater Bay Area, interactive text-based blogs that will allow visitors to help shape and inspire the future of peralta.TV, and the most exciting development, a series of videoblogs that will provide on-demand access of our original programming to anyone in the world. Peralta.TV is currently offering four unique and exciting original programs with a fifth due to launch next month. Talkback, the award-winning program that dares to discuss the issues affecting the lives of young adults in the bay area is gearing up for the premiere of its third season on April 7th. Windows to the World, peralta.TV’s very own music video program featuring music from around the world is in pre-production for its first full season, and Rites of Passage and Sierra at Large both recently wrapped up their inaugural season and are preparing to top last year’s critical success. Additionally, peralta.TV will be launching a brand new show in April focused on capturing all of the exciting events at each of the four campuses which make up the Peralta Community College District. Synonymous with vidcasts, vlogs and video Podcasts, each show will offer it’s own videoblog utilizing a cross-platform flash video interface provided by audioblog.com along with two distinct RSS feeds that are both compatible with the video iPod. The first feed will mirror the short-form, small-screen content offered in flash, and the second feed will provide a full-screen higher-quality feed of each complete episode for users who prefer the traditional television experience. In developing the station as a muti-platform presence available both on cable television and online, peralta.TV hopes to further realize its mission to create and acquire programs that foster critical awareness both within the East Bay Area and beyond. By creating a dialogue with the surrounding community peralta.TV seeks to move beyond the conventional norms presented in mainstream television; to instigate and educate; and to enhance teaching and learning as part of the educational mission of the Peralta Community College District and its four colleges, College of Alameda, Laney and Merritt colleges in Oakland and Berkeley Community College. Peralta.TV can be seen on Comcast cable on Channel 27 in Alameda and Berkeley and on Channel 28 in Oakland, Emeryville and Piedmont. In the near future, visitors to the peralta.TV website will also be able to tune into a live-stream which is currently in development with our media-hosting partner Monkeybrains.