Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 37

i-b Juty 6, 1986 DAYTON DAILY NEWS CSGIISs Pssst! Did you hear about the Rock Hudson SimteirtoiiiMini rji- mmmiiii i. mi mm i Jerry Wareham Dudley Kircher Future move poses complex questions for Channels 1416 CTVrVrying to run a public television station without a studio is like try-ing to run an airline without would like to produce, They include a quiz show for high scnooiers reminiscent oi uc uojieee uowi. a ousinesa It wu Just another day for Jerry Wareham until the phone rang. As he recall! it, "I had the anxiety attack of my life." Wareham the president and general manager of Channels 14 and 16. He wu sitting in his office at 3440 Office Park Drive In Kettering.

And he wu dreaming about the amount of money that would be garnered for the local public television stations by the on-air auction that wu scheduled to begin that evening. "I picked up the phone and it wu Gary Donese, the auction chairman," Wareham recalls. "He said, 'Jerry, we've got a The fellow scheduled to host the first portion of the auction hadn't shown up. Would the boss like to take over the show? Trouble wu, the auction wu being televised from a warehouse on E. River Road in Moraine.

The warehouse is between 13 and 30 minutes' drive from the administrative offices in Kettering, depending on whether or not you have to wait for a slow freight train at the Moraine crossing. It wu about 4:45 p.m. The auction wu scheduled to go on the air at S. "I got in my car and I said to myself, 'Now, remain Wareham says. "I got there and walked in and they practically handed me the mike." Channel 16 hu a problem.

Space is lacking and that space is scattered all over the county, with offices in Ket-', tering, a transmitter in Dayton, an operations center in Jefferson Twp. and an auction site In Moraine. No wonder Wareham's crew let out a cheer when they were invited to become a part of the performing arts center to be constructed in downtown Dayton. "It's an exciting idea," Wareham said. "The arts center is great vision, and we're committed to that vision." The plan to relocate In the arts center hu been endorsed by the board of directors of Greater Dayton Public Television, licensee of WPTD In Dayton and WPTO In Oxford.

Projected cost of the arts center is $65 million. Wareham said no cost figures for the TV facilities have been broken out, but Channels 1416 would be located in a building on E. Second Street, estimated to cost $17 million, that also would house an Advanced Arts Learning Center. Consolidating all the functions of Channels 14 and 16 In one location would avoid situations like the one that occurred Wednesday. Station Manager Judy Baker wu pulling into the parking lot at the Kettering offices Just this reporter wu leaving.

She was returning from another trip to the operations center on S. Gettysburg Avenue, in Jefferson Twp. "I've made two trips over there this morning," she said. "And there's Just no way to get there without going across the river, the Interstate and two railroad tracks. And if you're delayed by a train, it could take you half an hour.

One time I wu sitting there waiting and the train jumped the track, right In front of me." One of the big questions is whether Channels 14 and 1 6 can afford to wait until the arts center is ready. "It's not ge i to happen next year," said Robert L. Bates, chairman of the board of $TPDWPTO. "They've got a lot of money to raise and land to acquire and it could be five years. Too much needs to be done in the way of tying down funding, and the space where they would put us is not one of the earlier phases of the project." Bates said the board is evaluating other downtown to- TOM HOPKINS series, an Arts Beat series with previews and reviews of local productions and a Journalism round table.

The tareet calls for WPTD'i oroduction sDace. now 2,400 square feet, to be increased to 12,000 square feet. The station currently hu a tiny 24-by-20-foot studio with a low ceiling at the operations center. "Our optimum wish list calls for a 50-by-80-foot studio with a 20-foot ceil TELEVISION EDITOR ing," Wareham said. A now tnultl.niinvMut rnnm and ra-nnrinrv ctiirlin would be used for two-wav.

Interactive instructional video and other tele-conferencing projects. A third room would be used to construct and store sets, an activity now confined to a trailer sitting outside the operations ouuaing. Administrative space, now confined to 4,200 square tower and transmitter at Gettysburg Avenue, '4-mile away from the operations center Those facilities would remain there. The plan to relocate in the arts center fronting on Main and Second Streets wu brought before the WPTDWPTO board by David A. Lehman, co-chairman of the Arts Center Foundation.

Lehman also is a member of the WPTDWPTO board and chairman of its policy and planning committee. Whether the TV stations will need to make an Interim move, Lehman said, will depend largely on the progress of land acquisition for the arts center negotiations are under way now well funding. Money would be needed not only for construction, but also for equipment Greater Dayton Public Television would become part of a undraising drive for the arts center, which is slated to include a refurbished Victory Theatre, a concert hall, the Advanced Arts Learning Center Including a 260-seat experimental theater, commercial and retail space and perhaps an art gallery. Production of local programs has been difficult for Channel 16 with existing space. Last year, the local PBS outlet produced a pitifully small number of programs: a 26-part series for the elderly titled Old Friends a dozen 16 Express programs for children, an outreach program on Holiday Aid and a couple of remotes.

"The problem is that we can shoot only on one set," Wareham said. "When we were doing Old Friends we had to tear down the host set to put up the nutrition set, then tear down the nutrition set to put up the exercise set, then tear down the exercise set and so forth. This is a very inefficient way to do things and It affects the program. In Addition, we can't do more than one program at once. If we're doing Old Friends, we can't do anything else." Wareham already hu a list of local programs he feet, would be increased to 7,000 square feet.

Greater Dayton Public Television leases the space at 3440 Office Park Drive and rents the operations center property on Gettysburg from the state, although they nun th hulMInps nn that lti us well an the transmitter cations that might be leased until the arts center is ready. "We're determined to move pretty fast," he said. "We'd like to move this year, and at the same time continue to work with the arts complex people and ultimately end up there." Adds board member Dudley Kircher, "We have a need right now to consolidate our office space in a single location and to build a studio at the same location. Right now, we're scattered. We have a very small studio on Gettysburg, using space that wu once an old transmitter building.

It's very cramped, and when we need full-scale facilities, we have no alternative but to lease studios at Wright State. 'Trying to run a public television station without a studio is like trying to run an airline without airplanes," Kircher said. Anticipating the squeeze for space and new equipment, the stations opened a capital funds campaign under Kircher's leadership two years ago. Kircher, who is also a former board chairman, said the campaign hu achieved 70 percent of its $4.1 million goal. Some of that money already has been spent to complete the Installation of a new property.

The tower would remain at Its present location once the station moves downtown. Bates stresses the significance of a move Into downtown Dayton a move he says would enable the station to "establish a greater presence" in the Dayton community. "We need to be urban," he said. "With the Art Institute, the Philharmonic and everything downtown, there are many telecommunications needs that we feel we can serve. We could televise performances in the arts center.

One of our longtime goals is that we should rise above being Just a television station." Bob Brawn alive and well in LA Longtime Cincinnati television host forges new career on West Coast ft Lift's really tough to JLLjustify losing a program that was still No. 1 in Cincinnati and in the majority of the cities it was playing I 5 i I I upcoming fall shows. When they learned that my show had been canceled, they canceled me out of Santa Barbara and out of Days of Our Lives and out of the trip." Braun says WLWT came to his defense. "I've got to give Channel 5 credit," he said. "The general manager called them and told them it wu a rotten thing todo." NBC finally agreed to let him appear on Days of Our Lives Then he flew to LA "and it turned out to be a one-liner." Braun was offered a Job on radio in St Louis, replacing longtime KMOX personality Jack Carney who had died.

"He wu the Paul Dixon of St. Louis," Braun said. "They flew me to St Louis, and it wu big bucks. I wu really tempted. The only problem wu, I also wanted to get a TV show on Saturdays or something.

And they said, 'Oh, no, we don't want you to do television. Strictly And so Bob and Wray Jean sold the house and the horse farm near Mount Airy and flew to California. They were met at the airport by two people who understood the trauma they must be feeling: Nick Clooney and his wife. Clooney had left his anchor post at Channel 12 to take a similar Job with an LA station. Now Clooney is back at Channel 12 where one of the station's reporters and weekend anchors is Braun's son, Rob.

"I have to be honest with you," Braun said. "When I first got here, emotionally I was really scrapln the floor. The thing that really helped me more than anything else was that I would tell somebody about the show I had in Cincinnati and they would say, 'Well, how long wu your show on the And I would say, 'Almost 18 And they'd break out laughing and say 'Be happy You set a record. Be proud of it Out here, 18 weeks Is wonderful'." One of Braun's first breaks came when he teamed up with real estate guru Tony Hoffman, who had appeared on Braun A Company in 1984. They created a radio show that became a 2-hour paid TV show, Everybody's Money Matters, last August The program Is beamed SEE 8RAUN2 By Tom Hopkins TELEVISION EDITOR LOS ANGELES Bob Braun and his family were relaxing In patio chairs beside the swimming pool.

He glanced up at the low mountains ringing the comfortably upscale community of Northridge. He glanced at his wife, Wray Jean. And he smiled. "I've been very fortunate," he said. "When I arrived in California, I wu In shock.

I didn't even have a Job." Braun, 56, hu a Job now several of them. In the short span of 21 months, the ex-Cincinnati television personality hu weathered the California culture shock and hu forged a new career for himself He co-hosts Everybody'sMoneyMatters a 2-hour program airing nightly on the Lifetime, BET and Tempo cable networks. He fronts Good Day, LA $. public service Interview show that airs two mornings a week on KTTV-TV, an Independent Los Angeles station. He makes frequent personal appearances, most recently hosting the Miss California Pageant in San Diegoon June 1 4.

And he'll front the Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon for an LA station. BHe does voiceovers and commercials, including national spots for Amltol Plus, a diet pill. He recently wu. featured on a Stevie Wonder video, Don 1 Drive Drunk playing the father of a teenage drunk driver. What brought Braun to LA in late 1984 was Channel 5's decision to cancel Braun A Company.

The landmark program, successor to Ruth Lyons' 50-50 Club, had been airing on TV stations in nine states. Everybody knew the viewing audience for the talk-variety program had been getting older over the years a situation deplored by TV advertising salesmen but vlewership numbers were still decent Braun recalls the day he wu called down to the executive offices at WLWT. "I thought I wu going down to get a raise," he said. Instead, they told him it wu over. "Their biggest complaint wu that the demographics of the show skewed old," he said.

"Sure, some of our viewers were over 50, but those people bought a lot of products. It's really tough to Justify losing a program that wu still No. 1 in Cincinnati and in the majority of the cities It wu playing In. I bad just moved the show to a UHF station (Channel 22) in Dayton and had moved it ahead of Channel 2 up there. To take the show off the Channel 5 bosses offered him another show at half the pay, he says.

It wu like relegating an all-star pitcher to the bullpen. "They wanted me to co-host the midday newsshow," Braun recalls. "Primarily, I would have been doing an Interview each day and commercials. I Just wun't interested in doing it I didn't think the people who had watched me over the years would accept me in that role. So the alternative I had wu to go somewhere." Braun A Company wu still on the air when Braun wu taught a bitter lesson.

"I wu set to come out to LA to appear on Santa Barbara and Days of Our Lives he recalls. "NBC wu flying me out here to California and giving me a suite at the Century Plaza and I wu to interview the stars of the ASSOCIATED PRESS Bob Braun relaxes at his LA residence with wife Wray Jean (L), daughter Melissa (R), son Doug (top L) and son's fiance, Lisa Huntly DON'T ITttSS IT ING.D! DON'T PREACH TO MADONNA See Story3 PHILHAflMONIC LANDS NEA GRANT Betty Dietz Krebs2 BETTY DIETZ KREBS2 AT THE MOVIES2 GORENON BRIDGE3 TV UPDATE4 RADIO HIGHLIGHTS4 THINGS TO DO TODAY4 i.