The well-known television producer and Diaspora journalist Dimitris Kastanas passed away at age 70, reportedly from a heart attack. He had undergone a second open heart surgery at a hospital in Manhattan, while he had been dealing with health problems.
He was the former owner of the National Greek Television (NGTV), the first private Greek-owned TV channel in the US, and after 37 years of running the station last August decided to sell it to a group of Greek-Americans.
His first start in TV dated to Sept. 25, 1975, when he inaugurated a Greek weekly show on a U.S. station, creating new horizons for the Greek-American community. Speaking for NGTV and his efforts to keep it alive, he said that, “It was no easy a task, not only for both the establishment and operation of a Greek television station in the United States, but its preservation as well, given that it still is the only Greek-speaking, 24-hour television station, outside the Greek borders.”
Born in Fthiotida, in the village of Molos, Kastanas studied law while working in the Ioniki-Laiki Bank and decided to leave Greece at the age of 25. He was married to Nomiki Papamichael-Kastana, with whom they had two children (Matina and George) and a granddaughter (Mary).
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