Advertisers All Pull Out : Latest Iran Casualty: Reagan TV Salute

A nationally syndicated television show saluting President Reagan on his 76th birthday has been canceled because all the national advertisers have backed out since the Iran arms scandal broke, the distributor announced today.

“Because of the Iranian thing, the advertisers thought it advisable to disassociate themselves from the program,” said Sidney Love, general sales manager for VJR Enterprises Inc. of New York, distributor for “Reagan’s Way.”

“Reagan’s Way,” a 60-minute “historical” program that traced Reagan’s career from movies to presidential inauguration, was cleared to air Feb. 6--Reagan’s birthday--in 95% of the United States, including the top 50 television markets, Love said. Most of those major market stations had scheduled it in prime time, he added.

The film was a joint production of Daniel Selznick, son of David O. Selznick and a friend of First Lady Nancy Reagan, and French television, Love said. It was shown on French TV in 1984 but has never been broadcast in the United States, he said.

Love said he did not know if it would ever air.

When the Iran scandal broke, the national advertisers began calling VJR Enterprises to bow out of the project, Love said. He refused to name the advertisers but said “they are major corporations that you see in network commercials all the time.”

VJR then sent a letter to stations that had arranged to air the special to announce it would be canceled.

While the film includes interviews with some Reagan critics, it is generally complimentary and includes interviews with “celebrity friends,” Love said.

“It is more complimentary than contrary,” he said. “It was shown to the Reagans and it got their blessings.”

“It’s our property, so we have a property that at the present time, unless some miracle happens, is not usable,” he said.