Cable TV to Air AIDS Fund-Raiser : Benefit: A statewide ‘AIDS CableThon’ will raise money for the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation and other support and research agencies.

There have been AIDS walks, AIDS shows, AIDS dinners, AIDS concerts, AIDS recordings and even AIDS auctions. But until this weekend, there has never been an AIDS “cablethon.”

On Sunday, cable television operators in about 70 California communities--from areas as diverse as the Bay Area, Modesto, Lompoc and San Diego--are linking up for the first-ever “AIDS CableThon” to raise money primarily for the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, plus a variety of other AIDS support and research agencies across the state.

“Even though telethons are a major fund-raising avenue for other organizations, the format has never been tried by an AIDS organization,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a group that provides hospice and out-patient clinic services on a $6-million annual budget.

Officials at the Oakland-based Cable TV Assn. of California believe that not only is Sunday’s cablecast a first-ever AIDS benefit in this format, it is the first-ever cablethon in California, and perhaps in the United States.

The “AIDS CableThon” will originate from the studios of Century Cable in Santa Monica, from 6 to 9 p.m. From there, it will be transmitted by satellite to the rest of the state and will be simulcast in some areas in Spanish. Some cable companies plan to re-telecast the program on future nights. (Consult your local cable company for times and channels.)

Viewers will be invited to make donations by calling an 800 number (310-CARE in English and 310-VIDA in Spanish) to reach a phone bank of 30 operators at Century Cable’s studios.

Sunday’s show will be hosted by George Chakiris, Carole Cook, Toni Holt and Lou Leonard. Guests will include Joan Rivers, Marlee Matlin, Sharon Gless, Gregory Harrison, Phil Donahue and Edward James Olmos.

Weinstein said that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation already has received enough corporate support from MTV, Home Box Office and USA Network, among other companies, to pay for the approximately $65,000 cost of producing the program. Century Cable has donated all of the in-studio costs, plus its staff for the show, he said.

Weinstein said that the reason for using the cable television medium, rather than the more typical telethon route of broadcast stations, was the lower cost. In addition, he said, “there was no receptivity from any of the independent TV stations in the Los Angeles market. Some were not willing to talk about it, others said they had done all the telethons they could do or they did not want to preempt their regular programming.”

Bill Rosendahl, Century Cable’s vice president of operations, offered to help in part because his company has had a history of supporting AIDS causes and shows a regularly scheduled program called “AIDS Update,” Weinstein said.

He said that the state cable organization was instrumental in helping the foundation reach every cable operator in the state to make them aware of the program. In the end, 2.5 million cable homes--or roughly half the state’s homes with cable TV--will be the potential audience.

Weinstein noted that the city of San Francisco will not see the cablethon. “We felt that because of the high number of AIDS cases in that city, it would not be appropriate to ask for money that would largely be directed outside of the city,” he explained.