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The Battalion
Vol. 92 No. 30 (8 pages)
‘Serving Texas A&M Since 1893’
Friday, October 9, 1992
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Texas campaigns against compulsive gambling
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — A statewide campaign was
launched Thursday to inform Texans about the
problems of compulsive gambling, with offi
cials saying some 1,100 people have sought
help since the Lottery began selling tickets
May 29.
"Not all addictions come with bottles, pills
and needles," said Larry North, president of
the Texas Council on Problem and Compul
sive Gambling.
"Like alcohol and drug addiction, compul
sive gambling is a treatable disease, and like
wise without treatment it can be just as deadly
to its victims," North said.
The council, which operates the state's gam
bling hotline, was created as a companion to
creation of the state lottery to provide aware
ness, prevention, training and intervention
programs.
Its public awareness campaign will advise
those with gambling problems to "bet on
yourself" by seeking help.
The agency began fielding calls at 6 a.m.
May 29, the same time the lottery began selling
tickets.
"At 6:14 a.m., we had a call asking for the
nearest Gamblers Anonymous meeting," said
Sue Cox, the council's executive director.
Although its telephone hotline number so
far has only been available from lottery tickets,
Ms. Cox said the new awareness campaign
would include television and radio announce
ments, posters and educational materials.
She said the hotline number has received
more than 54,000 calls, but many were from
people wanting information about the lottery.
Calls have come from people with problems,
their friends and families, she said.
Of those seeking help, 50 percent said they
had problems with lottery, 14 percent with
bingo, 11 percent with dice, cards and pool, 8
percent with casino gambling, 7 percent each
with sports and horse race betting and 2 per
cent with dog race betting.
Ms. Cox said one of the biggest surprises
was the number of calls from people seeking
help for problems with bingo. She said the
council hopes to convince bingo parlor opera
tors to display the hotline number.
"It's a much more serious problem that we
had envisioned," she said. "Some bingo play
ers say they play six, seven times a week."
Cable TV bill
could benefit
Brazos Valley
Law attracts innovation, manager says
By REAGON CLAMON
Reporter of THE BATTALION
Alternative cable technologies
may find Bryan-College Station
more attractive in the wake of a
new cable regulation bill, said
Randy Rogers, general manager
of TCA Cable.
The bill will benefit alternative
technologies,
such as "wire
less" cable —
where a com
pany broad
casts their pro-
g r a m m i n g ,
through mi
crowaves, di
rectly to their
subscribers us
ing a special
antenna —
more than tra
ditional wired
cable compa
nies, Rogers said.
If a traditional wire cable com
pany were to relocate in Bryan-
College Station, it would still have
the same initial capital investment
as TCA — running wire and
putting cable boxes in their sub
scriber's homes — but wouldn't
be able to expand the current rev
enue base, Rogers said. The rev
enue base would simply be split
between the companies.
"That's been tried here in
Bryan-College Station, and both
companies went out of business,"
Rogers said. "It's a simple fact of
economics."
It was more likely that a wire
less cable company would move
into the community, Rogers said.
Wireless cable would be able to
avoid the problem of a large ini
tial capital investment and could
provide service 20-25 percent
cheaper than traditional "hard
line" cable companies, said Robert
Davis, president of United States
Wireless Cable in Austin.
Wireless cable would be able to
compete more effectively with
"hard-line" cable because of the
"open programming" clause of
the new cable regulation bill,
Davis said.
"Some of the programmers,
like TNT, were refusing to sell to
wireless, trying to protect the
wired-cable
monopoly,"
Davis said.
"The new bill
will help us
tremendously
because it will
guarantee us
programming
at the same
cost as the oth
er people."
A wired-ca
ble company
would also be
at a disadvan
tage to wireless because of the
complicated process of franchise-
ment. If a wired cable company
decides to come to Bryan-College
Station, it will have to apply for a
franchise agreement from both
cities, said Mary Kaye Moore, di
rector of Support Services for the
City of Bryan.
This agreement allows a cable
company to run its wire through
public areas. Bryan-College Sta
tion includes certain requirements
in their agreement that cable com
panies must meet in order to use
the public right of way. Wireless
cable wouldn't need the agree
ment and thus wouldn't have to
meet the requirements.
Whatever happens, it may be a
while before any change takes
place, Rogers said.
"iihe FCC has to go through a
lot of rule-making," he said. "We
really don't know how this will
affect us just yet."
"The new bill will
help us tremendously
because it will guaran
tee us programming at
the same cost as the
other people."
- Robert Davis, president
of United States Wireless
Cable in Austin
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'93 stamps to honor singers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - From rock
and rhythm to country and
Broadway, the U.S. Postal Service
is facing 1993 with a song in its
heart. Next year's postage stamps
will include Buddy Holly and
Otis Redding, Hank Williams and
the Carter family, "Porgy & Bess"
and "My Fair Lady."
The stamps will cover such
contrasting music as Patsy Cline's
country twang, Ritchie Valens'
love song to Donna and Henry
Higgins' struggle to bring cul
tured speech to a poor flower sell
er.
; "In January, there will be more
Elvis sightings than ever," said
Postmaster General Marvin Runy
on, announcing that 300 million
stamps honoring the late king of
rock 'n' roll will go cn sale follow
ing first-day ceremc nies in Mem
phis on Jan. 8, which would have
been Elvis' 58th birthday.
Introduced as Rockin' Runyon,
the postmaster general stood be
low a sign reading "Embassy of
Rock and Roll," at the Hard Rock
Cafe, which hosted the news con
ference.
In addition to rock music, the
1993 commemorative stamps will
feature country and western
"It's going to be a
musical, magical,
wonderful year for
stamps in 1993."
-Marvin Runyon,
postmaster general
singers, Broadway musicals, his
tory, nature and other aspects of
American culture.
The Elvis stamp, which gener
ated national attention last year
when the public voted on the de
sign, will also be part of a booklet
of seven stamps being issued in
June to honor pioneers of rock 'n'
roll and rhythm and blues.
That booklet will also feature
Buddy Holly, famous for his hic
cup-like song Peggy Sue, and
Ritchie Valens, whose life was re
cently made into a movie. The
two died together in a plane crash
near Clear Lake, Iowa.
Rock-around-the-clock pioneer
Bill Haley will also be part of the
booklet as will Otis Redding,
Clyde McPhatter and Dinah
Washington.
Country singer Hank Williams
will be featured on a stamp in Au
gust and also will be included in a
September booklet of stamps
along with Patsy Cline, Bob Wills
and the Carter Family.
"Millions of Americans bop
with Buddy Holly or cry with Pat
sy Cline," Runyon said. "It's go
ing to be a musical, magical, won
derful year for stamps in 1993."
He said he became a fan of Cline
and Williams after moving to
Nashville several years ago.
Extending the musical theme,
four popular broadway musicals
will be honored in a booklet of
stamps in March. They include
"Showboat," "Porgy & Bess,"
"Oklahoma" and "My Fair
Lady." The "Oklahoma" stamp
will also be issued separately.
UT s drum Big Bertha turns 70
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Big Bertha, the legendary quarter-
ton mascot of the University of Texas band who
turns 70 years old next month, is ... well... a lady
With a hidden past.
Longhorn fans who naturally assume this
drum-to-end-all-drums has been burnt orange as
long as Texas sunsets are in for a big shock. Not
only did the University of Texas save her from a
discard heap, but Bertha, the world's largest bass
drum, began her life pounding out support for
that true football power — the University of
Chicago Maroons.
Her secret life is as loud as the overpowering
boom she emits and includes dalliances with Ar
turo Toscanini, John Philip Sousa and Enrico Fer
mi.
Some of Bertha's escapades are worth a chuck
le, such as the time Toscanini couldn't use her in
his orchestra because she was too fat to get in the
elevator, but an alleged radiation incident has
sobered many of her closest supporters, such as
Glenn Richter, director of the Longhorn Bands.
Fortunately, the drum was found to be free of
radiation.
Bertha's strange trip began in 1922, at the CG.
Conn Music Co. of Elkhart, Ind. C.D. Greenleaf,
president of the company, decided his alma mater,
the University of Chicago, needed a new band,
complete with a massive drum, larger than Purdue
University's elephantine seven-footer (in diame
ter). He decided to build it and donate it to the
school.
As the University of Chicago prepared to phase
out football in the late 1930s, what to do With
Bertha became a problem.
Eventually, having worn out her welcome at
colleges and concert halls, Bertha had been re
turned to her womb in Indiana and was being dis-
■ ed as a museum piece.
hen, in the 1950s, University of Texas officials
went looking for the world's biggest drum with
out knowing about Bertha's colorful career.
Crockett brought the drum back to Austin the
winter of 1954 but had to wait until summer to
start badly needed restoration efforts.
Although Texas students were initially thrilled
with Big Bertha, much as earlier students at Chica
go were, the giant drum has brought UT prob
lems.
Whether or not Bertha is the largest bass drum
around has been debated incessantly. At this
point, it's probably better for some mystery to re
main. Purdue University has a drum nearly as
large and the bragging between the two schools
has continued pretty much unabated.
>
Presidential candidates
face off in first TV debate
By
BILLY MORAN
Contributing writer to THE BATTALION
Supporters of each of the three presi
dential campaigns are confident their can
didate will prove victorious in the first of
the election season.
The first of three scheduled presiden
tial debates will be held Sunday, Oct. 11,
at 6 p.m. in St. Louis. ABC, NBC, CBS
and CNN are planning live coverage.
Voters should not view the debate as a
three-way prize fight, looking for who
can avoid rhetorical punches, said Dr.
Kurt Ritter, associate professor of speech
communication at Texas A&M. Instead,
voters should look for the candidates to
respond to issues.
"In all other parts of the campaign (the
candidates) are free from being confront
ed," Ritter said. "The debates bring the
issues into focus."
The first presidential
debate will feature a
panel of reporters ask
ing the candidates
questions. The second
debate will have a sin
gle moderator directing
the discussion, and the
third will be divided
into two parts, giving
both a single modera
tor and a panel of re
porters equal time. All of the debates will
last 90 minutes.
Structure was a major issue in the
planning of the debates. The Clinton
campaign preferred the single moderator
format which allows a follow-up, said Jim
James, chairman of the Brazos County
Democratic Party.
Rodger Lewis, chairman of the Repub-
Bush
lican Party of Brazos
County, said that a sin
gle moderator
"wouldn't be limited"
and could go off on a
tangent on any particu
lar question. Therefore,
he said, the Bush cam
paign prefers a panel.
Bush prefers the
panel format because
Clinton attention will be direct
ed away from the econ
omy to issues such as foreign affairs,
where Bush has more strength in his ar
guments, Ritter said.
Clinton, Ritter said, wants a single
moderator because he has negative politi
cal "baggage," which would less likely be
pursued under a moderator.
For Perot, the panel of reporters would
probably be the best format, Ritter said.
Lou Zaeske, former
regional coordinator of
the Perot petition
process, said that the
format will not affect
Ross Perot.
"It's more like a TV
interview than a public
speech," Zaeske said.
"That's where he does
very well. He is a mas-
Perot ter of the soundbite."
Perot's attendance at
the debates will mark the first time in the
30-year history of televised presidential
debates that a third party candidate will
appear with candidates of the two major
parties.
The presence of a third candidate
opens the possibility of two candidates
"ganging up" on the remaining candi
date, Ritter said. He predicts Clinton will
cast his responses in a way that will make
Perot side against Bush.
Phillip Meuret, president of the Texas
A&M College Republicans said he be
lieves that if Perot and Clinton both go af
ter Bush, it will help the president. Amer
icans will see Bush outnumbered and be
sympathetic.
The Bush campaign has had virtually
nothing to do with Perot since he entered
the presidential race, Lewis said. Perot's
one-liners are appealing to the media, he
said, but Bush and Clinton will hold him
accountable in the debates.
"Perot is just in to cause trouble and
inflate his ego," Lewis said. "He has lost
all credibility."
Zaeske said that Perot's presence at
the debates sends a message to the two
political parties. "What he is doing is in
the best interest of the country," he said.
"However it turns out will be healthy."