Naperville News 17 celebrates its 300th episode
On October 26th, Naperville News 17 will celebrate its 300th episode. This exciting milestone occurs during Naperville Community Television's 25th anniversary year and is a testament to the popularity of this weekly newscast.
Naperville News 17 started out as Naperville Connection as a vehicle to bring together small stories into a single program designed to let people know about the weekly happenings around town. If it was happening in Naperville, residents would hear about it from Dolly McCarthy, the first anchor of Naperville Connection. She was soon joined by Lindsey Theis the first producer of the show and a team of reporters forming the first television news team devoted solely to Naperville.
As the show evolved into the polished news program viewers see today, the name changed to Naperville News 17. The reporting staff grew and Jen Hannon took over as News anchor, but the goal remained the same: bring the viewer the stories of the people and places of Naperville.
NCTV17 has sent crews across all sectors of the city to the Celebration of Spring at Knoch Knolls, to the 9/11 Memorial, to the Chinese Lantern Festival to Dancing with the Celebrities and the unveiling of the latest piece of Century Walk art: Grinch and his dog Max. NCTV17 honors those who have served our country by covering the Welcome Home celebrations, sharing stories about local veterans and the good work of the VFW and American Legion. The station often takes a national story like the upcoming Presidential election and makes it local to explore how it impacts Naperville residents. NCTV17 reporters cover City Council meetings, local elections, and the latest events being sponsored by the many not-for-profits that make Naperville a community that cares! And every week on Naperville News 17, Becky Anderson of Anderson's Bookshop gives viewers a sneak peak of her upcoming episode of Authors Revealed and exclusive interviews with authors such as Jodi Picoult, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Neil Gaiman. Throughout the show, viewers are treated to clips and highlights from popular annual community festivals including Ribfest and the Last Fling. The show concludes with the ever popular Sports 17 segment wrapping up the local high school varsity sports action from all six local area high schools as well as North Central College.
While everyone has multiple sources for information and news, Naperville News 17 tries to be a little different by covering the events of the week viewers might not find from other television news sources, like the Mom who tied over 600 yards of yellow ribbons and lined Jefferson Avenue to welcome her son home from Afghanistan, or the profiles of “Naperville Notables” like Herb Nadelhoffer or the late Rita Harvard.
Part of NCTV17's mission is education; so many student interns learn the ropes of broadcast news by working on Naperville News 17. In fact, the station also gives many young journalists their first job by hiring recent college graduates as reporters and videographers. These new broadcast professionals have an opportunity to really learn how to tell stories in a supportive and nurturing environment.
Naperville is a city of almost 150,000 people that sits in the orbit of the number three news market, Chicago. When the larger networks cover Naperville it's often for a tragic event instead of a positive one, and rarely anything more than a minute. Each week Naperville News 17 brings viewers positive local news and information that matters to them for a full thirty minutes.
Tune in on October 26 to help NCTV17 celebrate its 300th episode!
Naperville Community Television, Channel 17 is celebrating its 25th Anniversary of providing Naperville with a voice to educate, inform, preserve, entertain, assist, and celebrate one another through diverse programming that reflects the character and spirit of our community. All programming can be viewed on Channel 17 in Naperville or on-line at www.NCTV17.com. The studio is located at 127 Ambassador Drive in Naperville. For more information, visit www.NCTV17.com.