$75,000 TO COLOMBIA RELIEF FUND

Los Angeles viewers pledged $75,000 to a Colombian relief fund after seeing a 30-minute, fund-raising documentary that displayed the devastation in the South American country last week.

“Colombia’s Tragedy,” produced by World Vision, a Christian relief and development agency, was shown nationally in 40 cities and raised a tentative total of $200,000.

Brian Bird, spokesman for World Vision, said, “This thing came together so fast and dirty that our heads are still spinning. We were lucky to get the air time.”

Bird said that it was difficult to get quality time on top stations because November is a highly competitive “sweeps” month, when stations try to maximize their ratings for establishing future advertising rates. Nevertheless, he said, the program was seen three times in Los Angeles on KTTV, KHJ-TV and a cable TV system..

Another problem, Bird said, was that the speed with which World Vision acted did not allow time to alert viewers to the program by having it listed in TV schedules. “We only got the public who switched channels,” he said.

The documentary, which cost $50,000 to produce, was broadcast via satellite from Armero, the Colombian village that was virtually buried by a mud slide following the eruption of the Nevada del Ruiz volcano on Nov. 13.

The documentary showed the extent of the devastation and included interviews with survivors. Its purpose was to show North Americans the plight of the Colombians, Bird said.

There are plans to reshow the documentary in larger markets, he said.