November 8 , 2004

ON MDA’S “LOVE NETWORK” STATIONS AND THE SPECIAL FLORIDA EDITION OF MDA’S 2004 TELETHON

In this Thanksgiving season, it seems appropriate to express our appreciation to some valued friends who, for nearly four decades, have played a crucially important role in helping MDA carry out its mission of help and hope.

I’m referring to that group of television stations that MDA National Chairman Jerry Lewis long ago dubbed “the MDA Love Network.” These nearly 200 stations in cities across the country are responsible for bringing our Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon into millions of homes. Not only do they transmit the national portion featuring Jerry and his Telethon co-hosts, they also produce their own 10-20 minute local segments which appear during virtually every key Telethon hour.

The MDA “Love Network” sprang from only one station in New York City, which aired MDA’s first annual Labor Day Telethon in 1966. By 1970, 65 stations were carrying the Telethon. The following year the “Love Network” nearly doubled, with continued growth during the ensuing decades.

Locally-produced segments are, in many ways, the lifeblood of the Telethon. They drive home, in a way that the national portion of the show can't, MDA’s grassroots presence in the community, and they’re vitally important in terms of generating pledges of support from local viewers.

Stations commonly feature video of MDA summer camp and local clinics. In addition, MDA clients, clinic directors, local research grantees and others in the MDA family are interviewed live on the air. Local sponsors, from car dealers to labor leaders to restaurateurs, are recognized for their assistance during the year as they make check presentations and talk about their involvement in helping “Jerry’s kids.” Telethon-related MDA fund-raising activities taking place around the community are highlighted as well.

Through the MDA Broadcast Journalism Awards, our Association is able to acknowledge and honor some of the truly outstanding local material produced each year by our MDA “Love Network” stations.

Station general managers and staff, including producers of local Telethon broadcasts, often come to have a strong emotional investment in the work MDA does, which is reinforced by their personal contact with the children and adults MDA serves.

Station personnel go out into the community, shooting on-location video profiles of families served by MDA as well as obtaining footage at MDA summer camp sessions.

“We had staff who went out to MDA summer camp on assignment, sometimes reluctantly, who came back with a whole new outlook on MDA,” says Tom Schrantz, formerly production manager and Telethon producer at “Love Network” station WFTS in Tampa, Fla., now director of MDA’s Television Production Division at its national headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.

“They’d get to know the kids, and come back all fired up to work on the Telethon and make it the best show possible,” says Schrantz.

Unfortunately, local 2004 Telethon broadcasts on WFTS and other Florida stations were severely disrupted as Hurricane Frances swept through the state over Labor Day weekend, causing tragic loss of life as well as extensive flooding and property damage.

Jerry Lewis spoke several times during the broadcast to express sympathy for those affected.

“Our hearts go out to all those in the southeast whose lives have been devastated by Hurricane Frances,” Lewis said.

Frances shut down local television programming, which meant that local segments from our MDA “Love Network” could not air. In addition, evacuations and other emergency measures deprived the Telethon in Florida of pledge centers, volunteer support, sponsor participation and viewership.

The end result was that, nationally, the Telethon achieved a pledge total of $59,398,915, an admirable figure but one that fell short of last year’s total of $60.5 million.

In the following weeks, we pondered ways of compensating for the loss of revenue for MDA’s programs, while also giving Floridians another chance to experience some of the memorable moments from Telethon 2004 that they may have missed.

We decided to create a Special Florida Edition of the Telethon, consisting of highlights from the 21 ½-hour live broadcast that the rest of the nation got to see on Labor Day weekend.

All 10 of our “Love Network” stations in Florida have agreed to use these highlights to mount 2-3 hour Special Edition broadcasts in December.

Those stations are WFTX in Fort Myers, WWSB in Sarasota, WFTS in Tampa, WPEC in West Palm Beach, WBFS in Miami, WCJB in Gainesville, WMBB in Panama City, WCTV in Tallahassee, WPXC in Jacksonville and WOPX in Orlando.

Some of those stations have tenures with MDA that date back to the early years of the “Love Network,” including WWSB, WPEC and WCTV, all of which have broadcast the Telethon for over 30 years. WCJB and WMBB have carried the show for more than two decades.

These and the other Florida stations are greatly valued members of the MDA “Love Network” family, producing outstanding local material to tell the MDA story to Florida viewers.

If you’re a Florida resident, please check local listings and make sure to watch this special broadcast in December, which once again supports MDA’s fight against more than 40 neuromuscular diseases.

It’s gratifying that we’ve been able to arrive at this unique solution, and I’m grateful to these stations for so readily getting on board with our 2004 Special Florida Edition of the Telethon.

Here’s to our friends in Florida and to all the members of our MDA “Love Network” for their commitment to giving back to their local communities by supporting our Telethon and helping to make a better future for the families MDA serves.

With every best wish...

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