September 2006

NAPT founding executive director Frank Blythe retires at the end of the month, and will continue to work for the organization as its development director. Faith Smith, president of the Board announced that Shirley K. Sneve, NAPT’s director of television and radio, has accepted a promotion to the position of executive director, October 1, 2006.

In honor of Frank’s many years of service to Native media, the Board is establishing a Program Fund, which will allow NAPT to expand its reach by supporting a broader range of projects that impact tribes.

Two celebrations have been planned to honor Frank and to celebrate NAPT’s 30th anniversary. On October 20 at 2:30 p.m. at the NET building in Lincoln, Nebraska, join the staff for a salute to Frank, one of the state’s biggest football fans.

On November 11, in conjunction with the American Indian Film Festival , a celebration is scheduled at 5 p.m. at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center and later during the AIFF Awards Ceremony at the Palace of Fine Arts.

Shirley has a long history of involvement with NAPT. Her mother, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, was a founding board member. Shirley was on the board from 1986 to 1995, and chaired the organization 1987 to 1993.

Phase I will be the new line-up of live stream programming. We'll continue some of the old favorites, but will move more to a free-form web-only live stream with wider range of features from across Indian Country and Indigenous communities around the world. Plans for the new mix include audio ranging from community broadcasters, to college DJ's to raw audio from Native American events and more. With the web only service, we can be more interactive with our audiences and involve people and audio pieces that would not have worked for Native Public Radio stations.

Please let us know what you'd like to hear on the new AIROS live stream and if you produce audio or are putting on an event that would be of interest to the AIROS community, please e-mail us at airos@unl.edu.

Eric Martin is heading up the new service with a team of John Gregg, Penny Costello and Beth Wagoner.

Sponsorships are available and start at $250 to advertise upcoming events, services or products. AIROS: All Indian Internet Radio. Every Day. Everywhere.

These new NAPT titles are currently being fed to public television stations across the country for broadcast in November: Indian Country Diaries, Silent Thunder, Aboriginal Architecture, Teachings of the Tree People and Seasoned With Spirit

Check your local PBS listings for dates and times in November, or log onto the PBS Station finder www.pbs.org/stationfinder to find your station's website. Better yet, become an NAPT Activist, and call or email your station now and request that they carry these programs during Native American Heritage Month.

More information on these programs can be found on our website www.nativetelecom.org