New Directions Volume 9 | Issue 1 Article 1 10-1-1981 WHMM-TV: Charting a New Course Harriet Jackson Scarupa Follow this and additional works at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections 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 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Directions by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Charting A New Course 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. NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1981 5 "Telecommunications is the single most important instrument for reaching and influencing a mass audience ~for helping billions of people in the world to under- stand 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.