WHAS Crusade for Children
Encyclopedia
The WHAS Crusade for Children is an annual telethon broadcast by WHAS-TV
WHAS-TV
WHAS-TV channel 11 is the ABC affiliated television station in Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by Belo Corporation, the station's transmitter is located in Floyd County, Indiana, near the community of Floyds Knobs...
and WHAS (AM)
WHAS (AM)
WHAS, known by the on air branding as "84 WHAS", is an AM radio station broadcasting in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a 50,000 Watt clear channel radio station assigned to frequency 840 kHz. With clear channel status, its nighttime signal can be heard in most of the continental U.S...
Radio in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. The telethon benefits a wide range of children's charities throughout Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
and southern Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
.
The Crusade was begun in 1954, in large part through the efforts of Barry Bingham, Sr.
Barry Bingham, Sr.
George Barry Bingham, Sr., CBE, was the patriarch of a family that dominated local media in Louisville for several decades in the 20th century....
, the patriarch of the family that owned the stations and The Courier-Journal
The Courier-Journal
The Courier-Journal, locally called "The C-J", is the main newspaper for the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States and the single largest in Kentucky.- Origins :The...
newspaper. The first telethon was telecast from the Memorial Auditorium, and featured actor Pat O'Brien
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...
as the celebrity guest. Contributions on the first telethon totaled more than $156,000.
The 2011 telethon raised $5,121,881 as the broadcast went off the air Sunday evening, a decline of about $179,000 from 2010. However, a $180,000 donation from Republic Bank & Trust Company
Republic Bank & Trust Company
Republic Bank & Trust Company is a Louisville, Kentucky-based bank.-History:In 1977, Republic Bank of Shelby County was formed in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Five years later, in 1982, Republic Bank & Trust Company was founded and headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1983, Republic Bank & Trust...
the following day put the total at $5,301,182.
That total did not include bequests, which go into a special endowment set up in 2004, which is used to pay the expenses of the Crusade organization so that 100 percent of all monies collected by the public go directly to children's special needs.
In 2005, $5,378,566 was collected. That is the highest "tote board
Tote board
A tote board is a large numeric or alphanumeric display used to convey information, typically at a race track or at a telethon .The term "tote board" comes from the colloquialism for totalizator , the name for the automated...
total" since bequests were counted separately for the endowment, starting that year. The record tote board total for the Crusade, including bequests, is $6,051,236 (2004).
Since its founding, the Crusade has raised more than $138 million for local children's special needs.
The Crusade has become a major local institution. For months before the telethon broadcast each June, grass-roots collection efforts are held throughout the area — from "pickle jars" at restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s, to bingo
Bingo (US)
Bingo is a game of chance played with randomly drawn numbers which players match against numbers that have been pre-printed on 5x5 matrices. The matrices may be printed on paper, card stock or electronically represented and are referred to as cards. Many versions conclude the game when the first...
games, to benefit concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
s and hundreds of similar events.
In the early days of television, local telethons were quite common. In recent years, though, most local telethons have given way to well-produced national telethons such as the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
The MDA Labor Day Telethon is an annual telethon in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association . The first MDA telethon was during the Thanksgiving Day weekend of 1952 and titled Party for MDA. It has been held annually since 1966...
. The Crusade for Children may be an anachronism, but a hugely successful one. It is by far the most successful local telethon in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, by almost any measure, though its outreach has grown well past the Louisville metro area. It is second in longevity only to a local telethon in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
on WBAY-TV
WBAY-TV
WBAY-TV is the ABC television affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin, broadcasting on UHF digital channel 23 from a transmitter located in the town of Ledgeview, Wisconsin, and master control based in its building in downtown Green Bay...
that benefits those with cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement....
; that telethon was first produced in March 1954, seven months before the first Crusade for Children.
The Crusade broadcast is normally held on the first weekend of June each year, beginning on Saturday afternoon and ending sometime on Sunday night (occasionally even into the wee hours of Monday). In 2011, the Crusade broadcast dates were June 4–5.
The firefighters
Fire department
A fire department or fire brigade is a public or private organization that provides fire protection for a certain jurisdiction, which typically is a municipality, county, or fire protection district...
s who collect millions of dollars each year. Most of those donations come at road blocks set up at hundreds of intersection
Intersection (road)
An intersection is a road junction where two or more roads either meet or cross at grade . An intersection may be 3-way - a T junction or fork, 4-way - a crossroads, or 5-way or more...
s throughout the region, where firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
s ask motorists to put donations in boots. On a Saturday or Sunday in late spring, it's not uncommon for someone driving across metro Louisville to encounter multiple road blocks manned by volunteers.
During the telethon, each fire department brings in those donations, literally dumping them out of the boots and into "fishbowls" (aquarium
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...
-like containers) before the cameras. Before the "dump," a representative from each department usually reads a list of significant contributors, businesses who helped the department during fund-raising efforts, and numerous others who helped in any way — a process that is time-consuming and boring to many outsiders, but an endearing tradition of the Crusade that locals look forward to. Crusade organizers have tried to streamline this process of the years, with mixed results.
In the past, the fire departments brought the collections directly to the television studio, parading their trucks down the street outside with sirens blaring. But the number of participating departments has become so large that in recent years, broadcast crews have set up remote locations in outlying communities such as Elizabethtown
Elizabethtown, Kentucky
Elizabethtown is a city in and the county seat of Hardin County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,531 at the 2010 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in the state...
, Corydon
Corydon, Indiana
Corydon is a town in Harrison Township, Harrison County, Indiana, United States, founded in 1808, and is known as Indiana's First State Capital. After Vincennes, Corydon was the second capital of the Indiana Territory from May 1, 1813, until December 11, 1816. After statehood, the town was the...
and elsewhere. (This also keeps the firefighters from having to bring their trucks all the way to Louisville, and closer to home in case they're needed to fight a fire.) The increase in fire department donations has forced the Crusade to broadcast a pre-telethon show, featuring the departmental reports and remotes from across the area. In 2007, Crusade organizers simply moved the official start of the broadcast to 1:30 p.m. local time, with a one-hour break for local and World News Tonight newscasts at 6:00 p.m. The 2008 Crusade followed a similar schedule, except for a two-hour break Saturday afternoon for the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
broadcast of the 2008 Belmont Stakes
2008 Belmont Stakes
The 2008 Belmont Stakes was the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes. The race was won by Da'Tara, who led the race wire to wire. Da'Tara had 38-1 odds, making the win a monumental upset. Big Brown, the favorite who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, finished in last place, a first for any...
; the telethon broadcast its final total during halftime of Sunday night's ABC broadcast of Game 2 of the 2008 NBA Finals
2008 NBA Finals
The 2008 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2007–08 NBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Boston Celtics, top-seeded champions of the Eastern Conference, defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, top-seeded champions of the Western Conference, four games to two in a...
. In 2011 the Crusade ended at 6:30 p.m., in order to clear the 2011 NBA Finals
2011 NBA Finals
The 2011 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2010–11 season of the National Basketball Association and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks defeated the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, 4–2, to win their first NBA title...
, the earliest on-air finish in many years.
Departments compete each year to win the Jim Walton Trophy, given to departments that record the largest percentage increase in donations from the previous year. The trophy is named for Jim Walton, a WHAS-TV
WHAS-TV
WHAS-TV channel 11 is the ABC affiliated television station in Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by Belo Corporation, the station's transmitter is located in Floyd County, Indiana, near the community of Floyds Knobs...
personality who was the Crusade's master of ceremonies
Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
for 26 years, and was its first executive director. Fire department collections typically account for more than half of the Crusade's final total each year.
On-air performers
Almost every Crusade features a celebrity guest, who usually performs on Saturday night during a variety-show segment that leads off the Crusade telecast. In 2006, Peabo BrysonPeabo Bryson
Peabo Bryson is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, born in Greenville, South Carolina...
made his second appearance as the headline guest. In 2007, The Kentucky Headhunters
The Kentucky Headhunters
The Kentucky Headhunters are an American country rock band. They were founded in 1968 as Itchy Brother, which comprised brothers Richard Young and Fred Young along with Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney...
— whose origins are in Edmonton, Kentucky
Edmonton, Kentucky
Edmonton is a city in, and the county seat of, Metcalfe County, Kentucky, United States. The area was first surveyed by Revolutionary War veteran and Virginian Edmund P. Rogers in 1800. The city was established by the Kentucky legislature as a trading post in 1836 and was named the county seat in...
— are the headliners. Other past guests have included magicians Lance Burton
Lance Burton
Lance Burton is a stage illusionist. He has appeared on numerous television programs, and also performed for Queen Elizabeth and President Ronald Reagan...
and Mac King
Mac King
Mac King is a comedy magician who has performed on television specials, often as a co-host. He has his own family-friendly show, "The Mac King Comedy Magic Show," at the Harrah's Las Vegas in the Clint Holmes Theater....
(two Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
headliners with roots in Louisville), Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
, Lee Greenwood
Lee Greenwood
Melvin Lee Greenwood is an American country music artist. Active since the early 1980s, he has released more than twenty major-label albums and has charted more than 35 singles on the Billboard country music charts....
, Steve Wariner
Steve Wariner
Steven Noel "Steve" Wariner is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has released eighteen studio albums, including six on MCA Records, and three each on RCA Records, Arista Records and Capitol Records...
, Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...
, Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
, Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.- Early life :...
, Bobby Goldsboro
Bobby Goldsboro
Bobby Goldsboro is an American country and pop singer-songwriter. He had a string of Pop and Country hits during the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature #1 classic "Honey," which sold well over one million copies in the United States.-Early life:Goldsboro was born in Marianna, Florida...
, B. J. Thomas
B. J. Thomas
Billy Joe "B. J." Thomas is an American popular singer known for his chart-topping hits in the 1960s and 1970s—appearing on the pop, adult contemporary, country and Hot 100 charts.-Career:...
, Florence Henderson
Florence Henderson
Florence Agnes Henderson is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her role of Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974...
, Diahann Carroll, McLean Stevenson
McLean Stevenson
Edgar McLean Stevenson, Jr. , better known as McLean Stevenson, was an American actor most recognized for his role as Lt. Colonel Henry Blake on the TV series M*A*S*H...
, Merv Griffin
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
, Eydie Gorme
Eydie Gormé
Eydie Gormé is an American singer, specializing, with her husband, Steve Lawrence, in traditional pop music, in the form of ballads and breezy swing. She has earned numerous awards, including the Grammy and the Emmy...
, and Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
.
Larnelle Harris
Larnelle Harris
Larnelle Steward Harris is a gospel singer and songwriter. During his 30-plus years of ministry, Harris has recorded 18 albums, won five Grammy Awards and 18 Dove Awards, and has had several number one songs on the inspirational music charts.-Early life:A native of Danville, Kentucky, Harris...
, a popular Gospel singer and Louisville resident, has appeared on many Crusade telecasts. Other local artists with multiple Crusade appearances include Melissa Combs, Karen Kraft and Kiks, The Monarchs, and Louisville's Thoroughbred Chorus
Louisville Thoroughbreds
The Louisville Thoroughbreds are a men's chorus based in Louisville, Kentucky. They are the first 7-time International Champion chorus of the Barbershop Harmony Society, winning the Gold Medal in 1962, 1966, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1981 and 1984.-History:...
, a world champion men's barbershop
Barbershop music
Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era , is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture...
chorus. Mel Owen directed the Crusade Orchestra for many decades; Roger Dane took over after his retirement, and now Todd Hildreth holds that position with the retirement of Roger Dane.
WHAS Radio personality Terry Meiners
Terry Meiners
Terry Allen Meiners, born January 22, 1957, is an American radio and television personality on WHAS and WHAS-TV in Louisville, Kentucky. On radio, The Terry Meiners Show has aired weekday afternoons from 3-7 since 1985...
and WHAS-TV news anchor Melissa Swan are the co-hosts of the Crusade telecast.
The Crusade broadcast goes on through the night, as is traditional with most telethons, but much of the overnight portion of the show is taped beforehand.
Broadcast/Webcast outlets
In recent years, all or portions of the Crusade have been telecast by stations other than WHAS television and radio. In 2007, television stations in Bowling GreenBowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green is the third-most populous city in the state of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, with a population of 58,067 as of the 2010 Census. It is the county seat of Warren County and the principal city of the Bowling Green, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area with an estimated 2009...
(WBKO
WBKO
WBKO is the ABC-affiliated television station for South Central Kentucky licensed to Bowling Green. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter along KY 185/Richardsville Road in unincorporated Northern Warren County. The station can also be seen on Insight...
), Lexington
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
(WKYT), Paducah
Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...
(WQTV/WQWQ
WQTV-LP
WQTV-LP is a low-powered television station in Murray, Kentucky. Licensed to the city, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter along U.S. 641 between Murray and the Tennessee state line. WQWQ-LP is another low-powered television station in Paducah, Kentucky...
) and Hazard
Hazard, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,806 people, 1,946 households, and 1,266 families residing in the city. The population density was 684.6 people per square mile . There were 2,291 housing units at an average density of 326.4 per square mile...
(WYMT-TV
WYMT-TV
WYMT-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Hazard, Kentucky. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter south of the city in Perry County. Owned by Gray Television, the station is sister to Lexington's CBS affiliate WKYT-TV. Although it identifies...
) carried portions of the broadcast, as well as sister station (WBKI) in Louisville. In 2010 and 2011, WBKO carried remote broadcasts of its own from locations in south Central Kentucky, hosted by staff meteorologist Chris Allen.
On radio, stations from the Commonwealth Broadcasting Company group carried the telecast in Bowling Green, Glasgow
Glasgow, Kentucky
Glasgow is a city in and the county seat of Barren County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 14,200 at the 2000 census. The city is well-known for its annual Scottish Highland Games. In 2007, Barren County was named the number one rural place to live by Progressive Farmer magazine...
, Bardstown
Bardstown, Kentucky
As of the census of 2010, there were 11,700 people, 4,712 households, and 2,949 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,113 housing units at an average density of...
, Campbellsville
Campbellsville, Kentucky
Campbellsville is a city in Taylor County, Kentucky, United States. The population within city limits was 10,498 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Taylor County, and the home of Campbellsville University...
, Princeton
Princeton, Kentucky
Princeton is a city in Caldwell County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 6,329 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Caldwell County.-History:...
, Madisonville
Madisonville, Kentucky
Madisonville is a city in Hopkins County, Kentucky, United States of the Western Coal Field region, located along US 41 and The Pennyrile Parkway. The population was 19,307 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hopkins County. The city was named in honor of U.S...
and Elizabethtown.
The Crusade is also webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
via their web site.
Where the money goes
Throughout the year, various agencies throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana apply for grants from the Crusade. These applications are considered and grants made by the Crusade Advisory Panel, a group of local clergy. This task was originally administered by the panel of The Moral Side of the News, a long-running public affairs program on WHAS-TV and Radio where local clergy discuss current events. (The program remains one of the longest-running continually-aired broadcasts of any kind in radio history.) In later years, the panel's Crusade duties grew larger than the program, hence the name change in recent years; additionally, other members outside of the show have been added to the panel, so that the Moral Side panel members are now a subset of the Crusade Advisory Panel.Grants are made in all 120 Kentucky counties and in 50 Indiana counties. The Crusade returns donations from a certain area to that area — for instance, donations from Hardin County
Hardin County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 94,174 people, 34,497 households, and 25,355 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 37,673 housing units at an average density of...
will be assigned to grant requests from that county. This has been Crusade policy since the beginning. All grants are on an annual basis; thus, charities must reapply each year. Grant requests typically total about three times the amount collected.
The Crusade prides itself in the fact that 100% of all donations go directly to grants, a fact particularly emphasized in its 2011 campaign. All overhead costs of the Crusade organization are covered by donations from businesses, and more recently from proceeds of an endowment set up for that purpose. During the years of Bingham family ownership of WHAS, the stations and the family covered many of such costs.
Former Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 693,604 people, 287,012 households, and 183,113 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 305,835 housing units at an average density of...
Judge-Executive Rebecca Jackson
Rebecca Jackson
Rebecca Jackson is a former Republican politician from Louisville, Kentucky, previously serving as the Jefferson County Judge/Executive and also running unsuccessfully for the party nomination for governor...
was named the Crusade's executive director in 2005. Jackson was the first Crusade director to come from outside the WHAS corporate organization. She replaced Dan Miller, a longtime WHAS-TV employee who left in 2004 to become vice president at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky
Georgetown, Kentucky
Georgetown is a city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,098 at the 2010 census. The original settlement of Lebanon, founded by Rev. Elijah Craig, was renamed in 1790 in honor of President George Washington. It is the home of Georgetown College, a private liberal arts...
. Jackson retired at the end of 2008. Dawn Dison Lee became the new Crusade director in February 2009.
Charges against chairman
In 2010, an indictmentIndictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
was brought against Paul Barth, chairman of the Crusade's board of directors and then chief of the McMahan Fire Protection District volunteer fire department. The charges accused Barth of federal mail fraud, money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
and embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
, among other charges. Barth was accused of embezzling at least $189,000 from the Crusade. Barth faces trial in October 2011, In response, Crusade officials tightened controls on handling of cash and other procedures.