Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals at 1645 Brook Lynn Dr., Ste 2, Dayton, OH 45432-1933 US - Recent TV Award Honors Owner’s Commitment - Gabriels 2003

Catholic Academy President Frank Morock presenting Gabriel award for Children's Programming - Local Release to WRAL-TV in Raleigh.  From left are General Manager Jim Hefner, WRAL President/Owner Jim Goodmon, Executive Producer Phyllis Parish, and Producer Dan Oliver.

A dramatic program about a middle school student who died suddenly of a brain aneurism and the reaction of family and friends to the death has won this year’s Gabriel Awards for Children’s Programming – Local Release. The program, titled “Yelling I Love You,” was produced by WRAL-TV, Raleigh as part of its centralXpress.com series.

The Gabriel Awards, sponsored by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals, are given annually to broadcast and film projects that present a true vision of humanity and the dignity of the person. (2003 list of winners at www.catholicacademy.org)

Writer/producer Dan Oliver says the idea for the program came following the death of a student at the middle school where his wife works. He says he had been thinking about a storyline dealing with the topic and then heard a song by Lori McKenna titled, Never Die Young. Oliver said the story, which had been simmering in his mind for two years, took shape from there.

The program was so well done and engaging that one of the Gabriel Blue Ribbon judges praised it as “extremely touching and honest” and commended the writer for having a “good ear for kid’s dialogue.” Another judge cited ‘outstanding technical quality for a local production” as well as ‘honest treatment of adolescent emotional world,” while another suggested the program be syndicated to other communities.

Oliver says the program was well received and that copies of it were made available, upon request, to school teachers as well as leaders of youth groups, who found it useful in dealing with the issue of unexpected loss.

Winning awards and hearing those comments are commonplace for WRAL-TV. When you walk into the station’s lobby, there is a huge glass trophy case, full of Emmys, Gabriels and other awards for recognition of work well done. The case can’t accommodate all of the honors, so the other awards are in other areas of the building.

The focus on excellence comes from leadership and in the case of WRAL-TV, that centers on the person in charge, Capitol Broadcasting Corporation President Jim Goodmon.

In recent years, Goodmon has been outspoken on the important issues of localism and diversity in broadcasting. Quite often, he has been a lone voice among his broadcasting brethren in opposing efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to lift the cap on maximum ownership by broadcast companies.

At a meeting held by the FCC in Charlotte on October 22, Goodmon spoke about a recent 3-2 vote by the commission to increase the maximum ownership cap from 35% to 45%. He said that decision gave one company in this country the permission to own 300-plus stations. He noted, “most people say we’ve gone far enough. A station reflects the ownership and the larger a company gets, the more the corporate welfare drives the bottom line, which means, by definition, you are not paying attention to localism.”

That is a primary reason he continues to push for the FCC to adopt a set of minimum public interest standards that would guide all radio and television operations. He said, “Since the stations are to serve the public, we can’t judge how well any of us are doing when we have nothing to measure it against.”

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps asked Goodmon about his decision to pre-empt several programs carried by CBS and Fox-TV on his two stations in the Raleigh-Durham market. Goodmon has received considerable attention nationally and locally for refusing to carry “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire,” “Temptation Island,” and most recently the CBS program, “Cupid.”

“We decided, rightly or wrongly, that we are not going to make fun of marriage. We are not going to clean up television, but we just said, there is a line here.”

In Goodmon’s view, the decision of what to air comes down to the values which exist in the community. He said WRAL station management looked at the reality shows on marriage and asked “Are people going to meet each other and in ten minutes fly off together?” He said, the decision was clear, “We’re not going to do that! We said no deal!”

Katherine Grincewich, a broadcast attorney with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has observed Goodmon before the FCC and when he served on the Gore Commission, looking into broadcasting rules and regulations. “Unfortunately, you don’t find many people left in broadcasting today who have the interest of the community at heart,” Grincewich said. “He is truly a dinosaur among the owners and is not afraid to tell them what they need to hear. It’s not what they want to hear, but it comes from one of their own.”

For Grincewich, it was not a surprise to learn that WRAL won a national award for children’s programming. She said, “I would have expected that,” adding that she could count on her fingers the number of stations which commit the time and money to produce for children.

“Yelling I Love You” was the last in the centralXpress.com series for WRAL. Goodmon says the station remains committed to children’s programming producing Smartstart Kids, for children age one through five and their parents. It airs Saturdays at 9am. Another program, aimed at an older audience is Brain Game.

Goodmon says the station is also planning on doing a drama next year on the health issue of children and obesity.