Local broadcasters, from the country’s biggest groups to family-owned operations, continue rolling out initiatives to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey.
From Tegna’s early success (the group raised more than $1 million in 24 hours) on, stations regardless of location have staffed days-long phone banks, aired telethons and partnered with relief organizations, pledging their own money and resources to the cause as well.
On Thursday, Raycom stations, for instance, had already raised more than $395,000. The group also extended its carriage agreement with DirecTV through Sept. 5 to provide subscribers ongoing coverage.
Scripps launched fundraising efforts across the group as well. By Thursday, KNXV Phoenix had raised $185,000; WXYZ and WMYD in Detroit’s two-day telethon raised more than $138,000. WCPO in Cincinnati raised $100,000 over two days of afternoon into evening phone banks.
WBAL, Hearst’s NBC affiliate in Baltimore, topped more than $260,000 in donations. WCVB, the group’s ABC affiliate in Boston, has raised more than $500,000 for the relief fund it has established with the American Red Cross.
Corpus Christi, Texas’ Kris Communications, along with parent Cordillera Communications, said it will match the first $50,000 in donations to the relief fund it launched Thursday.
The Telemundo and Univision station groups also launched major efforts, largely aimed at providing much-needed help to Hispanics affected by Harvey.
All day Friday, Telemundo stations will be airing special hurricane-related programming, as well as public service announcements, as part of its ongoing fundraising efforts. Next week, Univision will be deploying a caravan to Texas to deliver donated goods.
Hearst said Friday (Sept. 1) that its TV stations had raised $4.1 million toward relief through telethons and other fundraising outreach.
The company said its KCRA-TV Sacramento alone has raised more than $750,000 of that, with WCVB-TV Boston raising more than a half-million in less than 24 hours.
Heast is both donating $1 million to the Greater Houston Red Cross and matching employee contributions up to an additional $1 million.
(Photo via theTexas National Guard’s flickrand taken by Capt. Martha Nigrelle. Image uploaded on Aug. 29, 2017 and used per aCreative Commons 2.0 license. The image was cropped to fit the 16x9 aspect ratio.)
