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| WMAQ-TV, Comcast, NBC News Announce $2.7 Million In Donations To Museum Of Broadcast Communications |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Thursday, 26 January 2012 11:05 | |||
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The Comcast Corporation (principal owner of NBCUniversal), NBC News and WMAQ-TV/NBC 5 Chicago today announced a pledge of over $2.7 million worth of financial support, advertising, and more to the new Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC), located in downtown Chicago. The money, air time and other help from Comcast will go toward helping complete the new museum's construction and help promote it to the public.
The components of the new partnership agreement Comcast/NBC and MBC include... - Up to $500,000 worth of 30-second advertising spots promoting the museum on Comcast cable systems every year for five years. (A total of up to $2,500,000 worth of advertising spots over five years.) - NBC News and WMAQ-TV will make available historic artifacts to the museum which can be displayed as part of temporary or permanent exhibits. - NBC News and WMAQ-TV will donate video clips to museum archives to enhance its collection. - The MBC will name its main presentation area as "The Comcast NBCUniversal Center." The Comcast NBCUniversal Center will be a venue for industry pioneers, visiting personalities, authors, journalists and scholars to present on the media and its future. Public presentations in the Comcast NBCUniversal Center may be recorded and shared via Comcast's On Demand and video streaming. - Comcast/NBCUniversal will produce an introductory 8-10 minute video presentation for the new Comcast NBCUniversal Center that will explore radio and television's historic role in American life and its evolving impact on society worldwide. - A 30-minute documentary on the early days of television, prominently featuring the MBC will be produced for local airing on WMAQ-TV. - The MBC will hold at least two public programs a year featuring NBC News and WMAQ-TV talent. - The MBC will host at least one annual Career Assembly for inner city Chicago Public School students featuring WMAQ-TV journalists and/or executives. - NBC News will still donate $200,000 in cash to the MBC to help complete construction of the exhibits and presentation areas, which it had previously committed to do before this agreement. In a statement released this morning, the following four quotes were given, discussing this huge partnership... "Comcast is excited to play a significant role in launching and promoting the Museum of Broadcast Communications," said David L. Cohen, Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation. "This major addition to Chicago promises to educate visitors about the birth and the evolution of electronic media, and we look forward to being a part of that." "NBC News is proud to be associated with the new Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago," said NBC News President Steve Capus. "This important institution will tell the story of American radio and television, and the important place of news in that story, to generations of scholars and visitors." "Chicago's rich history makes it a fitting home for the Museum of Broadcast Communications," said Larry Wert, President and General Manager of NBC 5 Chicago. "The donations made by Comcast and NBC will contribute toward creating a facility as well-developed as the history it showcases and help ensure the public is aware of all the museum has to offer." Bruce DuMont, Founder, President and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, said "We are grateful to have Comcast, NBC News, and NBC 5 Chicago -- institutions that have contributed so much to the history of television -- show so much support for our new facility. We are excited to open our doors and share the experience with visitors." The Museum of Broadcast Communications is expected to open its new 62,000-square-foot location later this year. The museum will seek to inform and entertain its visitors about the rich history of the television and radio industries through its archives, public programs, screenings, exhibits, publications and online resources, with over over 15,000 square feet devoted to the exhibition of television and radio's legacy. It will also feature state-of-the-art television and radio studios for hands-on experiences, a media-equipped education center for group orientation and teaching, and house the National Radio Hall of Fame. The new museum, located in downtown Chicago at State and Kinzie Streets and one of just three broadcast museums in the United States, will offer five times as much space as the previous location in the Chicago Cultural Center, which closed in 2003 so the staff could focus on the new facility. Very small portions of the new museum are now open to the public, while the entire museum has yet to be publicly unveiled. A firm grand opening date has not yet been selected, being that it still depends on many other factors, including raising additional financial donations. The most recent hopeful opening date of sometime early this Spring, appears to have now been pushed back to sometime this Summer. Updated with additional information on 1/27/12. 
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