SAN DIEGO - CityTV 24, the City of San Diegos government access cable television channel, received a First Place award for Overall Excellence in Government Programming at the 17th annual Government Programming Awards sponsored by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA). CityTV 24 was judged Best in its budget category for Overall Excellence in Government Programming as well as received awards in other programming categories. The Government Programming Awards were held September 20, 2002 in Chicago, Illinois and featured over 1,000 entries in more than 50 categories from local government entrants from across the nation. The Awards recognize excellence in broadcast, cable, multimedia, and electronic programming developed by governmental agencies. The City of San Diego also received a First Place award in the programming category of Profile of a City/County Department for its documentary on City lakes entitled Touring San Diego Lakes with Jim Brown and First Place in the Library category for its "San Diego Profiles" series with local author Susan Vreeland. CityTV 24 is operated by the Cable TV Office of the Department of Information Technology and Communications.

The Citys government access cable television channel provides video coverage of the San Diego City Council and other City informational programming (PDF: 30K). The channel is viewable to over 360,000 cable television subscribers within the Citys boundaries and can be seen on Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable on Channel 24. The CityTV 24 programming guide is available on the Citys website at www.sandiego.gov. The Citys Cable TV Office can be contacted at (619) 533-4725.

The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors is a nonprofit professional association whose mission is to support and serve the telecommunications interests and needs of local governments. The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and can be reached at (703) 506-3275 or the NATOA website at www.natoa.org. The Executive Director of NATOA is Ms. Libby Beaty.

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