CAMDEN – In leaving his position as economic development specialist for the Knox-Waldo Regional Economic Development Council, Alan Hinsey is broadening his target area from midcoast Maine to the whole state.

At age 54, Hinsey is resigning from his post, effective Oct. 15, to start a new career of producing a statewide television talk show. “MaineBiz Sunday” will be a weekly business program developed through a partnership of “MaineBiz” magazine and NBC affiliates WCSH-TV 6 and WLBZ-TV 2.

The new show will premier in January 2009.

“It really is [MaineBiz’s] program with their content that we’ll be putting together,” he said in an interview Monday at his Camden office.

“The idea is that we’ll become this reliable source on television that will go right into your Sunday morning schedule,” he said.

The new program will run for 30 minutes and follow the hour-long “Meet the Press.”

“MaineBiz Sunday” also will appear in video on the Web sites of “MaineBiz” and the two television stations, he said.

The show will be an “in-depth kind of definitive business and economic discussion for the state of Maine,” he said. “We’ll do about 46 programs per year.”

“We’ll be putting together the pilot this fall,” he said.

Hinsey is forming a production company, ACH Productions, and a partnership with MaineBiz. He will produce, co-write and co-edit the show with MaineBiz staff members.

The MaineBiz editorial staff, which is based in Portland, will provide the news and feature content, he said. The talk show and interview program format will give MaineBiz the opportunity to host “lively, informative and serious discussions” with chief executive officers, business leaders and economic policy experts in Maine, Hinsey said.

The studio portions of the program will be taped at the WLBZ-TV studios in Bangor, Hinsey said.

Hinsey, a Cushing resident, has served the Knox and Waldo County branch of the Eastern Maine Development Corp., for almost four years.

Hinsey said the genesis for the idea began this year with a televised talk show called “KWRED-TV” for the Rockland, Belfast and Camden region.

“I was trying to link those communities together into one clear, definable economic region,” he said. “So we produced our own television program once a month. We did about six of those.”

MaineBiz was so impressed with one of the shows that its principals began talking with Hinsey about a statewide program.

“The fact that Bangor Savings Bank came on as our primary sponsor gave us even more reassurance that this is a good program, and its chances of success are great,” he said.

Yellow Light Breen, senior vice president of Bangor Savings Bank, called the production “a very exciting project.”

He said a show like Hinsey’s with recurring economic themes will be good for business in the state.

In his work with the Eastern Maine Development Corp., Hinsey has left his mark.

Camden residents know of the effort Hinsey put into the redevelopment of the former Apollo Tannery, which the town had acquired through liens. He worked with a special task force named by the Select Board to design a plan to market the property.

Hinsey is also credited with helping to bring new employers Athena Health to Belfast and Boston Data Financial Services to Rockland.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

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