PRTC GM Keith Gabbard: We Are Gigabit Counties!

Keith Gabbard, CEO and General Manager of Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative, describes the PRTC service area – poor and rural Jackson and Owsley Counties in east Kentucky – and the company’s investment in high-speed fiber optic Internet to improve the community’s economy and quality of life.

EKCEP Director Jeff Whitehead: Connectivity = Jobs

On Feb. 2, 2016, Jeff Whitehead, Executive Director of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), spoke about the job impact that the gigabit-speed fiber-optic network built by Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) is having in rural Jackson and Owsley Counties.

Hindman Promoting Cultural Heritage to Revive Economy

In 2014, the tourism and travel industry contributed over $13 billion to Kentucky’s economy and its impact is growing.  Eastern Kentucky’s coalfield towns are increasingly looking to tourism as a possible way to diversify their economies.  In this feature, WMMT reporter Kelli Haywood visits the city of Hindman, the Knott County seat, to witness the efforts being […]

Wind Farm Replaces Coal in South Wales

Coal communities around the world are coping with a downturn in the global coal market. In some places, such as Great Britain, most mining shut down decades ago. This report, produced by Melanie Harsha for the After Coal Project at Appalachian State University, looks at the construction of the Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm being build […]