THUNDER OVER LOUISVILLE TO GO GLOBAL ON JULY 4TH

A ritual of spring in Kentucky will be used to celebrate the nation’s Independence Day. The Kentucky Derby Festival’s 2006 Opening Ceremonies, Thunder Over Louisville, will be rebroadcast both locally and around the world next week. WLKY-TV, the local CBS affiliate, exclusively aired the original air show and fireworks coverage lon April 22 and has produced a two-hour edited version that will be shown on the Armed Forces Network on July 4. WLKY will show the same program from 12:35 a.m.-2:35 a.m. on July 4-5 (Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.); KET-2 will broadcast a one-hour version produced by WLKY at 9 p.m. on July 4.

All together, the Thunder broadcast will be seen by more than one million U.S. Armed Forces personnel, Department of Defense civilian employees and their families stationed overseas in 176 countries and U.S. territories, as well as aboard more than 180 U.S. Navy ships at sea. The show features the entire 30-minute fireworks show as well as portions of the air show and other Thunder Day activities.

Said WLKY-TV general manager Jim Carter: “Our people really enjoyed putting this program together. They were motivated to work even harder knowing that the broadcast would be seen by so many brave people on such an important occasion. It’s a good sampling of what was a terrific day and a terrific event.”

Thunder Over Louisville – the nation’s largest annual fireworks show – was sponsored this year by Caesars Indiana, Chase, E.ON U.S. and UPS.