seanwilliams@attmail.com (03/14/91)
As you are all probably well aware, the first PBS membership drive for 1991 is well under way. "So what!" you may say. Well, I'd just like to say that I am a member. I felt compelled to join when my local telco, United Telephone System, volunteered to answer phones at the December, 1990 drive. They were matching viewers' pledges, and offered Northern Telecom phones to new members who pledged $60 or more. (NT seems to be UTS' qvendor-of-choice. we can't forget the lovely rental phones that UTS offers!) Well, now it's back to the March, 1991 drive. This time it's Bell of Pennsylvania's turn to answer the phones. They don't seem to be matching pledges or offering phones though (at least not as I am watching) ... the pledge bonuses are being brought to you by NOVA -- "the USA's only weekly science program." Are other telcos in various states doing this, or is it just a local thing? By the way, I will be heading north on Saturday or Sunday (not sure yet) to answer phones for Scranton's WVIA channel 44. Sean E. Williams | attmail.com!seanwilliams 333 Prospect Avenue / PO Box 227 | seanwilliams@attmail.com Duncannon, PA 17020-0227 USA | voicemail: +1 717 957 8139 [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell has always been very generous with their corporate profits. They support programming on WTTW Channel 11 here (public television). They support a variety of artistic things and special cultural events as well. PAT]
lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen) (03/21/91)
> [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell has always been very generous with > their corporate profits. They support programming on WTTW Channel 11 > here (public television). They support a variety of artistic things > and special cultural events as well. PAT] Isn't this financially considered advertising, and isn't advertising a legitimate rate base expense? If the answer is yes and yes, then this is not at all generous, but a backdoor way to BOOST profits. I really don't know much about utility regulation, but I am very suspicious of corporate generosity. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer CMC Rockwell lars@CMC.COM [Moderator's Note: I am not suspicious of 'corporate generosity' at all. In IBT's case, they do specific advertising in the print media as well as television and radio, but they also engage in a variety of philanthropic acts with little or no mention. During the 1960's when Martin Luther King visited Chicago on several occassions, I noted that when he would speak at the Chicago Temple Auditorium the program given out would always contain a single line note that "Dr. King's expenses during his visit in Chicago have been met with a gift from Illinois Bell Telephone Company." They give money now to an AIDS hospice here, and a variety of other civic endeavors. For a couple years, they sponsored the noon-time seminars / lectures produced by TRUST (To Restore Urban Systems Together), a think-tank here working on getting Chicago together once again. The only public mention would be a note in the program material saying the lecture was being given on the Illinois Bell charitable trust to benefit the community. I think you are holding a cynical viewpoint. Corporations can be and frequently are good citizens in their community. Have you any idea how many millions of dollars AT&T has given away to the performing arts and small neighborhood social service organizations? ... Millions. PAT]
irvin@northstar105.dartmouth.edu (Tim Irvin) (03/23/91)
In TELECOM Digest V11 #225, Moderator writes: > Have you any idea how many > millions of dollars AT&T has given away to the performing arts and > small neighborhood social service organizations? ... Millions. PAT] How many millions?? You say Millions of millions?? Well let's see that would make at the least 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000 or a Trillion Dollars. But then since you said Million*s* of millions then I guess this would be Trillion*s*. Boy I had no idea AT&T was THAT generous, no wonder their rates are so high :). Sorry, I just couldn't resist..... Tim Irvin [Moderator's Note: What I mean of course was millions of dollars, not millions of millions ... but I know you were just joshing me! :) PAT]
peterm@sumax.seattleu.edu (Peter Marshall) (03/24/91)
Mr. Poulsen's wariness toward the "generosity" of telcos is both
healthy and warranted, although the example he cites may not be
appropriately labelled advertising.
The overall area is signficant enough that whole books have been
written about it, although with the current example, we may be talking
about what would be called "charitable contributions." In regulatory
practice, such expenses can be, and are, treated as either above or
below-the-line for ratemaking purposes. It is also the case that such
"charitable contributions" can have their "political" purposes and can
thus be leveraged for the contributor's purposes.
More could be learned from PUC staff on the topic, of course.
It is all too obvious, finally, that the Moderator did not, and does not,
share Mr. Poulsen's scepticism, choosing simply to paint it "cynical" in
his apologia.
Peter Marshall
halcyon!peterm@seattleu.edu
The 23:00 News and Mail Service - +1 206 292 9048 - Seattle, WA USA
[Moderator's Note: Well, it is just that I have seen so much good come
from corporate charity in Chicago, I find it hard to believe it was
all -- or even a large part of it was -- being given in a cynical way.
Sears, Roebuck has kept an inner-city branch of the YMCA of
Metropolitan Chicago going for years. Granted, the institution is
named the 'Sears YMCA'. We have large quantities of **old** money
here, left by George Pullman, Phillip Armour, Aaron Montgomery Ward,
Richard Sears, and others which continues to do good. What corporate
benefits has Standard Oil received lately from Rockefeller's having
founded the University of Chicago, or his endowment of the Riverside
Church 65 years ago? What benefits does Armour and Company get these
days from the Illinois Institute of Technology? What benefits does
Kodak receive because George Eastman endowed the Rochester Symphony
Orchestra? And in our own area of interest Alex Bell gave lots of
money to organizations working with deaf people. When his wife Mabel
died, she left even more. Every one of them cynics, is that it? PAT]