"The KDKA Children's Hospital Free Care Fund Benefit Show" will air from 7 to 10 tonight. Patrice King Brown, Stacy Smith, Ken Rice and Jennifer Antkowiak will host the broadcast.
As in years past, it will feature entertainment by area children. Viewers also will hear the personal stories of patients at Children's.
This year's telethon will feature vignettes filmed with actress Jamie Lee Curtis during a recent visit here. Curtis, an active campaigner and supporter of Children's Hospital, was here in October for "A Ball at the Mall," an event that raised more than $4 million for the hospital.
The telethon is being filmed at Children's Hospital and at PPG Wintergarden Downtown. The show's producers plan to include shots with the new ice skating rink at PPG as a backdrop. A new set at Children's Hospital was designed and donated by Pro Lit Lighting.
This long tradition of broadcasting, charity and community support began on a Sunday evening before Christmas 1954. A KDKA television show sponsored by Wilkins Jewelers included a song by the Wilkins Girls, which they dedicated to a child who had died at Children's Hospital. Viewers were moved. The phones began to ring, and donations to the hospital started coming in. That was the start of the TV station's annual telethon.
The Children's Hospital Free Care Fund helps realize the hospital's mission of providing care to young patients, regardless of the family's ability to pay.
The "Free Care Fund Benefit Show" will pre-empt some CBS programming. "60 Minutes II" will air at 10 p.m. and the movie "The Sons of Mistletoe" will air after midnight at 1:37 a.m.
Weather Channel moves
For AT&T Cable customers in the city of Pittsburgh, the Weather Channel has moved to Channel 1 on the converter box, Channel 4 on cable-ready sets in non-rebuilt parts of the system. In rebuilt areas, Weather Channel will stay put.
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