KXAS Not Screening MDA Telethon Until 5 AM

[AlanB]

...and then only until a golf tourney late in the day. Is the reason they are running less than half of the MDA telethon because they are now an NBC O/O and don't have a English language station to move the programming off to?

 

[arnoldevns]

This sounds like a cost-cutting move on the part of channel 5. They don't have to have people on duty (and likely on overtime) for the telethon at all hours of the night for fundraising cut-ins. They'll be able to just pay holiday pay for their regular staff that would normally be doing news at 5am and throughout the day.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

This is not going to be popular, but full disclosure, I got family with MD...

Ed McMahon, with his OLD, TIRED and HAGGARD self (wow, he looked bad and his dentures were slipping in a couple of breaks), was bragging (as Jerry's mouthpiece) that MDA Telethon has almost raised $1 Billion. Question? Where in the hell is that money over 22 years? You never a WORD about research, findings or results. Just see hte amazing firefighters doing their thing and Citgo continuing to make you feel bad if you get a car wash and not a shamrock.

But I digress. It was cost cutting, they have to do that now. Things cost too much.

 

[azumanga]

This sounds like a cost-cutting move on the part of channel 5. They don't have to have people on duty (and likely on overtime) for the telethon at all hours of the night for fundraising cut-ins. They'll be able to just pay holiday pay for their regular staff that would normally be doing news at 5am and throughout the day.

I thought personalities and staff donate their time to work the telethon?

 

[azumanga]

You never a WORD about research, findings or results. Just see hte amazing firefighters doing their thing and Citgo continuing to make you feel bad if you get a car wash and not a shamrock.

The reason why you never heard much about research was that your local station bumped much of the telethon for golf or tennis, and didn't join the telethon until Labor Day morning, so they could show prime-time repeats and infomercials.

 

[newsmark]

I thought personalities and staff donate their time to work the telethon?

I worked on the production crew for the telethon a long time ago. At least at my stations, we all got paid our normal rate for Sunday night and holiday pay for Monday. News anchors are often salaried, so they might get a comp day down the road instead of money.

I've heard that some stations "strongly suggest" the production team members donate their pay to MDA, but my station never suggested that to us. (Heck, most TV production people, especially in smaller markets, are barely getting by. If they had to "donate" telethon pay, it would be like losing two shifts that week! Holiday pay is just a chance to catch up with the debts.)

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

And thus we conclude this episode on "TV and Philanthropy." Next week, we interview a real live station manager that expects all of his photogs to camp out for the first Santa sighting of the year. ;D

 

[bpatrick]

The business of airing only portions of the
telethon and cutting away to sports events
like the U.S. Open tennis tournament (CBS)
or the DeutscheBank golf tournament (NBC)
has become more pronounced in recent years,
and not just in the Metroplex. My local ABC
station stuck with its soaps, Oprah, Regis,
Rachael Ray, and "The View," and that station
used to carry the telethon in its entirety. In
my market the CW affiliate carried it, but only
from about 5 a.m. Monday.

From years of watching, I've found that the
donations don't really pick up until Monday
afternoon. Perhaps on Sunday night/early
Monday morning there simply aren't enough
people watching/pledging to keep a crew
working.

On topic, yet off, but it was mentioned
above: I, too, wonder where the
money goes. I used to give each year but
stopped for two reasons: (1) I never heard
of any substantial progress being made, and
(2) I heard stories (which may or may not be
true, but I think one of them was on "20/20")
that Jerry takes 10% for himself (something
he has always emphatically denied, but it raised
the skeptic in me).

And as I pointed out elsewhere: Jerry is 81 now
(Ed is 84). Who's going to run the telethon when
they're gone?

 

[whenitwasradio]

Funny you should ask. In an announcement held in Las Vegas on August 30th 2008 will be te hlast MDA telethon to be held there. The new location ,in a cost cutting move will be ..drum roll...Carls Corner,Texas in 2009. Ed and Jerry will be pretaping ( if they are still alive)their parts,and the new host will be ....tambourine..VERITAS DE VOCE !
You read it here first.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Thank you, thank you. But when I take over the MDA, things are going to be different. On-location remotes at local Truck stops (beginning with our impetus in Carl's Corner), live call-ins from Ed and Jerry (sound alikes, minus the bad jokes about homosexuality) and MTV's new show "Pimp my Wheelchair". (Inspired by a friend who races in the Special Olympics and has a tri-wheel chair with rims! Suh-wheat!)

Good times are on the horizon. NBC, I'll be taking bids next week.