Monday, June 12, 2000
Preserving city's broadcast history seems left to us
By JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
I guess we'll have to do it ourselves. Sad to say, nobody seems very interested in preserving Cincinnati's rich broadcasting heritage.
The debt-plagued Cincinnati Museum Center no longer has a full-time broadcasting archivist.
TV producer Jim Friedman has abandoned his ambitious First 50 Productions Inc., a nonprofit organization to document and save the first 50 years (1948-98) of Cincinnati TV history.
The Cincinnati Broadcast Hall of Fame, launched 10 years ago this month by the Cincinnati Historical Society, hasn't inducted anyone since 1993.
“To be honest, it's not a top priority right now,” says Meg Olberding, Museum Center public relations director. “I'm pretty sure that it (Hall of Fame) will not be resurrected in the foreseeable future.”
How things have changed in 10 years. Charter Hall of Famers were inaugurated at a black-tie optional gala with Rosemary Clooney, who received a lifetime achievement award.
Galas followed in 1991 and 1992, then the event was scaled back to an Emery Theatre concert in 1993. All lost money, instead of raising funds for the archives, so the Hall of Fame, like early radio and TV broadcasts, vanished into thin air. It's a shame.
In four years, the event honored such broadcast pioneers as Ruth Lyons, Bob Braun, Dottie Mack, Paul Dixon, Red Barber, Bob Shreve, Al Schottelkotte, Ruby Wright, Durwood Kirby, Mort Watters, Stan Matlock, Hulbert Taft, Bill Nimmo, Powel Crosley Jr., Charles Vaughan, Fred Ziv, Charles “Buggs” Scruggs, Burt Farber, Marian Spelman and Al and Wanda Lewis.
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Archives still open
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The Cincinnati Historical Society broadcast archives got off to a great start when it opened in Union Terminal in 1993 with hundreds of hours of old TV shows.
The good news is that the public can still go to Museum Center and watch (but not copy) Ms. Lyons' 50-50 Club and its successor, the Bob Braun Show; Midwestern Hayride country music shows; The Dottie Mack Show; WLWT's 1969 Cincinnati Reds centennial special; and one of Rod Serling's first TV dramas, “No Gods to Serve,” from The Storm on WKRC-TV in 1951.
The audio collection, dating back to the 1930s, includes President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1938 speech at Latonia Race Track, World War II shows and Waite Hoyt's last Reds game in 1965.
Now the bad news: Less than half of the film and video collection has been reviewed, researched, identified and restored. Full-time broadcasting archivist Cynthia Keller has been transferred to the photo department, where she spends most of her day. She is the sole archivist for photographs and broadcasting.
“They've got stacks and stacks of stuff (tapes) just sitting there untouched,” says Jim Timmerman, the WCPO-TV program director who borrowed some old Channel 9 shows from the center to broadcast last year for the station's 50th anniversary.
“It's an unfortunate situation, because they have a wonderful collection, and they had such great potential,” he says.
Despite the lack of a full-time archivist, the center continues “to collect and accept broadcast materials as it fits our mission,” Ms. Olberding says. But they don't aggressively pursue it, and they never built the “Cradle of Stars” radio-TV exhibit planned in 1989.
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“Fast food society”
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It's no mystery why the broadcasting archives, and the First 50, have been unable to find funding. Changes in TV and radio ownership, and subsequent changes in management, have placed our public airwaves in the hands of people who don't care about our rich broadcasting heritage.
They never saw Paul Dixon, the crazy man who inspired David Letterman. They weren't here when FDR threw the switch in 1934 to power up WLW-AM's unprecedented 500,000-watt signal. They didn't grow up watching Skipper Ryle, Uncle Al, Midwestern Hayride, the Cool Ghoul, PM Magazine or Ira Joe Fisher.
Today's broadcast owners only worry about building tomorrow's audience. They see no return in investing in the past. To them, ancient history is a newscast anchored by Norma Rashid or Kathy Lehr. The owners who let them go aren't interested in enshrining them in a Hall of Fame, though they certainly deserve it. If we still had a Hall of Fame.
“We're a fast-food society. Everything is disposable. Nothing is important,” laments Mr. Friedman, who has 41 regional Emmys for Channel 9 specials.
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Forgotten past
Mr. Friedman pulled the plug on his First 50 when he failed to raise the $800,000 needed for a five-hour TV special and local TV history database. “I think we're going to look back on this someday and say, "I wish we would have kept that,'” he says.
The Hall of Fame honored Cincinnati pioneers, but what about the popular personalities of the past three decades? Certainly Jim Scott, Nick Clooney, Robin Wood, Jerry Thomas, Glenn Ryle, Dusty Rhodes and Bob Trumpy deserve the distinction.
I don't want to forget 1960s broadcasters Peter Grant, Waite Hoyt, Ed Kennedy or Tony Sands. You may think of others.
And the broadcast archives has a great collection through the early 1970s. But who has been preserving the best of Mike McConnel, Lincoln Ware, Tim Hedrick, Edie Magnus, Rich King or Joe Nuxhall and Marty Brennaman?
I guess it's up to us. What a shame.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330. E-mail: Johnkiese@yahoo.com.
