WHMM-TV: Charting a New Course Harriet Jackson Scarupa

New Directions

Volume 9 | Issue 1 Article 1

10-1-1981 WHMM-TV: Charting a New Course Harriet Jackson Scarupa

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Recommended Citation Scarupa, Harriet Jackson (1981) "WHMM-TV: Charting a New Course," New Directions: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol9/iss1/1

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4 By Harriet Jackson Scarupa high school diploma ("General Education First Anniversary Development"). "Evening- Exchange" read the stylized let- Its exploration of the Black heritage "Evening Exchange" is the nightly public ters on the television screen. What follows comes through (or has come through) in affairs program of WHMM, the Howard are poignant images of Martin Luther King, such programs as "From Jumpstreet," University television station which will cel- Jr. peering through the bars of a Birming- "Afro-American Perspectives," "Africa File" ebrate its first anniversary this November ham jail, leading a civil rights march and "With Ossie and Ruby" as well as 17. WHMM, a member of the Public Broad- through Mississippi, receiving the Nobel through an array of specials, among them: casting Service (PBS), is the first non- Peace Prize, sharing a warm moment with "Divine Drumbeats: Katherine Dunham commercial public television station in the his family. These images are juxtaposed and Her People," a look at the pioneering continental United _States licensed to a with still others: a flickering candle placed dance r/ choreog raphe r/ anth ropolog ist; predominanrty Black college or university. against a red background, children in a "The Black Frontier," an examination of the It broadcasts daily from 3:30 p.m. to mid- nursery school singing ajoyous rendition of Black involvement in settling the West; night over Channel 32 on the UHF dial and "Happy Birthday to Ya," a panorama of the "Only the Ball was White," a retrospective can be picked up as far as Baltimore and intense faces of those who have come to on the menwho played baseball in the old parts of West Virginia. Washington thisJanuary 15 to demand that Negro leagues; and "A Bayou Legend," Last January 15's "Evening Exchange" the lawmakers declare King's birthday a William Grant Still's romantic opera set in program illustrates the unique role WHMM national holiday. the Deep South in the 1800s. has carved out for itself since it came on the The focus shifts back to the studio where ~Under the title "Reel One," a two-hour host Ann Sawyer interviews one of King's air. "Uppermost in our minds at all times," slot twice weekly is devoted to the works of footsoldiers,' the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, says general manager Arnold Wallace, "is independent producers, especially Black who speaks of the "systemic racism" that is addressing the problems and interests and ones who have trouble getting exposure for still crippling American society and of the needs of our largely minority viewership- their works on the major networks. "Real 'enduring validity of King's dream. Then the not only locally but nationally." Illustrative of One" is .also a showcase for a package of scene moves back to the march as partici- this mission: portions of WHMM's in-depth some 50 historic Black films acquired by pants explain why they have come out on coverage of the King birthday march were the station and considered one of the gems this cold snowy day. "I came to prove that picked up by the PBS and transmitted by of its library. These films include westerns, we are about unity," says one. "George satellite to stations across the country. musicals, documentaries and melodramas Washington and all of them have a legal In addition to "Evening Exchange," and number amongst their stars three of holiday. Why not King?" asks another. WHMM airs three other Howard-produced the _giants of Black theatrical history: Focusing back on the march, the programs: "Howard Perspectives," "Com- Canada Lee, Paul Robeson and Lena cameras linger on Martin Luther King, III as mon Cents" and "Student Video Profile." Horne. "The thing that's fascinating to me," he calls out, "Daddy used to say we've got The balance of its programming comes Killion remarks, "is that Black people were to live as brothers or [we'll] perish as fools," from a wide range of sources, among them doing films in the '30s and '40s and they're to the Rev. Jesse Jackson as he once again educational television distributors, inde- not being shown on television. Showing leads a crowd in a rhythmic" I am some- pendent producers and the PBS. them is a service we can provide, a piece of body" chant, to Stevie Wonder, organizer of * In general, the station's programming history people will not be able to get any- the march, as he describes King as a "man Ireflects "our awesome responsibility to where else." for all seasons," a man whose vibrant mes- provide insight into the Black experience," The Black perspective also comes sage was of "peace, love, basic human says director of programming Avon Killion. through, of course, in the programs WHMM freedom." "But we're also here to provide information produces "in house." It is these programs More studio interviews follow, more vi- -and stimulus to all the people in our cover- that perhaps most clearly show the mark of gnettes of the march and then the host age area, and they are very diverse." the station's budding personality. reads a statement about Howard University WHMM's regularly scheduled offerings endorsing the movement to make King's- include or have included programs for Local Programs birthday a national holiday, adding "the children ("Electric Company," "Vegetable struggle goes beyond a birthday celebra- Soup," Mundo Real"); programs dealing "Evening Exchange," a nightly half-hour tion." With that, the program signs off. But with science C'Nova," "Cosmos"); music public affairs program, is considered the not before projecting one final image: ("The Minor Key"); dance ("Dance Connec- station's flagship. The host, Ann Sawyer, Marchers, bundled up against the cold and tion"); humor ("Celebrity Revue"); public af- was already familiar to Washington area bedecked in snowflakes, singing "We Shall fairs ("MacNeil/Lehrer Report"); parenting audiences through her work as a WRC-TV Overcome." " ("Tomorrow's Families"); even earning a reporter and weekend anchor.

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"Telecommunications is the single most important instrument for reaching and influencing a mass audience ~for helping billions of people in the world to understand the lessons of the past, to cope with the challenges and difficulties of the present, and to contemplate what kind of future they and generations to come will inherit. " James E. Cheek.

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 6 "The program reflects the concerns, is- serves as a showcase for the talent and well-received shows, for instance, featured sues and feelings that are prevalent in the expertise of the Howard faculty. It is hosted Peery talking about the birth of stars and Washington, D.C. metropolitan commu- by Edward Hawthorne, dean of the atoms. In such a program, Hawthorne nity," explains Francis Ward, "Evening Ex- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and readily admits, there's also a "subliminal change" acting executive producer. "I associate dean Johnetta Davis. message." It shows Black youngsters that there's no reason Black people can't be don't know of any other UHF or public sta- Typical programs have included artist tions which do a show like this which is astrophysicists too. Starmanda Bullock speaking on "Blacks in aimed predominantly at a Black audience." the Arts," astrophysicist Benjamin Peeryon Preparation for "Howard perspectives" Some programs have featured news- "Elements and the Stars," economists adds up to "a formidable amount-of work," makers discussing topical subjects: e.g., Cleveland Chandler and Frank Davis on Hawthorne has found. Yet he has few re- Congressman Walter Fauntroy on the Rea- "The Economics of Poverty," religious grets. "I guess we get the most out of it gan election; D.C. City Council member scholar Lawrence Jones on "Plato and the [working on the program] because we get David Clarke on the District of Columbia's Modern World," sports historian Marshall to read so much and meet so many people gun control law; Deborah Marshall of the Banks on "History of the Black Athlete in and learn so much. It's fantastic!" As his Prince Georges (Md.) County Council on America" and Africanists Robert Cum- enthusiasm reveals, he certainly does not the growing political power of Blacks in the mings and Bereket Habte Selassie on count himself amongst those intellectuals county; Ali Houderi, spokesman for the Li- "Conflict and Intervention in the Horn of who look down their noses at television. "I byan government, on his country's rela- Africa." think it's our responsibility to use the mass tions with the U. S. and its Arab neighbors; media for intellectual purposes and be- Bishop Desmond Tutu, general secretary of Educating the public come acquainted with it because our job of the South African Council of Churches, on education is becoming so vast that we're South Africa's race policies. Other pro- Explains Hawthorne, "We're trying to really not going to be able to deal with it any grams have provided a forum for a wide educate the public about what goes on in a other way." range of people-some well-known, some major university and to give people some Reggie Wright, "Howard Perspectives" not-who have important interests or con- understanding that Howard is a major uni- producer, says he picked Hawthorne and cerns to share whether they have to do with versity - with professors, students and Davis to co-host the show because of "their the arts or welfare, crime or sports, careers staff who cover a broad spectrum of sub- knowledge of the university and because or religion. ject matter areas and with a major corpo- they had the time and energy to devote to One of its most appealing programs was rate type of structure." the program." But there may be more to his its February 3 interview with Ossie Davis decision than that. Television, of course, is In addition to communicating to the pub- and Ruby Dee on the inauguration of "With a visual medium and the image Hawthorne lic that Howard is far more than a few indi- Ossie and Ruby" over the PBS network. projects, as he sits in his wheelchair and vidual academic stars, "Howard Perspec- Relaxing on the gold sofa on the "Evening shares his intellectual curiosity of a wealth tives" aims to do just what its name says: to Exchange" set, the two spoke with Sawyer of subjects, seems to hold a special sym- provide the perspective of faculty mem- about their lives and work. At one point, the bolism. He seems to be reminding us .all bers on a wide range of subjects. "While we conversation paused for Ruby Dee to read that there need be no fetters on the power don't come out and say we're Black," Langston Hughes' prophetic poem about and range of the mind. Hawthorne observes, "it's clear that our "a dream deferred." At another point, a vid- If, in one sense, "Howard Perspectives" perspective encompasses all those things eotaped scene from the PBS series was that Black people are concerned with. We can be said to deal with the realm of the shown featuring her and Kevin Hooks in a mind, "Common Cents" can be seen to would likely concentrate in economics, say, dramatization of a Langston Hughes short deal with the realm of the pocketbook. A on the economics of poverty as opposed to story, one with a still-compelling message weekly half-hour consumerism show, what the Kemp-Roth bill would do to the about the need for bonds of love and re- "Common Cents" seeks to respond to eco- rate of income tax. Yet we can talk about spect between generations. And, near the that, too." [The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. nomics in a very personal and practical end of the interview, Ossie Davis brought way Its format consists of in-studio inter- Jack Kemp (R-N.Y) and Rep. William Roth home another message, a message that (R-Del.) put forth a 10 percent tax cut over views with host Maggie Linton mixed with has a lot to do with the why of WHMM: "We occasional film clips, skits and graphic three successive years.] [Black people] have to be in control of our aids. media." The program also serves as an outlet for Defining consumerism in broad terms, it "Howard Perspectives" is a weekly half- the specific academic concerns of indi- offers tips on everything from prenatal care hour videotaped interview program which vidual faculty members. Two of its most to investment strategies. Specific pro-

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 7

Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee with "Evening Exchange" host.

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 8 grams have covered how to plan a budget, about the achievement of Blacks - about get and use credit, fill out income tax forms, Blacks in the arts, Black history, Black edu- Positive Image obtain student financial aid, start a small cation .... We've interviewed people like business, prolong a car's life, stretch the Alex Haley, Melba Moore, Dick Gregory, The debut of WHMM last November was food dollar, weatherize a house. Sugar Ray Leonard." warmly welcomed by a public starved for Observes "Common Cents" producer comprehensive, relevant, realistic and pos- Tredessa Dalton, "I try to gear the show to Roving Camera itive television fare about the Black experi- the specific needs of Black people be- ence, a public fed up with seeing the rich- A program aired last spring, for instance, cause even in something as cut-and-dried ness of a people reduced to the likenesses opened with a pulsating jazz score and a as consumerism there are special things projected in a "Good Times" or a "Sanford bright hello from host Robin Harmon (who Black people have to consider. The infant and Son." Editorialized The Hilltop, the was later named Miss Maryland, the first mortality rate in D.C. is a Black' problem. Howard University student newspaper: Black woman ever chosen to represent the People not using their money wisely is a "For years we have complained that we state in the Miss America pageant). The universal problem but it hits Black people have had inadequate representation in the program's first sequence was a regularfea- especially hard. Most Black parents don't media. At last, here is our chance to let the ture: interviews with Howard students. The have enough money to say, 'Here, go to world know that Black people are more question asked this time: "What are the school,' so trying to get financial aid is a than clowns and buffoons. Black people major problems facing the Black commu- special concern for Black families. Not hav- are thinking, well-rounded individuals .... nity and what are your solutions for solvinq ing enough businesses is a special prob- they can even mastermind the develop- these problems?" Some of those answer- lem of Black communities." ment of a television station." ing were assured, others self-conscious. Consumerism and money management It's been a development marked by diffi- But the overall impression left With the are topics that hold personal as well as culties on many fronts, by never-ending viewer was that Howard was a place that professional interest for her. "Things relat- challenges and, ultimately, by a glow of attracted bright young people who cared, ing to spending money just burn me up," optimism about what the station is doing, cared deeply, about the future of Black folk she admits. "I see how Black people get can do and will do. To begin: in this country. ripped off. I see how you go into a super- "When Dr. [James E.] Cheek came to Howard in 1969 one of the things he felt this market in a Black community and there's The program then moved to a col- university most needed was a program in less available and the store even looks less loquium at Folger Shakespeare Library on mass media communications," recalls appealing than in that same brand of education in segregated Washington, D.C. Owen Nichols, the Howard vice president supermarket in a white community. That's in which old-timers talked about the dedi- whose office is responsible for overseeing the kind of thing I really want to look at here cation shown by so many teachers in the WHMM's operation. "So he set out to de- [on "Common Cents"]. city's all-Black schools in the past. For a velop a program to give our students op- "Common Cents," "Howard Perspec- change of pace, it ended with a story on a portunities to learn the skills they would tives" and "Evening Exchange" all utilize sports award dinner at Howard. student interns in various capacities but need to work in the mass media." they are produced by experienced broad- Overall, as the station carves out its own In February 1972, the School of Commu- cast professionals. "Student Video Profile," niche, it looks to the day when it will be nications opened, offering courses of in contrast, is entirely a student venture. covering local community meetings, theat- study in journalism; ~adio, television and For most students, working on the program rical productions, sports, even breaking film; and communications arts and SCI- constitutes an independent study class of- news. It looks to the day when it can send a ences. But the school was just one part of fered through the School of Communica- crew to Africa or the Caribbean to provide the communications package envisioned tions. the type of coverage of people - not just by President Cheek. Also planned were a "The main purpose of the program," says governments-that is often lacking on the radio station and a television station. The Roger Daniel, instructor for the class, "is to major networks. It looks to the day when It aims of the two were (and are) similar: 1) to give WHMM a student-produced television can produce specials regularly instead of serve as broadcast training laboratories for program. 'Student Video Profile' represents occasionally. It looks to the day when it can Howard students and 2) to meet the needs a culmination of all the training radio- provide graduate courses (for credit) of the community, especially ·the Black television students have received and taught by Howard faculty-via television-:- community, by providing education, infor- gives them an opportunity to exercise that and beam them across the country and In mation, entertainment and - most impor- training on real television." other parts of the world. tantly - a far more balanced view of the Daniel says he likes to think of the. pro- Black experience than that usually preva- gram as "a cultural awareness show." "It's But all that is in the future. lent over the airwaves.

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Studio supervisor Dottie Green instructing students.

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 10 In December 1971, WHUR-FM, a gift The $4 million facility (not including equip- tion returned to full power following the in- from the Washington Post-Newsweek ment), which will be shared with the School stallation of a new permanent antenna. of Communications, is tentatively slated Company, went on the air. This, the univer- Something else the station has found irk- to open this month. According to Watkins, sity's commercial radio station, has some is the fact that its programs are not the facility reflects President Cheek's man- evolved into one of the most successful in listed (as of this writing) in the daily televi- date that the university have a "state of the the Washington metropolitan area. And in sion grid published in The WaShington Post art" television station. "State of the art," he January 1974, the university applied to the (though they are listed in the TV guide in- explains, "means the very latest in technol- Federal Communications Commission serted in the Sunday paper). Nor were ogy and that's good engineering judgment (FCC) for a license to operate an edu- WHMM's programs included in the daily because we're not going to be buying new cational (non-commercial) television sta- grid of The Washington Star before the equipment every year. You buy something tion. On June 25, 1974, the FCC granted paper folded last August. The two news- that's obsolete today and 10 years down the university permission to construct the papers claimed there was no way they the road it's going to be antique." station and the next fall President Cheek could fit another station into the design of appointed a task force to work out details of In addition to the sheer magnitude of the the grids. They also raised questions about the venture. The task force was chaired by task of building a station from scratch, WHMM's eligibility for a listing anyway be- Nichols and included representatives from WHMM's debut was delayed by problems cause they said the station had been on the President Cheek's office, the School of with the delivery of equipment and, most air too short a time, offered too few hours of Communications and WHUR. There were importantly, by what Nichols describes as programming a day (though it has ex- to be six extensions of the FCC permit be- "setbacks in the availability of funds. As a panded from 4 to 8V2 hours), had too small fore WHMM finally went on the air. result, we were not able to staff the station an audience (though they hadn't measured The reasons for the long wait were vari- by the time we wanted." it) and was too duplicative of other PBS ous. A suitable tower site had to be found stations in the WaShington area (though Even on the eve of the station's antic- for the station's antenna. Once it was lo- WHMM's studies refute this). ipated debut, there seemed difficulties cated (on River Road in Bethesda, Md.), When informed over the phone that aplenty. WHMM's first general manager, leases had to be negotiated. A structural some speculated racism might have some- George Foster, was let go at the end of analysis had to be conducted to ensure thing to do with WHMM's omission from the September, less than two months before that the tower was strong enough to sup- grid, a Washington television columnist the station went on the air, and his dis- port the antenna. A transmitter room had to bristled, "That's ridiculous. The major fact missal raised more than a few questions be built near the tower. A new on-campus was that the grid was in place and de- around town. As the November 17 dead- building to house the station had to be con- signed before you [WHMM] were on the air. line approached, some staff members wor- structed. Its first home, however, was in a I resent any suggestion that racism is be- space in the WHUR building-a space that ried that the station still wasn't ready. But hind it." Then he added a rejoinder that the station went on the air as planned and a first had to be cleaned out and outfitted seemed more illuminating than any of his congratulatory crowd of Howardites and with equipment. previous words: "If you're going to talk others gathered in the Armour J. Blackburn Most remarkable to many: all the wiring, racism, why not talk about all that anti-white University Center to witness its birth. connectors and equipment installation was stuff in some of the programming? But done by Howard students working under Before the exhilaration of November 17 that's something else. I don't want to go into the supervision of Jim Watkins, formerly had died down, though, the station was hit it." chief engineer for WHUR and now with an unexpected crisis. On December 5, That a writer on one of the nation's major WHMM's director of operations and en- it began to lose power when a design flaw newspapers, and a self-consciously liberal gineering. Recalls Ronald Wauls, one of caused its prototype antenna to burn up, one at that, can equate WHMM's commit- the students involved, "No one believed, forcing WHMM to go off the air for 10 days. ment to exploring the nuances of the Black number one, that we were really going to The antenna was sent back to the factory in experience with being "anti-white" says have a TV station and, number two, that California for examination and replace- much about the hard battle ahead for How- that TV station was going to be built by a ment, a temporary antenna installed in its ard's infant television station. 'bunch of kids.' But we proved the doubters place. But whereas the original antenna wrong." provided the station with five million watts Meanwhile, planning was underway for of power, its temporary replacement could WHMM Achievements the new four-studio headquarters for the carry a mere fraction of that, reducing the station to be built in the Freedman's Square station's coverage area to just inside the A recital of the woes that have befallen the Complex (again with student involvement). Capital beltway. On August 14, the sta- station - both before and since it went on

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 11

H M

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 12 the air - can present a false picture. The of Medicine sat in WHMM's studio and on June 1, are linked from Howard's studio fact is that in its brief history, WHMM can responded to questions about sickle cell via satellite to the network's 100 affiliates point to some very measurable achieve- anemia posed by doctors and aca- throughout the U. S. ments. Some samples: demicians in Nairobi, Kenya. A special Such are some of the landmarks in • Several programs originally aired on satellite hookup enabled the exchange to WHMM's first year of operation. During this WHMM's "Evening Exchange" program be broadcast in Nairobi and on WHMM. period, the station has seen its share of were broadcast nationally via the PBS Daily The telecast was used to demonstrate the controversy as well. Exchange Feed (DEF). In addition to the type of academic linkages made possible King birthday march, these included through current telecommunications tech- Its opening night schedule included a coverage of Vernon Jordan's "State of nology and was featured at a World Con- travelogue about Barbados that seemed Black America" speech at Howard, the gress on Black Communication held in so deferential to the Oueen of England eleventh Congressional Black Caucus Nairobi July 26-31 co-sponsored by the some viewers complained that it seemed to Legislative Weekend and interviews with University of Nairobi's School of Journalism be promoting the "grand" old days of the Tyrone Brown, former FCC commissioner, and Howard's School of Communications. British Empire (The film, which had been and Atilio Vieytez, minister of planning in EI Also telecast that night: a more generalized provided by the Embassy of Barbados, Salvador. panel discussion at the conference on was a last-minute choice when other an- • At the end of January, the station ac- mass media technology led by WHMM ticipated Caribbean films failed to mate- quired a satellite earth station - a 12-foot general manager Arnold Wallace. rialize, Killion explains.) Among still other developments in dish antenna-which enabled it to pick up Then there was the matter of adding WHMM's first year (as of this mid-summer programs, including live broadcasts, William F Buckley's "Firing Line" to the writing): emanating from PBS Westar satellite. Pre- WHMM programming schedule (in April). "I viously, WHMM could only use prere- • The station received an award from thought it might bring some balance to the corded programs from the PBS. the Washington Association for Television programming," Wallace says. "I thought it • In mid-March, the station expanded and Children (WATCH) for its "service to the would be interesting to do that. Buckley its broadcast day from four to eight hours young people of the Washington area." has some things to say and I think we can and by June it added still another half hour, • It formed a Community Advisory see all sides of the coin." makin'g it eligible for a PBS Community Board, as required by the Public Telecom- Services Grant. munications Financing Act of 1978, to re- But the fact that WHMM has voluntarily • Also, in March, WHMM broadcast ex- view programming, policies and service in provided additional exposure for Buckley's clusive live coverage, via satellite, of the order to help the station best meet commu- conservative views is anathema to some. Howard-Wyoming NCAA basketball nity needs. Observes Ronald Walters, the of ten- playoff from Los Angeles. Other firsts of • It held its first fund raiser, an on-air art outspoken Howard political scientist, special interest to members of the Howard auction with art works donated by Wash- "What Buckley adds to the destination of community were the station's live coverage ington artists, earning $11 ,000 in a 14-hour Black people I fail to see. Yeah, you could of the Charter Day Convocation on March period last June. Then on August 31, it say it ["Firing Line"] adds balance to the 2, of Commencement on May 9 and of the concluded its first week-long on-air mem- programming. But airing it raises questions opening Convocation on September 25. bership drive, resulting in 1,700 member- about what the goal of the station is. Is it simply to copy what exists on other stations • A student crew journeyed to Atlanta ship pledges totalling $47,176. or is it to strive for Black excellence?" last spring to shoot extensive footage on • It announced that several cable com- the impact the child murders were having panies in the Washington area, among Ouestions of another sort were raised by on the Black community. Some of this foot- them Colonial Cablevision, serving Anne the station's coverage of commencement age was incorporated into an hour-long Arundel (Md.) County, and Washington last May. For about two hours, cameras special aired on "Evening Exchange" May Cable System, serving southwest D.C., focused on commencement speaker 20, "Who is Killing the Black Children of plan to carry WHMM over their systems. George Bush, on students and dignitaries Atlanta?" Four other cable companies in the station's in the audience, on the choir-on the pro- • Reaching beyond the national general coverage area may also carry cessional, on the bestowal of decrees. But boundaries, on July 28, the station spon- WHMM's programs in the future. they never focused on a small but vocal sored its first international teleconference. • It let the National Spanish Television group of demonstrators protesting the Howard doctors Roland Scott and Carl Network use its facilities to produce live, selection of Bush as commencement Reindorf of the Center for Sickle Cell Dis- half-hour newscasts five nights a week. speaker and the general policies of the ease and Dean Russell Miller of the College The pioneering telecasts, which premiered Reagan administration. According to Wallace, there was no con- 13 scious decision to ignore the demonstrators. "Our shots were preset to a certain extent," he says. "We didn't have the equipment to cover the demonstration. Logistically, it just wasn't possible. As for offering another side to the Bush point of view," he adds, "I think we did very well with Professor Cummings who spent a lengthy time responding to Bush." [This was a ref- erence to an in-studio interview with Robert Cummings, director of Howard's African Studies and Research Program.] There have been other controversies in the station's early life. And undoubtedly there will be others. That doesn't bother the station's director of programming one iota. "I am in favor of controversy," Killion de- clares. "I hope some of the things we airwill anger our viewers to the point they will call or will write nasty letters because I think one of the things we can do for people is provoke thinking on issues." And to those who might wonder if the whole television station isn't just an expen- sive frill the university can ill afford at this time, Owen Nichols, giving the administration's viewpoint, offers a resounding "not so." ,'I "What we're spending now is really not . very much," he says.[About $3 million a year, according to Wallace.] "A great deal of money was spent in the development of the station. But within a very short period of time the television station will be self- sustaining. We eventually will produce materials that can be sold to other stations, networks, institutions, what have you. We'll even have our own professional recording studio as part of our new facilities and this will bring in revenue. There's also a great deal of money available to us from various government sources and from founda- tions." Nor does Nichols feel other parts of the university will be neglected because of the station. "As a matter of fact," he argues, "it is my firm belief that there are many programs that will benefit directly from our es- tablishment of the television station-e.g., fine arts, business, communications. In

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 14 fact, the entire educational programs of the institution will be enhanced. We envision so-called electronic teaching originating in our television station where we would eventually syndicate such teaching materials to cable networks, to various cities across this country - if not across the world." Nichols offers another reason why WHMM should never be considered a frill: "The opportunities in mass media communications are so great that it is a travesty for Black people and other minorities not to be able to take advantage of them. Certainly television at Howard University opens doors to our people that were heretofore closed." And that's where another side of WHMM's mission comes in: providing opportunities for students, particularly Black students, to gain the skills necessary to move into the influential, demanding, com- petitive, often exhilarating world of telecommunications. As President Cheek remarked on "Eve- ning Exchange" during the station's inau- gural, "Telecommunications is the single most important instrument for reaching and influencing a mass audience-for helping billions of people in the world to understand the lessons of the past, to cope with the challenges and difficulties of the present, and to contemplate what kind of future they and generations to come will inherit."

Training Program

About 50 students work at the station each semester. Thirty of them are interns who earn academic credit and receive a stipend for their labors. The remainder are volunteers. "Students are involved in just about every area of the station's operation," explains Jim Brown, director of student/staff affairs for WHMM. "That includes management, programming, production, engineering, public relations, community relations, traffic - everything there is that makes the station work." In fact, he admits, without students, "we would be under strain."

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 15

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NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 .:. "The principal purpose of our training must attend classes on tile theory and op- Her experience and viewpoint is similar 17 program," he goes on, "is to give the stu- eration of that piece of equipment and pass to that of others on the WHMM staff. They dent the opportunity to combine theory with a written and demonstrative test. number about 40 altogether. They're young practice in order to prepare him to move "Our training program discourages stu- (generally in their thirties), but experi- from here into the industry. Whether the dents from narrow specialization," explains enced. Describing his colleagues, Jim student decides to form his own company Brown. "If a student wants to be a producer, Brown says, "They got in the field young or form a support unit to a station or just try for example, before he would actually work and they were able to deal with a lot of the to get a job in a station, he'll haveski//s that with a producer, he would work with the indignities that the industry places on a have been tested and developed." production manager learning everything Black person and understand what that Most of the students who work at WHMM that needs to be done in putting together a means. So when they come here they're not are enrolled in the School of Communica- program. In other words, he must under- only coming with skills but also with a deep tions; others are in the School of Engineer- stand all the immediate things that impact sense of commitment to what we [at ing; a few others came from other divisions the work he wants to do. Part of our whole WHMM] are all about." 0 of the university thing is that students must get broad train- Communications student Charmayne ing. We're not just teaching them how to do Cooke, for instance, worked at the station a job, but how to develop a career." last spring but has been interested in a Discipline is an essential component of television career ever since she recog- WHMM's training. "We don't treat students nized that "radio and television were reach- like 'students," insists Jim Watkins, "and ing more people than books and maga- the reason is that we're supposed to offer zines." She's especially interested in "the them a real world experience. In my de- visual aspects of production," she says, partment, if a student doesn't show up because she wants to be able to "put out twice, he's no longer allowed to work in the positive images about various people and station. He's shown he lacks the dedicaton various events that have to deal with us." that is necessary to make this business Engineering student Ronald Wauls had run." never thought of broadcast engineering as Learning to cope with stress is another a possible career until he learned about a essential. "We can't babysit here," says TV club Jim Watkins had organized. He Dottie Green, a studio supervisor for joined the club, was involved in construct- WHMM who was one of the first Black ing WHMM's first facilities and now works women licensed as a broadcast engineer part-time for the station. "I've found broad- by the FCC. "To make it in this business you cast engineering to be an interesting field, have to have more than skills. You've got to one that's allowed me a lot of room to ex- have the backbone to handle stress. I'm pand in any direction," he observes. hoping students here will have the whole "Another thing: there are very few Black package to survive." engineers in broadcasting. That's another Green is speaking from personal experi- reason that made me stick with it as long. It ence. She is a former broadcast engineer wasn't until December that I finally re- for the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia and also ceived a salary. All the time I put in before has worked for television stations in Tampa, was because I wanted to help." St. Petersburg and Hartford. Along the way, *Generally, student interns first attend she learned to survive in the stressful world Saturday afternoon orientation sessions of television, a world that was (and still is) which give them an overview of the opera- dominated by white image makers. Now tion of the station and familiarize them with she's come back to Howard to share what the equipment and terminology it uses. she's learned with young Black people who They are then instructed in specific opera- will be fanning out across the country to tions such as videotape, camera, lighting, make their own impacts on the industry. audio, master control, telecine. Before they And it feels good. "When I was at CBS I can operate any piece of equipment, never said 'we.' she remarks. "Ever since though, they must be certified, i.e., they I've been here I've felt part of the whole."

NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981