Asian TV station gives back

Three days after one of history’s deadliest natural disasters struck shorelines bordering the Indian Ocean, a Pasadena man had grown frantic about his family in his native Sri Lanka. Telephone lines were down; neither his mother nor other relatives had responded to his e-mails. On Wednesday morning, as the death toll was being estimated at 100,000, the man turned to Sheeraz Hasan in desperation.

“First he sent me an e-mail, then I called him straight away,” said Hasan, a fixture on the local Asian-language television station KSCI-TV Channel 18, and a native of India whose show “Tinseltown” airs in Los Angeles and throughout the world. “I said to him, look

The Sri Lankan and others in the same situation will be part of a telethon Hasan will host on the tiny station today in an effort to bring relief to survivors of the tsunami, as well as their families and friends in the local community.

Normally, the Los Angeles-based station runs a mix of packaged and original programming from here and abroad for separate audiences who speak Chinese (Cantonese and/or Mandarin), Japanese, Tagalog, Korean, Vietnamese and other languages including Hebrew and Farsi. The fundraiser, held in conjunction with the Red Cross and World Vision from 1 to 5 p.m., will be sandwiched between a two-hour program from India and an Indonesian-produced news program that will focus on the disaster.

The telethon will air in English to reach all segments of the community, including English-speaking viewers who might not ordinarily tune into the station, said Peter Mathes, chairman and chief executive of Asian Media Group, which owns KSCI.

“We think it’s an important thing to do. We reach people who were from there originally and moved to Los Angeles. They may have family and friends there.

“It’s a way for our community to give back and help with dollars or goods to people who have been affected by this tragedy,” he said.

Though small by broadcast network standards, KSCI is the largest Asian-language television station in the largest Asian market in the U.S. Twelve percent of the Southern California population is Asian, compared with 4% nationwide. Most use Asian-language television as their primary source of news and entertainment.

The catastrophe “probably affects our viewership more than any other viewership in this market directly,” Mathes said. Since the disaster struck, 80% of the station’s Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin newscasts have been devoted to disaster issues, including some not necessarily covered elsewhere: How much will China contribute to the relief process? Will Chinese tourism in Southeast Asia be affected?

The station’s own field correspondents covered the story of a missing Taiwanese American student from Merced who had been traveling in the flooded area with a group of students from Stanford University. They also interviewed a Sri Lankan national, in Los Angeles on business, about what he had witnessed there earlier in the week.

“By Saturday we’ll have a lot more stories,” Mathes said.

Staff celebrities such as news anchor Ursula Huang (said to be as famous in the community as Katie Couric) and volunteers will man phone banks during the telethon. Zarina Ramzan, a spiritual healer, will appear along with Hasan, a confident showman. There may also be news analysis and live phone interviews from Thailand, Sri Lanka and other countries, Mathes said.

“Hopefully, it won’t be just a telethon,” he said. “We hope people in the community will call in saying, ‘We’ve heard from a relative, a friend. We’d like to share this experience’ and talk about it. Hopefully, they’ll be motivated to make a donation as well.”

According to the station’s demographic figures, Asian Americans have a 32% higher household income than that of the general population in the U.S. In Southern California, they rank higher than the total population in college degrees and managerial and professional occupations.

Similar KSCI telethons held in the wake of the 1988 Armenian and 1992 Egyptian earthquakes raised $8 million and $250,000, respectively.

To motivate viewers to donate this time, Hasan plans to ask them to give as if the disaster had happened to a family member of theirs. And to remember 9/11. “Three years ago, America suffered the biggest tragedy in the world. People in Asia embraced us. In the smallest villages they were waving flags, lighting candles. I went to small parts of India where people were praying, saying, ‘Heal those people who died.’ ... I think it’s our turn.”

Further information may be obtained by calling the station at (310) 442-2302.