AKTINA Productions, Inc., Mission Statement - Activities
Serving with distinction Greek Cypriot and Greek Americans of all generations and the general public since 1993
AKTINA Productions, Inc., is a recognized and multi-awarded New York-based non-profit and tax-exempt under 501 (c) 3 Media and Arts Cultural organization founded and established in 1993. Its mission is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of all aspects of the rich heritage and culture of Cyprus and Greece for the benefit of Greek and Greek Cypriot Americans of all generations and ages and of the general public of all ages; to strengthen the cultural bonds that unite Greek and Greek Cypriot Americans of all generations with their ancestral homelands, Greece and Cyprus, and to enhance civic and cultural relations among diverse communities in New York City and beyond by providing quality cultural programs, news, information and entertainment through radio, television and live cultural activities. AKTINA Productions, Inc., and its media assets, AKTINA FM and AKTINA TV are supported in part through the generous donations from the public they service as well as from companies and businesses, through underwriting of their activities and through partial funding support from local New York City government agencies. To join our big family of supporters with your tax-deductible contribution, please click here.
IMPLEMENTING OUR MISSION
AKTINA Productions, Inc., ("AKTINA") owns and operates the public service media outlets, AKTINA FM (EST. May 1993) and of AKTINA TV (EST. April 2002) both non-profit and commercial-free, founded by AKTINA’s President, Elena Maroulleti. These two highly rated media assets provide creative content which informs, enlightens, inspires and entertains. AKTINA FM and AKTINA TV also focus on the promotion and preservation of the Hellenic identity, culture and folklore in America, including matters that relate to the Greek and Greek Cypriot American community, the national issues of Greece and Cyprus, including topics of wide public interest pertaining to life in America, social issues, education, health, good community relations, legislation, politics, quality of life among others.
In support of its cultural mission and activities, AKTINA Productions, Inc., also owns and operates ten related websites, with this one included, which carry the AKTINA FM name-brand and also stream the radio station 24/7 on a daily basis, namely, aktinafm.org, aktinafm.net, aktinafm.nyc, aktinafm.us, aktina.info, ak.ht, aktina.org, aktinaproductions.com and aktinatv.com. Furthermore, AKTINA collaborates with the veteran non-profit and tax-exempt New York-based cultural organization CYPRECO of America, Inc., for the delivery and streaming of AKTINA FM on CYPRECO's websites, cyprecoofamerica.com, cypreco.net and cypreco.org, as well as for the co-production of cultural activities for the benefit of the audience the two non-profits serve.
Streaming simultaneously across all websites listed above, AKTINA FM delivers unique internet programming to local, regional, national, and international audiences. All of the above listed streaming websites combined, reach an audience of over 3.8M. From this diverse audience, some 1M listeners are from the Tri-state area of New York and beyond. In addition, many thousands of other listeners stream AKTINA FM "On the Go or at Home" from their smart speakers or mobile devices through TuneIn, Amazon Echo (Alexa), GoogleHome and SIRI among others and from several third party Online Radio Streaming Platforms that have our permission to carry and stream AKTINA FM. AKTINA TV, broadcasting every Sunday from 6-7pm on New York's public station WNYE-Channel 25, delivers its unique television programs to over 1M viewers in the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and several nearby counties in Pennsylvania.
In 2003, AKTINA Productions, Inc., introduced and established the AKTINA TV Youtube Channel, a very popular online channel with over six thousand subscribers which continue to grow and with views of our videos surpassing 500,000 annually while some videos have views in the millions. Subscription is free and visitors have easy access to our various available Video Playlists such as, Greek Music Journey Concert Series (GMJ) showcasing videos from our concerts with notable artists from Greece as well as with local artists, TV Reports covering local news stories as well as news stories from Cyprus and Greece and special reports from around the New York-based Greek and Cypriot American community and beyond, Mini-Documentaries highlighting the cultures and ancient sites of Cyprus with original content shot on location and other generic playlists with videos of wide public interest.
AKTINA Productions, Inc., further implements its cultural mission with the production of live programs pertaining to the culture, folklore, music, dances and the literary arts of Greece and Cyprus with local musicians and artists. Of much acclaim are the concerts from AKTINA’s series, GREEK MUSIC JOURNEY (GMJ) which feature the most distinguished and representative singers and musicians who are invited from Greece to perform at renowned landmark theaters in Manhattan, New York.
DISTINGUISHED HONORS
AKTINA Productions, Inc., is the recipient of multiple distinctions and honors such as, Citations, Proclamations and Congressional Records, awarded by elected officials of the City of New York, the New York State and of the U.S Federal government. These distinctions recognize and celebrate AKTINA’s “immense and important contributions” to the Greek and Greek Cypriot American community and to the general public in New York City and beyond, as well as its achievements as a “leading” Greek American radio and television broadcaster, as a provider of “exceptional” cultural activities which highlight and promote the rich heritage and cultures of Greece and Cyprus in America and as the producer of the “acclaimed” concert series, Greek Music Journey (GMJ) showcasing different aspects of the representative Greek music repertoire with distinguished singers and musicians directly from Greece. Such unique distinctions recognizing these achievements include the honorary events held by the NY City Council on behalf of the of the City of New York in 2018 on the 25th anniversary of AKTINA Productions, Inc. On this auspicious occasion, the organization was honored with a Proclamation during a special ceremony held at the NYC Council Chambers at City Hall in Manhattan, New York. The Proclamation was presented by the NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Member Costa Constantinides on behalf of the entire Council. Watch the full special TV report here. A similar Proclamation issued by NYS Assembly Member Aravella Simotas, was also presented separately to AKTINA on behalf of the New York State Assembly. On October 26, 2018, the NYC Council and the City of New York also honored AKTINA FM on its 25th anniversary by co-naming 27th Street between 23rd and 24th Avenues in Astoria, New York, "AKTINA FM Way" making AKTINA FM, the first ever Greek American Radio in the City of New York to have a street named after it and as far as we know in the entire U.S.A. Watch the full special TV report here.
AKTINA’s ACCLAIMED CONCERT SERIES – GREEK MUSIC JOURNEY (GMJ)
Founded and produced by AKTINA’s President, Elena Maroulleti, "Greek Music Journey" (GMJ) Concert series was introduced in 1994 and fully established in 1997 with a purpose to promote and preserve different aspects of the representative music of Greece such as, the traditional, folk, popular folk and rembetika genres which comprise the basis of Greek music. Initially the series featured New York-based representative Greek American singers and musicians and performances and were mostly given in local venues in the Borough of Queens, New York until their fame surpassed the boundaries of Queens with concerts given at renowned theaters and international music festivals in Manhattan, New York. For three consecutive years, 1998, 1999 and 2000 GMJ was selected by the Lincoln Center concert committee to represent Greece during their annual “Lincoln Center Out Of Doors Festival” given every August before over 10,000 spectators. On March 7, 1999, AKTINA's Greek Music Journey was given at Manhattan's prestigious landmark theater, The Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The sold out performance featured 34 Greek American performers consisting of singers, musicians and folk dancers in a one of a kind musical production which showcased the different representative music genres of Greece such as, Byzantine, Demotic, Island Folk, Rembetika, Laika (popular-folk) and Contemporary.
Since 2006, AKTINA’s Greek Music Journey (GMJ) concert series has been exclusively featuring distinguished and prominent artists directly from Greece performing at renowned New York City landmark theaters in Manhattan. Between 2006 and 2010 GMJ was hosted at The Town Hall Theater and since 2013 at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. In 2013 the series was expanded to include two annual concerts, one in early spring and one in the fall. Starting in 2014, AKTINA Productions, Inc., has been collaborating with the non-profit cultural organization CYPRECO of America, Inc., and together they have co-produced and presented several concerts from this series in support of their mutual cultural mission. The concerts are given to benefit the public service and commercial-free media, AKTINA FM and AKTINA TV.
Each new concert is dedicated to a specific music theme thus, making each new performance unique and one of a kind. The participating artists who are invited from Greece to perform, are carefully selected and fully represent AKTINA’s selected music theme. Over a period of thirteen years, starting from 2006 to 2019, seventeen (17) different concerts have been given featuring Greek leading stars accompanied by their distinguished musicians and in their majority they were sold out. All concerts were crowned with huge success and raving reviews from the press and the audience in attendance. The stars who have participated thus far in AKTINA's GMJ concert series include: Alkistis Protopsalti (2006), Kostas Makedonas (2007), Manolis Mitsias (2008), Melina Aslanidou (2009, 2010, 2013), Lavrentis Machairitsas with Panagiotis Margaris and Dimitra Papiou (2013), Lavrentis Machairitsas with Miltiadis Paschalis (2015), Lavrentis Machairitsas with Giannis Zouganelis and special Guest Star Mario Frangoulis (2017), Nasia Konitopoulou, Dimitris Kontogiannis with folk violinist Michalis Gampierakis (2014), Giannis Savvidakis (2014), Yannis Kotsiras (2015, 2017), Eleni Tsaligopoulou & Bogaz Musique (2016), Babis Tsertos (2016, 2018), Andreas Karantinis (The Magic of Bouzouki 2018) and Bouzouki Legend Thanasis Polykandriotis (2019). Watch all available videos from the GMJ concert series on our AKTINA TV Youtube Channel in the Playlist Category, Greek Music Journey Concert Series (GMJ).
The global coronavirus pandemic that struck the world in 2020 ruined our plans for the production of our concerts and other live activities for that year. Among the immediate steps we took in early 2020 to safeguard the health and safety of our concert fans, was to cancel our spring concert, GMJ 2020 with Kostas Makedonas which was scheduled for May 19, 2020 at the Kaye Playhouse Theater and which was planned and advertised many months prior with many pre sold tickets.
OUR VOLUNTEERS ARE OUR STRENGTH
AKTINA Productions, Inc., operates with the support of dedicated volunteers. All Board Members and all principal staff (full-time and part-time) of AKTINA Productions, Inc., offer their professional services on a purely volunteer basis and without any compensation, in support of the organization's cultural mission and activities that include, the broadcasting AKTINA FM, AKTINA TV and the production of live cultural events and concerts from the series, GREEK MUSIC JOURNEY (GMJ). AKTINA Productions, Inc., also relies on seasonal volunteer Interns and offers an educational Internship Program for Greek and non-Greek college and high school students (ages 16 and up). This program provides tree training with full credit in the areas of radio and television broadcasting and the production of live programs. To apply for AKTINA's Internship Program, please send your inquiry and Resume to our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
For the delivery of AKTINA FM, AKTINA TV and its cultural activities, AKTINA Productions, Inc., relies on charitable contributions from the public it services, as well as from sponsorships from companies and businesses through underwriting. We invite you join today our big family of supporters with your tax-deductible contribution. For more information about underwriting, please click here.
We thank you for visiting our website and please spread the word about us! Stay connected with AKTINA by subscribing to our occasional Newsletter. We never share or sell your information. Please read our full Privacy Policy.
LIKE US AND FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK
SUBSCRIBE TO THE AKTINA TV YOUTUBE CHANNEL