TV15 launching new evening news program on TelTV Monday | SOUALIGA NEWSDAY

SINT MAARTEN (POND ISLAND) - Veteran TV news anchor, Valerie Van Putten, will be making a welcome return to TV news Monday as News Director and presenter of a brand new 30-minute evening news program on TelTV’s TV15 Channel. Also joining Ms. Van Putten will be fellow anchor, Darin Hodge a.k.a Versatile.

The TV15 evening newscast will be aired from the Orion Production Studio, Backstreet, at 6:30 pm each weekday night, with a repeat showing at 11:00 pm. Ricardo and Altagracia William are the ones behind the new venture, as director/operators of St. Maarten’s TV15 channel, which is also sporting a new logo makeover.

“We promised at our open house in July that we will be re-inventing location television programming on St. Maarten, and this is a very important step in that direction,” said the operators.

“With our two anchors (who will be presenting the news separately to begin with) and with Glenda York as our dedicated reporter in the field, we have the foundation of a new team to gather daily news and present it to televiewers in a new format,” said Ricardo, who has decades of experience broadcasting live and recorded events on various video platforms on St. Maarten.

“Right now, there is a lot happening in government and parliament that is not getting to the general public. There are many headline events taking place each day, but there are also some very positive and interesting things happening that the general public and the ordinary man and woman in the street does not get to hear about as they happen each day,” said Ricardo. He wants his new team to bring to the fore, all of the human-interest stories that take place in the St. Maarten community that will make tuning into TV15 newscasts a “must do” each evening.

Depending on the support TV15 Evening News gets from tele-viewers and from advertisers, Orion Productions Studio, aspires to bring news and events over the weekend and eventually bring into St. Maarten homes, regular morning newscasts.

“Running a news program is not cheap, but with the support of the community we plan to bring the highest quality of news programming complete with recorded footage and on the spot reporting wherever possible,” continued, the technical operations manager, Ricardo.

He says the news program will principally carry news events with some sports segments, however his hope is that TV15 will soon be able to announce the start of a new totally local sports program to more of St. Maarten’s sporting events into people’s homes.

“We are not at a point where we can bring live sports, however we can do sports round-ups for a given week and give some much-needed exposure for some of our super athletes who are travelling abroad to compete in various sporting events without getting the attention they deserve,” continued the TV15 operator.

Ricardo and Altagracia have set a tentative date of September 16, 2022 for the new sports program. SXM Sports, which will start off being aired once weekly with a re-run scheduled for the weekend. SXM sports will be a 30-minutes broadcast.

“Right now, we invite everyone to tune in to TV15 starting, Monday, September 12, 2022, and every evening after that and to give their support,” says Ricardo.