WTIU news director Chuck Carney and co-host Ann Shea

The program will begin Thursday, May 5, and air Thursdays at 8 p.m., repeating Fridays at 10:30 p.m.

The Weekly Special will look at what's creating the buzz in the viewing area each week. If a regional political issue, incident or event is gaining attention that week, The Weekly Special will provide the background, find the right people and gather the latest information. If a special entertainment or artistic event visits the region, The Weekly Special will take you there.

WTIU news director Chuck Carney will co-host the show with Ann Shea, a Terre Haute resident and former anchor of the WTWO news. Carney has been with the station as news director since 1999 and also serves as an adjunct professor of journalism at IUB. Shea is an IU journalism graduate who worked on the WTIU student News Forum in 1994-95.

Shea has a long family history with IU and is happy to be returning to the Bloomington campus, where her husband Shawn Strahle works in the School of Informatics. In addition to that connection, Shea's grandfather, Byron Laird, was a close friend of Herman B Wells and was an assistant dean at IU.

Shea will serve as producer as well as co-host of the program. As producer, she will be responsible for putting the show together, helping pick the stories that are featured and making sure the show flows well for viewers.

"What attracted me to this was the ability to go more in-depth with stories," Shea said. "You don't have the opportunity to do that in commercial television. It's just not the nature of the business. I like having the opportunity to look at an issue and take it farther than I could in a news broadcast and to do more off-beat interesting stories."

In the show's debut, featured segments include a visit to the Cataract General Store in Owen County; a look at historic preservation in Terre Haute, Columbus and Bloomington; and a feature on musician Sam Bartlett.

The Weekly Special uses the metaphor of the local restaurant for its structure with the belief that in many communities in the viewing area, the local restaurant becomes a focal point for community discussion. The Weekly Special will serve a similar function for southern Indiana viewers.

The Weekly Special will be a mix of live discussion, performance and regular pre-taped features. The features may include:

• Cutting Edge: Profiles of business or academic research projects and practices that are at the forefront of their fields.

• Indiana Zip: Profiles of the many small, medium and large communities that make up southern Indiana organized by zip code.

• What's the Deal: An explanation of unusual things or practices in southern Indiana that you may have seen and often wondered about.

• Expressions: A look at area music and fine arts including people, works, ideas and performances.

• Around the Corner: Profiles of nearby places you may want to visit or things or events worth seeing that easily can be reached during a day-trip.

• Help Yourself: Information that might improve your health, increase your wealth or contribute to your general well-being.

• Remember When: A look at things or practices that once were common but now are seen hardly at all.

• Stone Soup: Things, people and places not easily characterized, but simply interesting.