Museum of Broadcast Communications Receives $250,000 Grant From the Polk Bros. Foundation

Museum of Broadcast Communications Receives $250,000 Grant From the Polk Bros. Foundation CHICAGO, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is announcing it has received a $250,000 grant from the Polk Bros. Foundation in support of the Museum's capital campaign. The grant will go toward exhibit development and the expansion of the MBC's new facility in downtown Chicago, scheduled to open in the spring of 2006. The gift from the Polk Bros. Foundation will allow the MBC to create an exhibit examining the role of America's retailers in the TV explosion of the 1950's. Polk Bros. was once one of the country's leading television retailers, known for its value pricing and innovative promotions. "Polk Bros. was synonymous with television and for more than three decades they brought television into Chicago living rooms. They were the first retailer in America to sell color televisions," said MBC President Bruce DuMont. "Today the Polk Bros. Foundation is synonymous with enriching the lives of Chicagoans with its generosity. The MBC is grateful to the Polk Bros. Foundation for honoring its past by supporting our future expansion," DuMont added. Sandra Guthman, President of the Polk Bros. Foundation, said, "We are pleased to support the building of the new Museum of Broadcast Communications -- an institution that will offer educational opportunities to Chicagoans of all ages and income levels and provide historical context for America's fast changing media landscape." The Polk Bros. Foundation grant follows a recent $1 million donation from Paul and Angel Harvey and a $250,000 grant from The Oprah Winfrey Foundation. The Polk grant brings the total raised to $10.4 million of a $20 million campaign goal. Polk Bros. Foundation has enjoyed a long tradition of community involvement. From the earliest days of their retail furniture and appliance stores, the Polk family gave generously to the groups that served their stores' neighborhoods. In 1988, the Foundation was separated from the Polk Bros. stores and began to chart a course that would broaden its reach throughout Chicago. For the past 16 years, the Polk Bros. Foundation has helped strengthen the city's children, youth and families, with over $100 million in grants to enhance social service, education, cultural and health care programs that provide direct services to low-income Chicagoans. The Museum of Broadcast Communications is one of only three broadcast museums in the United States. Currently, it is building a new 70,000 square foot home at State and Kinzie streets. The new MBC will include interactive exhibit galleries, expanded archives, a media cafe, working radio and television studios, a gift shop and regularly scheduled public programs on historic and contemporary radio and television issues. Source: Museum of Broadcast Communications CONTACT: Chad Kersman or Bob Szafranski, both of PCI, +1-312-558-1770, or Raissa Allaire of MBC, +1-312-396-0104 Web site: http://www.museum.tv/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment