KMTV Will BroadcastMDA Telethon For 36th Year

KMTV (Cox Channel 5) anchors Greg Peterson and Mary Williams will be joined by meteorologists Ryan McPike, CT Thongklin and Dean Wysocki on the station's 36th year of televising the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon.

Peterson and Williams will serve as in-studio hosts for the broadcast, which begins at 7 a.m. Monday and concludes at 6 p.m. McPike, Thongklin and Wysocki will be collecting money at the "Fish Bowl," at the Bag 'N' Save store at 76th & Dodge.

"We'll be live for 20 minutes each hour up until 4:30 p.m.," said telethon producer Kayla Thomas. "Then we'll be live all the way through to 6 p.m. That's the time slot with the firefighters and the parrotheads."

Last year's local portion of the telethon raised $384,388, Thomas said. Nationally, nearly $55 million was collected. It was only the third time in the telethon's 40 years that it failed to surpass the previous year's total.

The drop in totals in 2004 and 2005 were attributed to other organizations' disaster relief contributions for victims of Hurricane Frances and Katrina, respectively.

Lincoln station KLKN begins its broadcast of the telethon at 10:35 p.m. Sunday. This is the 11th year the station has carried the telethon.

Thomas said to expect some new twists to KMTV's coverage, which has sometimes included wacky fundraising stunts such as hosts doing push-ups or spending hours raised high in the air by firefighting equipment.

"We'll be getting some special help this year from our friends and radio partners at Star 104.5," Thomas said. "Glennboy and Glo will be helping out at the Fish Bowl and J-Pat will be manning the phones here at the station."

Peterson, who is hosting his fourth telethon for the station, said the national segments will again originate from Las Vegas.

"I was out there two weeks ago, and although Jerry is now 80, he's looking better than he has in years," Peterson said.