Jan. 12, 2015

Unique Panhandle stories—about our people, our places, our feats and our foibles—are the impetus for Live Here, a new weekly, locally produced, half-hour program that premieres at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5 on Panhandle PBS.

Live Here is designed to serve viewers in a variety of ways: as a community forum, as an affirmation of why we live where we do, and as an exposé on the plentiful travails of life in the Panhandle, where when the going gets tough, the tough become decidedly proactive.

Join us at the outset as we follow an individual from drug addiction and homelessness to college success and university acceptance.

Be there when we take a behind-the-scenes look at Drug Court with Judge John Board of the 181^st District, where an innovative approach to dealing with drug users on probation is helping save both families and lives. Live Here will feature firsthand accounts of participants in Drug Court, the paths they are taking to recovery, and how different Panhandle organizations are working together in each stage of recovery to help offenders regain control of their lives and move forward with hope.

The multi-faceted program will feature segments on the arts, community organizations and events, to be sure. But Live Here eclipses the norm when it puts the spotlight squarely on those who toil daily overcoming pitfalls or enhancing our community fundamentally, culturally and sociologically.

“Life in the Panhandle brings many blessings and also its share of challenges,” Chris Hays, general manager of Panhandle PBS, said. “Live Here is designed to be a forum for the entire community, a place where we can discuss and share all that makes this area such a great place to live, and what we can do to improve this exceptional place we call home.

“We invite a community-wide discussion on what we should feature on Live Here. We hope to discover what passions we share, what we especially love about our home, and ideas that could lead to making it even better.”

Panhandle PBS invites not only community engagement but has plans to host a diverse array of community representatives to help identify topics for subsequent episodes, empowering the program’s direction.

“We will listen to and be responsive to the people of the Panhandle,” Hays said.

Educational attainment is another complex issue Live Here will broach, a means of improving the quality of all our lives in the Panhandle, and students in the Matney Mass Media Program at Amarillo College will produce an occasional segment for the show.

Panhandle PBS projects such as Yellow City Sounds, Music is Instrumental, Artistically Speaking and Panhandle Stories also will be featured. These are online, digital series produced for PanhandlePBS.org that highlight artists, musicians and people who add to the tapestry of life in the Panhandle.

Each show, with additional content, will be available online at PanhandlePBS.org, after broadcast.

Be sure to watch the premiere of Live Here at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5. It promises to be an enlightening experience, and you will learn more about how to take part in the upcoming community-wide discussion about our beloved Panhandle home. Subsequent episodes will air Thursday evenings, with encore presentations at 4:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Live Here is a Panhandle PBS original, developed and produced in keeping with the station’s mission to “enlighten, educate, entertain and inform” the people of this community. Segments will be as diverse as are we, the people—all of us—whose search for common ground is not a difficult one because we Live Here.