Paying tribute to WVIA-TV Ill-advised state funding cut will hurt station's efforts

WVIA-TV Channel 44 is a television station located in Pittston, and it covers most of northeastern and central Pennsylvania, carrying PBS programs, local news and weather.

Recently, the station did itself proud by sponsoring an all-week free screening of Ken Burns' beautiful and informative documentary about America's 58 national parks. From Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, WVIA presented one of Burns' series each evening, without any commercials whatsoever. Mr. Burns refers to the national parks as "America's Best Idea."

What's more, in the same time frame, the station premiered a profile series of outstanding northeastern Pennsylvania business and political leaders. They chose Nicholas DeBenedictis, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Aqua Pennsylvania Inc., to introduce the profiles. WVIA could not have made a better choice.

DeBenedictis was interviewed by Bill Kelly, and the program dealing with the Pennsylvania water supply companies owned and managed by Aqua, including the former Roaring Creek Water Company, was interesting from beginning to end.

In passing, it might be noted that DeBenedictis, who is one of America's top executives, made a comment reflecting he is aware of our hometown of Shamokin, which he recently visited.

WVIA-TV, which first aired in northeastern Pennsylvania in September 1968, started its first year as a television station by hosting 80 events and nearly 1,000 guests. Every year since, it has never failed to add programming to make the station, in the opinion of many, the best one serving our area.

George H. Strimel, the man who had laid the foundation of WVIA and led it for 14 years, resigned in 1980 to pursue work in cable television. Before leaving, commenting on WVIA's history, he stated, "The people of northeastern Pennsylvania made it happen. The efforts by the staff and the community can be seen on the screen today.. The station and the community achieved more than it set out to do; it achieved so much due to the dedication and desire for culture, knowledge and education, and its perseverance to fulfill that desire."

Dr. John E. Welsh, chairman of the board of directors, was named president and general manager of the station to succeed Strimel. In October 1990, A. William "Bill" Kelly was named president and CEO. He is now best known for interviewing guests. He is exceptionally well-informed and has introduced many northeast Pennsylvanians business and political leaders to TV audiences.

The year 1991 saw WVIA-TV launch several new productions: "Dating Rites," "Gang Rape on Campus," dealing with a once-ignored problem in our society, and "The Heirs of Columbus," a documentary that looked at the only tangible tie to Christopher Columbus in the United States.

WVIA's production of Bucknell University's Christmas Candlelight Service was carried on television stations across the nation.

WVIA was recognized nationally in 1997 for "Distance Learning," a project bringing WVIA'S staff to deal directly with students as far away as California.

The WVIA cooking show, "You're the Chef," premiered from Willamsport's Penn College in 1998.

I write this article, with help from WVIA's Web site, to bring attention and credit to the station at a time when it has been hurt. The final agreement on the 2009 Pennsylvania budget, which was finally approved after more than 100 days of legislative wrangling, involved many cuts in annual items that had been approved previously. One severe cut was an ill-advised, 90-percent reduction in WVIA-TV's previous allocation, which has resulted in a very serious financial problem for the station.

Kelly has launched a strong appeal to the station's loyal viewers to increase the amount of their previous contributions, and for those viewers who have never made gifts to the station before, to do so now.

(Morgan is a freelance writer from Shamokin.)