Channel One, Classroom Television With Commercials, Goes on the Air

Students across the country got the news Monday along with a sales pitch for candy, razors and cheese snacks when the advertiser-supported classroom program Channel One went on the air.

“I think it is a good idea,” said Powell High School student Jim Addington, 17, one of the first to see the Channel One news program, beamed nationwide for the first time to 400 schools.

“I don’t see why there is so much controversy over the commercials,” he said, because he has seen the same commercials for M&Ms;, Gillette shavers and Chee-tos on regular television at home.

The brief program is produced by the Knoxville-based media company Whittle Communications, which loans participating schools expensive video equipment and satellite dishes to receive the program, and sells advertising to cover the cost.

Despite criticism from national education groups, bans by public educators in New York and California and a lawsuit in North Carolina, 2,900 schools in 34 states have signed up for Channel One, company Chairman Christopher Whittle told reporters at the high school.

As long as they’re taking Channel One, schools can use the TV sets, video recorders and satellite for other projects, as well.

Monday’s broadcast by Channel One’s five-member team of under-30 anchors and reporters gave a capsule of breaking news--voting in three Soviet republics, last week’s escape of a 17-year-old Cuban to the United States on a sail board, the return of the space shuttle Atlantis and President Bush’s trade talks with the Japanese prime minister.