PBS fundraisers increase exposure for vocal hall

The hall of fame will appear on ABC’s ‘20/20’ in September.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

SHARON, Pa. — The Vocal Group Hall of Fame is seeing a surge of new interest, thanks to public broadcasting.

“You know it’s working when we are getting calls and e-mails,” said Bob Crosby, the hall’s president and chief executive officer.

Public television stations across the country have been broadcasting portions of the Vocal Hall of Fame’s induction concerts as part of their fall fund drives.

Hall founder Tony Butala, of The Lettermen, along with Jon Bauman, better known as “Bowzer” from Sha Na Na, and Florence LaRue from the Fifth Dimension host the broadcast for the public television stations.

Crosby said public television will be airing the fund drive, in which viewers can get hall of fame induction DVDs and CDs for their pledges to public broadcasting.

The show aired on Pittsburgh’s WQED last week. No date has been set for the public broadcasting station WNEO, which serves northeastern Ohio.

Though the hall sees little funding from the pledge drive, only the wholesale price of the DVDs and CDs used by the public television stations as gifts, the exposure has been priceless, Crosby said.

“People want to know when is the induction, when is the concert, when is the museum open,” he said.

Unfortunately, there are no clear answers to those questions right now.

Working to find funding

Crosby said they have floated a proposal to Ohio officials to hold the spring inductions at the Chevrolet Centre in Youngstown, but they still need to line up funding. He said they are working with the visitors bureaus in both Ohio and Pennsylvania to find that money.

The three-day concert would induct people nominated in 2005, 2006 and 2007. These inductees include some big names like The Pointer Sisters, Fleetwood Mac, Queen and The Moody Blues.

Crosby said there is hope that money generated from those concerts will pay for the needed renovations at Sharon’s Columbia Theater, the hall’s home, and the nearby Phoenix restaurant, which will serve as a museum and restaurant operated by the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

The group has been approved for a $250,000 grant from Pennsylvania tourism officials and has the opportunity to access another $250,000 if it can raise matching funds.

“That $750,000 is enough to get this legal and operating, where we can create some more revenue,” he said of the Sharon operations.

The recent added exposure on public television can only help the cause. Since the broadcasts started, traffic to the Web site www.vocalhalloffame.com has increased by about 100,000 hits a day, he said.

More publicity

Vocal hall officials hope that will only increase with some other national exposure.

The hall will be featured on a September broadcast of ABC’s “20/20” for its Truth in Music efforts, Crosby said. It was also mentioned in the June 4 edition of Newsweek on the same subject.

The hall has made it a priority to pass legislation across the country prohibiting fake groups from using the names and passing themselves off as original artists. The law has passed in more than a dozen states, and others are considering it.

cioffi@vindy.com