New Year's Eve Programming

[Pete Kemp <kempp@bethel.k12.ct.us>]

While scanning the web I came across an interesting article on some TV
Networks' plans for welcoming in the year 2000, the Drudge Report. Just
wondering what radio stations will be doing? Top 100 of the year
countdowns? :) Doom and gloom alerts for Y2K? What programming are you
planning for, or expect? 
Pete 
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HELLO 2000: ABC'S PETER JENNINGS TO ANCHOR 22 HOURS 
ABC NEWS is planning 22 continuous hours of live millennial coverage on
December 31, 1999 -- 
and anchor Peter Jennings will anchor all 22 of them! 
Networks insiders are already comparing the task to the grueling job Jerry
Lewis takes up every 
year for his national telethon. 
"I take it as a personal challenge," Jennings told reporters gathered in
Pasadena. 
>From a satellite hookup from New York, Jennigs told Pasadena that the
longest he can remember 
being on-air was for 11 1/2 hours -- during coverage of the Challenger
disaster. 
ABC is part of a 60-country consortium that will allow it to bring events
from every continent 
on Earth. 
The ABC coverage begins at 6 a.m. Eastern time, Dec. 31, with Barbara
Walters popping champagne 
on a ship cruising the waters of the international date line. 
ABC News President David Westin claims the network has "double and triple
backup" for any Y2K 
problems that may hit during the coverage. 
The ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION's Drew Jubera reports that among locations
to be visited 
during the 22-hour marathon: "New Zealand, where David Bowie performs at
midnight; Egypt, where 
the pyramids will be draped in gold; an oil rig in Norway, where a concert
is being held for 
the workers there; and a South African island where Nelson Mandela will
welcome in 2000." 
ABC's Cokie Roberts may report from Rome, where her mother is ambassador to
the Vatican. 
And Dick Clark will cover the ball drop in New York's Times Square. Clark
will also go live to 
Las Vegas -- where a $70-million-enhanced fountain at the BELLAGIO HOTEL
will be ground zero. 
And to those who would argue that the new millennium doesn't begin until
Jan. 1, 2001, Lord 
Peter Jennings chuckled: "As this has been the century of the common man, I
think we have all 
just increasingly begun to defer to the common man's instinct that the
turnover date is 2000." 

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