Tom Axtell has seen KLVX-TV, Channel 10, grow from a single-channel operation to a multiplatform media company during his 16-year tenure as general manager.

The June 28 dedication of the $60 million Educational Technology Campus is the latest, but not the last, evolution of the local Public Broadcasting Service.

“We’ve thought through what we are,” Axtell said. “We are very good at creating content and very good at distributing content. Our role in the community as a local media company is to work with organizations to empower them through the use of the technologies and the distribution networks we have.”

The 112,000-square-foot facility on East Flamingo Road is home to operations and production services for KLVX-TV, also known as Vegas PBS. The facility also houses the Clark County School District’s Virtual High School and educational media database.

Besides seven broadcast channels, KLVX-TV oversees six closed-circuit channels, a vast Internet database of teaching material accessible to teachers and children, and a Homeland Security database of building blueprints for police and fire departments to access during a civil emergency, among other holdings.

KLVX-TV produced 23,700 hours of content last year, only 400 hours of which ever appeared on its seven broadcast channels.

The remaining content includes programs for the Clark County School District, the University of Nevada, Reno, and other groups in the state.

While programs for the school district are produced at cost, other organizations pay a small fee, producing an income stream for the nonprofit.

The facility also produced 160 courses for the virtual high school.

The key is to create a sustainable business model and never lose sight of the tradition and history of public service, Axtell said.

“That is very different business model than buying syndicated programming and putting it up at 8 o’clock and hoping people will tune in,” Axtell said.

For the rest of the article, go to New tech campus marks milestone for KLVX-TV