By Amy Williams
Staff Writer

On Aug. 6, 1998, the University Outreach Program will be aired during prime time on Alabama Cable Network,

"Outreach means extending the research and instruction of Auburn University, beyond the walls of Auburn University," said David Wilson, associate provost and vice president for University Outreach.

ACN specializes in Alabama-based family and sports programming. Its telecast market will reach an estimated one million households in 1998, Wilson said.

"It is providing AU Outreach one hour of weekly programming time for the regular telecast of prerecorded or live programs or activities," Wilson said.

"Auburn is a land-grant institution. We have an obligation to use any vehicle to educate the state. What better way to do it than by television," he said.

ACN, located in Hoover, is carried on local cable television outlets in four major markets and 19 other locales and rural outlets.

The contract between the University and ACN was signed June 11.

It involved University President William V. Muse, Wilson and Don Earley, president of ACN.

"ACN are in their final throws of negotiation with TCI. If they are successful, we will then see the program outside of the University," Wilson said.

Rennie Jones, the University's satellite uplink manager, said Ralph Foster, director of Outreach information and marketing, thought of the University using TV as a means of outreach in 1980, but the idea never came into being, and he soon forgot the idea.

When Foster met Jones, the idea came up again. "I took the idea to him, and we collaborated from there," Jones said.

ACN will air the University's program every Thursday night 7-8 p.m.

The staff on the program will include Auburn's faculty members and an extension system specialist.

"ACN's very generous programming offer gives Auburn the opportunity to not only promote its outreach resources across the state, but to deliver the educational information directly into Alabama homes," Ralph Foster, director of outreach information, said.

The program is family - oriented, and it will be geared toward family and community topics, Jones said.

The opening night topic is "Tourism vacation spots in the state of Alabama."

It will feature Muse, Wilson, Early and Aubrey Miller, head of the State Bureau of Tourism and Travel.

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