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July 19, 2017

C-SPAN turns its lens to Portland

Photo / Renee Cordes Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling will host a news conference at City Hall Tuesday announcing Community Development Week in Portland.
By Renee Cordes

Coming this autumn to a television screen near you: C-SPAN’s spotlight on Portland through the eyes of local historians, authors and civic leaders.

The segments, set to air Oct. 21 and 22, are being recorded this week as part of the cable network’s Cities Tour for its Book TV and American History TV channels, and its Washington Journal program.

Producers are in town videotaping interviews and footage at City Hall, cultural hotspots including the Portland Observatory in Munjoy Hill and the lesser-known Tate House Museum, and local businesses.

“It’s a dream to be here and a place I love so early,” Ashley Hill, a C-SPAN producer and community relations representative, said at Monday’s City Hall press conference announcing the channel’s spotlight on Portland.

Based in Washington, D.C., Hill vacations here every year and said that Portland Head Light and Fort Williams Park “is one of my favorite places to drink a Moxie cola and read a book.”

On a more serious note, she said the programs would focus on local authors and Portland’s non-fiction literary life. Every month, C-SPAN features a different city, with Tacoma and Spokane in Washington state, Concord, N.H., and Pierre, S.D., also in the upcoming line-up.

As for Portland, Hill said, “We want to show the rest of the country what makes this city amazing” as well as revealing a side of Portland that even locals may not know.

The three-woman camera team has been busy, “a small but mighty” crew according to producer and video journalist Adrienne Hoar, who got up early Monday to record the sunrise from Portland Head Light.

Speaking to Mainebiz at Monday's press event, Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling said he hopes that more people will visit after seeing the C-SPAN coverage, “and that more families will come and live here.”

How to tune in

Those interested in seeing the Portland segments in October can catch them on C-SPAN2 and Charter Communications Inc.’s channels 98 and 226, and on C-SPAN3 and Charter channel 227. Interviews with Portland’s mayor, city manager and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, will be shown on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal program.

C-SPAN, which stands for Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network, was created in 1979 by the cable industry as a public service and goes to 100 million households. It broadcasts live proceedings of all three branches of the U.S. government on Charter channels 16 and 225 in Portland. Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CTHR) is a Stamford, Conn.-based telecommunications company that co-sponsored C-SPAN’s visit to Portland.

"Charter is proud to serve the city of Portland, and C-SPAN's visit is a great opportunity to highlight for a national audience the people and places that make Portland such a special place to live and work,” said Susan D. Coscione, an Albany, N.Y.-based government affairs manager with Charter Communications.

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