CNN and WMUR-TV to Air First Campaign 2000 Town Meetings with Republican and Democratic Presidential Candidates at Dartmouth College

Posted 09/22/99

CNN/U.S. and WMUR-TV/Imes Communications Group will co-sponsor FIRST IN THE NATION: A NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN MEETING, the first two nationally televised town meetings with the presidential candidates discussing the issues of Campaign 2000, it was announced today by CNN's Political Director Tom Hannon and WMUR's News Director Karen Brown. The first town meeting, which will feature the Democratic candidates, will air Wednesday, Oct 27, from 8-9 p.m., (All times Eastern) and will be moderated by CNN's principal anchor Bernard Shaw and WMUR's Brown. On Thursday, Oct. 28, from 7:30-9p.m., CNN's prime anchor Judy Woodruff and WMUR's Tom Griffith will moderate the second town meeting with the Republican presidential candidates. The World Today will air from 11 p.m.-12 a.m. on the two nights FIRST IN THE NATION: A NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN MEETING are held.

Both town meetings will be held at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., with audiences comprised principally of New Hampshire voters selected by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College. The meetings will also be video-streamed live on CNN.com, as well as WMUR-TV's web site wmur.com.

CNN and WMUR-TV/Imes will also co-produce two presidential debates, one for the Republican candidates and the other for the Democratic candidates, prior to the New Hampshire primary. Both the Republican presidential debate, which will be held on Feb. 2, 2000, and the Democratic debate, on Feb. 3, will air live from WMUR-TV's broadcasting center in Manchester, N.H.

WMUR-TV, owned by the Imes Communications Group of Columbus, Miss., is New Hampshire's largest commercial network television station, reaching more than 310,000 households per day with its local newscasts and delivering more than 40 hours of local news to New Hampshire each week.

Founded in 1769, Dartmouth is the ninth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and a member of the Ivy League. With a focus on undergraduate liberal arts studies complemented by 20 graduate programs in the arts and sciences and three of the oldest professional schools in the country (the Dartmouth Medical School, the Thayer School of Engineering and the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration), Dartmouth enrolls approximately 4,300 undergraduates and 1,200 graduate students.

CNN/U.S., a division of the CNN News Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is the world's leading 24-hour news network, providing its audience with in-depth, live coverage and analysis of breaking news events from around the world. CNN/U.S. also offers a full range of programs covering the latest in business, weather, sports, entertainment, health and science news, as well as topical, in-depth interviews.