Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky (TBNK)
The Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky (TBNK) is the cable television regulatory authority created by an interlocal cooperative agreement among the fiscal court of Kenton County and 15 local cities within Kenton County.
The TBNK is responsible for franchise negotiation, administration and regulation of all matters respecting cable television franchising, as well as the provision, supervision and operation of local Public, Educational, and Government (PEG) Access TV Channels and related services. These efforts include providing PEG Access training classes for the public, developing public usage and programming policies, managing and planning PEG video facilities and technology and operating a local Community Media Cable TV Studio for and on behalf of our local member governments and communities. By investing together, our member communities have benefited from economy of scale, to form a larger, better equipped production facility than any one entity could otherwise afford.
Community-Based TV Programming with Playback on Cable AND Streaming on the WEB
Our local PEG programming efforts include producing Government Meeting Coverage, Election Night Coverage and Debates/Forums, Public Affairs Shows, NKY Optimists Speaker Series, culture, history and information, such as our City Talk mayors show, coverage of NKY High School Sports and Thomas More Sports and NKY Events, Community Fairs, Festivals, Fireworks, Parades, Concerts, Government Forums, NKY Chamber, Covington Business Council, Legislative Caucuses, and more.
The programming efforts involve more than simply the production crew covering a meeting or event. The TBNK also maintains, staffs and operates the on-air Cable TV playback facility, and coordinates and maintains the Video On Demand and LIVE web video streaming platform – TBNKtoGO. The TBNK also manages and switches the LIVE Feeds for our cities’ meeting coverage and other live events. We also provide simulcasting of LIVE meetings on ROKU and Facebook LIVE.
TBNK has been streaming all of our cities’ meetings On Demand since 2007 and have added LIVE 24/7 streaming of our Government Channels on the internet since November of 2019, so every meeting that airs LIVE on our channels has been streaming LIVE at TBNKtoGO, since November 2019.
TBNK Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is the governing body of The Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky. The Board is made up of representatives appointed by each member government. Members’ terms are set at two (2) years. Members may be eligible for reappointment from their respective authorities. Various cities’ representatives are organized into 5 clusters of cities, which rotate within each cluster as to which representative will currently sit on their cluster’s active seat on board as a voting member for that term. Board members who represent municipalities or cities from the clusters are rotated among their cluster’s Local Governments on a bi-annual basis.
TBNK Meeting Schedule
The Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky holds regularly scheduled meetings on the third Wednesday of every month at 6pm.
Meetings are held at the TBNK TV Studio, 3414 Decoursey Avenue, Covington, KY 41015
Active TBNK Board Representatives
Beth Sewell, Kenton County – Chair
Tony Noll, Covington – Vice-Chair
Richard “Dick” Lang, Park Hills – Treasurer
Jameela Salaah, Covington– Secretary
Tom Bernheimer, Lakeside Park
Tom Brinker, Independence
Joann Barnett-Smith, Elsmere
Philip Pierce – Taylor Mill