THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240420
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO TELEVISION WRITER
DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF. LENGTH: 40 lines
The Republican National Committee will buy 10 hours of prime time on the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel in August to present the GOP national convention from San Diego.
Word of the GOP's revolutionary approach has been buzzing around the semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour for days. It was first mentioned by executives of CBS News as they outlined their convention coverage.
On Tuesday, a Family Channel spokesman in Virginia Beach confirmed that the deal has been struck with the GOP to air the convention's nighttime proceedings.
The coverage will extend from Aug. 12-15 and will be commercial-free and commentary-free - the C-SPAN style of covering a national political convention.
The programming will run from 9 to 11 p.m. Aug. 12, 13 and 14. On Aug. 15, the last night of the convention, which will be heavy with acceptance speeches by the nominees, the telecast will run from 8 p.m. to midnight.
A GOP spokesman at party headquarters in Washington said Tuesday that national committee Chairman Haley Barbour will hold a news conference today to outline details of what is being called ``GOP-TV.''
TV Guide this week will report that after likely Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole sparred with Katie Couric of ``The Today Show,'' the GOP decided it wanted to produce its own convention coverage free of comments and remarks from network anchors and correspondents.
It's no surprise that the GOP found a home on the Family Channel, because the founder and chairman of the company that runs the channel, International Family Entertainment Inc., is Pat Robertson. Robertson, who is also head of Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network, once ran for the presidency as a Republican.
Cable sources here say the GOP is also thinking about buying blocks of time on the USA network for morning convention coverage.
The Family Channel said it would make an equal amount of time available for the Democrats to purchase for convention coverage. by CNB