A new program on the historic Dayton Peace Accords will premiere tonight, a week before NATO convenes in downtown.
On Thursday evening, May 15, 2025, ThinkTV 16, CET and the PBS App will broadcast "Dayton: City of Peace 2025."
The program marks the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords. It also highlights the upcoming NATO Spring Parliamentary Assembly.
To find out more about the program we spoke with Rodney Veal, a producer and public liaison with ThinkTV. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Rodney Veal: "Dayton: City of Peace 2025" is a program that we did as a live to tape with a panel discussion about not only the history of the Dayton Peace Accords because it was so significant to Dayton history and our community, but also an opportunity to talk about what's going forward with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly spring session and also talk about our community's ongoing commitment to peace on a global scale with several organizations.
Jerry Kenney: What is the general consensus or thoughts from the people that we'll see in this premiere?
Veal: You're going to get a really good cross section. I love the fact that we have Congressman (Mike) Turner sharing his reflections because he was mayor at the time, but now he's also serving as our congressman. And so you could see that this was the sort of catalyst for his wanting to be on this Armed Services Committee. You could also see his commitment to keeping the base in the region because it serves not just a military purpose, but a diplomatic purpose as well. But then you also will hear from Alice Jung-Basora, who is the executive director of the International Peace Museum. And you'll hear from Kevin Leidy, who is a chairman of the Dayton Sister Cities Committee. This community is all in. And that just reflected in our ability to pull them to talk about not just the past — we talk about here now with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly being here and also going forward in the future. This community is all about this sort of peaceful conflict resolution. And that is a through line in our DNA as a community. And we're glad at the station to be able to tell that story.
Kenney: You mentioned the parliamentary assembly, which is coming up very soon. And so this is a wonderful tie-in to that week-long series of events taking place.
Veal: Absolutely. And it was the history of the anniversary of the Peace Accords that was a catalyst for making the decision to have that spring session here in Dayton. And of course, Congressman Turner spearheaded that. So it's known, it's one of the situations where if you talk to individuals in the Balkan region and you mention the city of Dayton, ‘Ah, the city that saved us, the City of Peace.’ To have your community be synonymous on a global scale with that, I think is kind of special.
Kenney: Let's go ahead and tell listeners how they can tune in for this premiere.
Veal: We're super excited that at Think TV, which is our public broadcasting station, that we will be hosting the first airing of it, Thursday, May 15th, at 8 p.m. And there'll be multiple airings of not only on Think TV but also our sister station, CET in (Cincinnati). So it'll be airing as much as we can air it. There'll be numerous airings of it. And this also will be available on our website and our PBS app.
Kenney: Great, and as you mentioned, it's a wonderful backstory for anyone who doesn't know about the NATO assembly, which will be taking place. This will give them the why and the where, and a small piece of the people that made this happen.
Veal: Absolutely. And I think for us here at the station, it just fits our mission. It's not just a global story, it's a local story because that's what we're good at with public television is that the fact that we have these refugees who made their lives here, they're living. We get to kind of support that, but then also too, we get to have all these delegates from the NATO alliance here in Dayton, Ohio, deciding policy for the next upcoming six months to a year and beyond. So it's just really nice to be able to be that sort of catalyst and highlight what we should be very proud of, that Dayton is the city of peace.
