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A. Thank you. Good evening I'm Pete Sonny executive producer of Public Affairs a WHCA
TV here in Madison. I'm speaking to you tonight from Studio way of WHDH TV extension telecommunications center in violence hall the new home of both radio and television. Well tonight is a very special night because hundreds of friends and supporters of radio and television have gathered here tonight to dedicate our new home to inaugurate the 100000 or more square feet of communication and education facilities encompassing four television studios the largest of which holds tonight's banquet and dedication ceremonies as well as other facilities technical supportive and administrative offices that house some of the industry's most modern and exciting electronic artistic and cinna graphic advances. And I might add some of the most talented and exciting people around to help make those gadgets work for you. This dedicatory weekend has been marked by tours of both radio and television and the tours
will continue tomorrow. But tonight a very special banquet and ceremony will officially mark a milestone in service record a record the traces all the way back to the origins of broadcasting itself. The master of ceremonies for tonight's program is Mr. Ron Bornstein director of radio and television. Mr. Borenstein. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'm Ron Borenstein director of radio and television for the VHA. I want to welcome and thank all of you for being with us today on the occasion of the dedication of our WAGA radio and television facilities in the violence communication home. As you can well understand we look forward to this day for a long long time. It's a day of great celebration and joy for those of us w ha. It's also a time for looking back and honoring those people who made this great facility possible some years ago and I consider this dedication day I thought that the introductory remarks might most appropriately be entitled In spite of.
For there are many dark moments and untold cliffhanger situations that really seemed insurmountable and it seemed that if the violence hoher ever completed it would be in spite of all of those things. Today perhaps because of the blush of the occasion or a genuine genuine and general mellowing it seems to me that the appropriate and certainly more positive theme for these comments should really be because of sports truly because of people like yourself. Friends listeners viewers alumni legislators that we're here today is because of your faith and your commitment that the university and state are really blessed with one of the great communications facilities in this country. One of the most difficult and certainly perplexing responsibilities of any master of ceremonies is to introduce the people who made this facility in dedication possible. Let me at least provide you with some idea by first introducing the Distinguished ladies and gentleman at the head
table at my extreme left Dr. Luke F. lam the dean of educational communications for the University of Wisconsin Extension and chairman of the educational communications board next. This is AJ Hancock. Mr. James Robertson former director of radio and television for WAGA and now director of national educational radio for the National Association of educational broadcasters. Mrs. Luke Ephram Mr. A.J. Hancock president of the friends of channel 21 Mrs. James Robertson Dr. Donald R. McNeil former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Extension and now chancellor of the University of Maine. Mrs. age Edwin young Dr. George brother vice chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Extension Dr. H Edwin young chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mr. O'Donnell Taverner president and general manager of W e t a radio and television Washington DC. This is George brother and to my right Mrs
Fred Habermann. Mr William Harley president of the National Association of educational broadcasters. My wife Lorraine Borenstein Professor Fred Habermann chairman of the Majlis hall building committee Mrs. Gerald Martel professor Harold McCarty former director of radio and television. Professor Hazel Albertson a professor heralding the former assistant director of WHCA radio and television Mrs. Harold McCarty. Mr. Gerald Martel. Mrs. Harold Engle and Mr. John Price director of Citizens Services for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I know that these ladies and gentleman would agree with me that there is symbolic because in truth they represent so many others and in truth you are all members of the head table. At the risk of the sin and sin of omission I like to recognize others and ask them to stand because of their contributions because of once again. And I'd like to also
introduce a number of special guests at the conclusion of these introductions I hope you will join me in applauding their efforts and their presence here tonight. First an individual whose ability and talent is great very graphically illustrated in the violence Hall an architect in a designer who cared. Mr. Tom this lad associates in Madison. Tom where are you. He's here. There you are. Next there are two gentlemen in our Central Administration facilities planning and development. You spend so very much time on violence all that we seriously considered naming them honorary staff members of w ha. Vice President Wallace Lemon who cannot be with us this evening and assistant vice president Warren XO W.H. exists in very fine company in the violence all our fellow tenants are the Madison Department of Communication Arts and the School of Journalism and Mass
Communications representing those departments here tonight our professor Charles Sherman associate chairman of the department Communication Arts and Professor James Paz DICOM School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Jim are you. I know that Professor Sherman and Fosdike join me in very gratefully recognizing a member of the violence trust estate Mr. Walter from. Representing the educational communications board of our state we're pleased to have executive director Tony mon and board member Mrs Doris already over here. We're very honored to have a long time friend and member of the legislature with us tonight. The speaker of the assembly the honorable Norman Anderson. Speaking of long time friends there are several groups in our state who illustrated great and continuing support over the years. The former state radio listeners now the Wisconsin friends of
public broadcasting represented tonight by President Mrs. Betty ice and Dr.. And the Wisconsin Association for Better broadcast represented by executive secretary Dr. Leslie Spence and an organization's radio voice Mrs. Jessie Hill McCants. From Washington D.C. We're very honored to have our distinguished communications Council Mr. Daniel Toohey of the law firm of Dol lowness an Albertson. The director of radio activities for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Mr. Tom Warnock. A WHV alumnus and now director of special projects for the Public Broadcasting Service. Mr. George Snyder wind. From Chicago another WHCA alumni Mr. Tom Rogan burg of a central Educational Network. Tom I'm from New York City. We're delighted to have Mr. Moreno pick a broadcasting pioneer and one of the founding
fathers of the National Association of educational broadcasters Maureen. Being a native son of the state of Michigan I'm pleased to be joined tonight by three fine Michiganders first Mr. Ed Wheeler executive vice president of the Evening News Association owners of the Detroit News and W. W. J AM FM and TV. Mr. Dick is still the general manager of W. K. R. East Lansing and chairman of the board of National Public Radio and Mr. Tom coats director of television for the University of Michigan provided us with valuable assistance and consultation. Special thanks tonight to to Mr. Harrell Dorothy Satterfield Tektronix who very generously provided the handsome dedication souvenirs to WHCA radio and television technical director Don Don. Social director for radio Ralph Johnson and WAGA TV assistant
general manager Tony Tiana. Last but certainly not least goes my personal gratitude and admiration to one of the great professional staffs in this country the men and women of WAGA radio and television. We thank you and we applaud you for your past and continuing efforts in our behalf. Thanks. Thank you. There are many friends in a long time who could not be with us this evening this may seem hard to believe as illustrated by this letter from Mr. and Mrs. Axel Sutter of Emery Wisconsin. This is one of many received in the past several weeks and Mr. and Mrs. Sutter said Dear friends for years we have enjoyed listening to that broadcast from Madison for 23 years we lived it Colfax. You were there when that station was started the retirement
date came in one thousand sixty one. And we don't feel physically or financially able to take part in the big dinner. Thank you for the invitation. This is to let you know we are interested and we hope a lot of people will come and have a good get together. Sincerely yours Mr. and Mrs. Axel Sutter and we thank you for your very good wishes Mr. Mrs. Sutter. We do have a lot of people here tonight and we're very happy that you can share in our get together through the broadcast of this occasion over the Wisconsin educational radio network and indeed we hope that all of our listeners and viewers have the opportunity to visit the violet's hall because it is your facility. In a fourth measure of success for any structure such as the violence Hall is the ability of the chairman of the faculty building committee. I'm sure that you'd agree as you look around you that we had a chairman of outstanding ability a man who had the foresight and the leadership to guide
this building to reality. The chairman of the violence hall building committee. Professor Fred Tabor. Thank you Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentleman. The name of this building is vile as communication hall the occupants of this building and the university itself are very proud of that name. Let us take the last word first. HALL I can assure you that the three occupants of this building the School of Journalism and Mass Communication the Department of Communication Arts W H A and W H A TV are positively ecstatic to have this hall. This building this place to Holles our staff our students our facilities our research projects our broadcasting activities take the second word the word communication. This is a word also that we are
very proud of for this word encapsulates the job the missions of the three agencies occupants of the building. At dedicatory ceremonies this afternoon Howard McCarty called Communication man supreme achievement. We are dedicated to making yet man's supreme achievement. And now the first word violence we are proud to honor the name of William Freeman a vile us in the name of this building in the first place. It is appropriate that we should name the building for him. He was not only a lawyer businessman lumbermen law professor regent of the University of Wisconsin a cabinet member in both Grover Cleveland's cabinets senator of
the United States government. He was also one of the great orators of America in the last two decades of the 19th century and perhaps along with Robert M. le Follet Jr. Sr. one of the two. A great lawyer a great speakers turned out by our state and in the second place we are proud to name this building for him and in his honor because we are grateful to him. Through his present day executors the trustees of the violet's estate for the magnificent gift which they gave us of one million one hundred eighty six thousand dollars for the construction of this building. You know occasionally in the affairs of man one act coming on top of many other completed acts makes the difference between success and failure.
And here is an instance. The state of Wisconsin handsomely supported our request for the building of this structure in two separate and very generous appropriations. The federal government also supported us with a generous appropriation. But when on one bleak Thursday morning in September of 969 we met in the basement of the state office building on Wilson Street to open up the bids. We found that upon adding them all together we were one million one hundred eighty six thousand dollars shy of being able to construct a building. What to do. We had long since worn out our welcome in the legislature. Not even Mr Norman Anderson could help us any longer.
There was no help for it but to go for private funds and that we had to achieve in a hurry. So many of our administrators gathered together in a council of war. We went through all the possibilities we canvassed them all we thought and one by one we discarded them all. And then I suggested rather hesitantly and somewhat apologetically perhaps we could go to the violence trustees. Now I say hesitantly and somewhat apologetically because on two previously previous occasions I had also suggested that we go to the violence trustees in order to say from deletion in this building a theatre lecture facility on both those occasions the idea was rejected. But this time necessity proved a dire need indeed. And President Fred
Harrington deputized Vice President Robert Clodius and Chancellor Edwin young to discuss the matter with the violet's trustees. Now I need to. Needless to say both Ed Young and Bob Claudius were brilliantly persuasive and needless to say the violence trustees recognized a sound proposition when they saw the. Truth always prevail. And so one week after they gave us a million one hundred eighty six thousand dollars there was a bulldozer on the site of what is now Studio C where we met prior to going into this room. Three years later we moved into this building and tonight we gratefully recall the generous act of the trustees of the violence estate and we gratefully recall
the memory of William Freeman's violence whose vision in 1906 when he did his will was such that in 1973 he could contribute so significantly to the building and construction of this noble edifice. Thank you. Thank you thank you very much for an excellence and quality of WHCA is really directly related to the public service commitment of the University of Wisconsin Extension. It's my pleasure to introduce a gentleman that provided great leadership and support to the development of w ha the vice chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Extension Dr. George Struther. Thank you.
I don't know how many of you have ever given the commencement address at Saxon high school in northern Wisconsin. But it reminds me a little of this event in the sense that I see on the speakers list about 11 people and I remember giving the Saxon high school commencement address some 15 or 16 years ago all the graduating class consisted of 16 people and every one of them perform. Well. We're somewhat in that same situation. I wish we could recapture some of the brilliance of that one occasion that I remember in connection with carnal violence in which Colonel violinists and Mark Twain and Chauncey Depew and a great number of the most brilliant speakers of their days gathered on at a banquet and spoke. And I'm afraid for myself at least that this will not have the brilliance of that banquet that I wish we could have the spirit of Colonel violence and Chauncey Depew
Program
The Vilas Communication Hall Dedication Dinner. Part 1
Contributing Organization
Wisconsin Public Radio (Madison, Wisconsin)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/30-89281bqr
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Description
Program Description
This is the first part of the dedication ceremony of the Vilas Communication Hall at the University of Wisconsin Madison, which is the home of Wisconsin Public Radio and Television. Director of Radio and Television, Ron Bornstein, serves as master of ceremonies. He provides a little history about the station. Then Fred Haberman, the chairman of the Vilas Hall Building Commission, speaks. And he is followed by Vice Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Extension, Dr. George Struthers and others involved.
Created Date
1973-04-07
Created Date
1973-04-15
Asset type
Program
Genres
Event Coverage
Special
Topics
Film and Television
Rights
Content provided from the media collection of Wisconsin Public Broadcasting, a service of the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board. All rights reserved by the particular owner of content provided. For more information, please contact 1-800-422-9707
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Media type
Sound
Duration
01:02:35
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Credits
Speaker: Bornstein, Ron
Speaker: Haberman, Fred
Speaker: Struthers, George
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Wisconsin Public Radio
Identifier: WPR6.305.T8.1 MA1a (Wisconsin Public Radio)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Generation: Master
Duration: 01:02:15
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Citations
Chicago: “The Vilas Communication Hall Dedication Dinner. Part 1,” 1973-04-07, Wisconsin Public Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-30-89281bqr.
MLA: “The Vilas Communication Hall Dedication Dinner. Part 1.” 1973-04-07. Wisconsin Public Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-30-89281bqr>.
APA: The Vilas Communication Hall Dedication Dinner. Part 1. Boston, MA: Wisconsin Public Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-30-89281bqr