KET’s next Kentucky Life spotlights Covington composer Haven Gillespie, the Lexington Comic & Toy Convention and arson dogs of southeastern Kentucky. The program airs Saturday, April 8 at 8/7 pm and Sunday, April 9 at 4/3 pm on KET and Monday, April 10 at 7/6 pm on KET2.

First, the program shares details of the life and career of Haven Gillespie (1888-1975), a native of Covington. Though his name may not be widely familiar, his work is: he is the co-writer of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” – one of the widest-selling Christmas songs of all time – among others. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972, Gillespie’s songs have been recorded by icons across many genres of music, from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra to Michel Jackson and George Strait.

Next, host Doug Flynn stops in at Lexington’s Pasta Garage to learn how it creates casual Italian dishes – inspired by “Italian street food” – using locally sourced, fresh ingredients.

Then, Kentucky Life captures some of the sights and sounds of the Lexington Comic and Toy Convention, which annually attracts some 25,000 fans eager to meet writers, actors, artists and directors associated with popular comic series and cult TV and film programs.

Finally, the program travels to Bell County, where the Bell County Forestry Camp houses a certified arson dog program meant to curb the high incidence of arson-related woodland fires in the area. A cooperative effort between the Kentucky Department of Corrections and the Division of Forestry, the arson dog program currently includes two trained bloodhounds, Magic and Chloe, who are able to not only track arsonists from the point of origin of a fire, but are also able to assist local law enforcement in their searches for missing people or suspects.

Kentucky Life is a KET production, produced by Brandon Wickey. Segment producers for this episode are Tom Bickel, Sean Anderson, Clark Bradshaw and Valerie Trimble.

KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, serving more than one million people each week via television, online and mobile. Learn more about Kentucky’s preeminent public media organization on Twitter @KET and facebook.com/KET and at KET.org.

Contact:

Todd Piccirilli
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
859-258-7242
tpiccirilli@ket.org