THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
WHRO CALLED Jim Graff in New Jersey and asked him to help clear up its picture. Graff sent his sure-footed $35-an-hour steelworkers to fix the transmission lines on the station's tower in Driver, Va.
Channel 15's picture has been fading in and out as often as a ghost in a Dickens' novel.
Here we go again.
Starting Monday, WHRO will be off the air during daylight hours for about 10 days.
If it isn't one thing, it's another.
The 21-year-old transmitter is huffing and puffing. The lines on the tower are in worse shape than a pastry chef's arteries. They could pop any day.
To help bring WHRO's picture into the 21st century, Rick Auicocli and C.J. Shuff of Graff's North American Tower Maintenance Inc. have been scrambling up and down the 1,000-foot tower, installing new lines.
Hello-o-o-o-o-o up there.
The job looks risky.
Piece of cake, said Graff. You should have seen my last job.
He worked on the 180-foot TV and radio transmission tower atop the Empire State Building in Lower Manhattan. That's 102 stories up plus 108 feet.
``King Kong didn't climb that high.''
Fay Wray distracted him, Jeff.
Nothing gets in the way of his work. Graff has crews working on 2,000-foot towers in North Carolina and Texas.
This week, it's Driver and the WHRO job.
It will cost Hampton Roads' Public Broadcasting partner about $1.1 million to put the tower back in shape and to replace the transmitter early in 1995. WHRO began a pledge drive Sunday that will continue through this Sunday.
WHRO has no plans to ask viewers to dig deep to pay Graff's bill, but it would be nice if somebody wrote a $100,000 check payable to the transmitter fund, said Mita Vail, vice president for development. But she won't go on the air tonight to ask for it.
The federal government has extended WHRO $525,000 in grants to help pay for the upgrading at the tower site. The state kicked in another $425,000.
That's your tax money invested in public broadcasting.
The rest of the amount, $100,000, has to be raised locally. During the December membership pledge drive, WHRO is asking for money to pay for programming - the same as always.
It would be gauche to make a pitch for transmitter money, too.
I mean . . . you have to leave the people something for Christmas shopping.
Channel 15 operates with an annual budget of $2.6 million. Vail expects to raise 10 percent of that in three on-air membership drives, including the one now under way.
How can you tell it's pledge drive time? Easy. Listen for the music.
This week, WHRO is recruiting Perry Como, Tony Bennett and Peter, Paul and Mary to help raise a portion of the $275,000 it expects from viewers. Come Sunday at 5:30 p.m., Channel 15 gets help from above in ``In Search of Angels.''
Once the last tin cup has been rattled, and the last telephone pledge taken, WHRO will sign off during daytime hours while the tower climbers from New Jersey finish their work. WHRO will resume broadcasting at nightfall even while repairs are being made.
If you're a cable subscriber, you'll never miss Big Bird or Barney.
From studios in Norfolk, WHRO beams its signal to cable operators who send it to their subscribers. However, 30 percent of TV households in this market do not subscribe to cable and will be deprived of The Purple One until North American Tower Maintenance Inc. finishes its work in Driver.
Watch your step, guys. by CNB