News Releases

Get Sunshine Week PSAs for your station from RTNDF

Broadcast news is built around the free flow of information from an open, transparent government. With that in mind, I'm writing to ask you and your station to join the members of the Radio-Television News Directors Association in an important campaign that will benefit your news department and your community.

Last year I contacted you about participating in Sunshine Week, a national initiative to underscore the importance of open government and freedom of information. Many stations across the country took part by running public service announcements provided free of charge by RTNDF, the educational arm of RTNDA. In fact the campaign was so successful, we reached more than 11 million Americans with the PSAs.

This year, Sunshine Week is March 16-22 and we are again providing PSAs for your station. Because this is an election year, we have created PSAs that can run throughout 2008, as well as during Sunshine Week. That's because in an election year we want to learn where candidates seeking office at every level of government stand on open government issues.

How can you obtain the PSAs? You can obtain the PSAs through the affiliate services of ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and Telemundo.  On Feb. 15, the PSAs were distributed by the National Association of Broadcasters on their monthly satellite feed of PSAs. The PSAs are available at RTNDA.org and can be downloaded to use on your station website. You can also link to a broadcast-quality file from RTNDA.org.

RTNDF created two 30-second spots, one in English and one in Spanish, featuring citizens commenting on the importance of open government. The spots are built with time at the top for your anchor to open the spot with a suggested script.

We also created three 30-second PSAs featuring 13 actors speaking about the importance of open and accountable government. The actors are high-profile members of The Creative Coalition, a leading public advocacy arm of the entertainment industry. Appearing in the announcements are Barry Bostwick, Connie Britton, Saffron Burrows, James Eckhouse, Louis Gossett Jr., Sharon Lawrence, Camryn Manheim, Izabella Miko, Andy Milder, Ron Rifkin, Richard Schiff, Judy Tenuta and Joan Van Ark.

Finally, we created two versions of the Citizens spots with Barry Bostwick and Louis Gossett Jr. reading the intro for a complete 30-second spot.

RTNDF worked in conjunction with the Sunshine Week Alliance, the Creative Coalition and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Our campaign is generously supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

I hope you will join in the Sunshine Campaign, during Sunshine Week and throughout 2008. If you have any questions, please contact my office at 202-467-5205 or via e-mail, president@rtnda.org.  Thank you for your attention and your support.

Sincerely yours,

Barbara Cochran, RTNDA President