KOLC television station is located on the Pine Ridge reservation in Kyle is and headed up by Tony Brave (center) it is a top rate facility that is a largely untapped resource for audio and visual recording. Photo: Local television
Local television makes inroads on the Pine Ridge Reservation
By Karin Eagle
Native Sun News Correspondent KYLE - In the year 2004 the staff and students at Oglala Lakota College felt that they needed their own voices on a local television station. That was the year KOLC-TV was born. With the badly needed assistance of Golden West Telecommunications Network, the students set out to present a positive image of Native American life on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Golden West took it one step further and gave OLC a television station. With their generous support KOLC-TV began airing local Native American content. At one point Oglala Lakota College at the Piya Wiconi administration site offered courses that taught students the ins and outs of television production, audio and video editing Tony Brave, who runs the KOLC-TV studios in Kyle, SD was animated about the station. He said, “With KOLC-TV broadcasting academic, cultural, and historical events more people are able to have access to not only the knowledge presented, but to feel a connection between communities.” Tribal Council meetings, once available only through an audio feed presented on the radio station KILI, are now available on television with no less than two cameras operating to show the participants at the meetings. Oftentimes an audio feed is prone to static or will pick up more of the background noises than that of the speakers, so the visual aspect of the live stream is not only helpful, but brings a better understanding to what is going on at the meetings. The live stream is available online as well for not only the council meetings but for all of the events KOLC-TV covers. Brave once hosted a talk show that brought in people of note in the communities to explain the projects and organizations that they work for, or to explain events that were coming up. The show was called the Woglakapi Talk Show. The studio is set up, to this day, to do more shows such as the Woglakapi show. The KOLC station is a top rate facility that is a largely untapped resource for audio and visual recording. It is expertly staffed and equipped with a recording booth as well as a full wall green screen. Imagine the possibilities. “We are showing the Lakota's real life accounts,” Brave said. More information as well as access to the archived events televised and the current events via live stream can be found at k.olc.edu. (Karin Eagle can be reached at staffwriter@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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