The fires in Tennessee's Sevier County burned over 17,000 acres, claimed 14 lives, and damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 homes and businesses. Parton, who grew up in the area and whose Dollywood theme park was near the edge of the blaze, quickly established the My People Fund to help victims of the devastation. On 13 December, the three-hour benefit to raise money for the cause featured performances by Parton, Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, Cyndi Lauper, Alison Krauss, Alabama, Chris Stapleton and many more artists, plus dozens of additional celebrities who answered the telethon phones or made significant donations.
Streamed online and televised on over 50 regional stations and three national channels, the benefit raised well over $9m. The proceeds began reaching impacted families just a week later, and further donations continue to come in through the fund's website.
TNDV owner Nic Dugger was approached by event organizers just a week before the live show. "They needed complete turnkey services, from a production truck, playback and transmission to help with directing and scripting," recounted Dugger. "I was happy to participate - my family and I regularly vacation in the Gatlinburg area, and I happened to be there just a day before the evacuation. I quickly started engaging some of our trusted partners to take on the challenge."
The first such partner was producer Edie Lynn Hoback, with whom Dugger had worked on numerous previous projects. "Edie agreed to serve as producer, and we had one week to put together a live, three-hour TV special with no commercial breaks and a star-studded lineup of internationally famous artists. It's a testament to the talents and commitment of everyone involved that we succeeded."
With the telethon taking place in a relatively small rehearsal studio co-owned by Parton, one of TNDV's first challenges was fitting all of the required elements into the available space. "We needed to build a set for the telethon's phone bank, and incorporate it alongside a performance stage, a second stage for interviews and check presentations, and a front-of-house area for lighting, audio and video control - all in one fairly small room," explained Dugger. "Plus, with the roster of premium talent participating, we needed space to accommodate the performers and their supporting staff.
TNDV's Constellation uplink truck was used for primary transmission, and to accommodate as many distribution outlets as possible, TNDV also established a Ku downlink with a C-band turn around. "This way, anyone who wanted to downlink in either Ku or C band had access to the live HD program," Dugger explained. The uplink crew kept in ongoing contact with the many media outlets showing the event, to ensure they all had correct timing.
(Jim Evans)
