‘AT RISK’ FORUMS : NO PHONE-IN SLATED FOR PBS SPECIAL

Although the airing of “Generation at Risk” tonight is being widely publicized by KOCE-TV (Channel 50), the public-television special hasn’t generated the massive Orange County town hall turnout that a similar effort did three years ago.

According to KOCE organizers, only a few community groups have held--or will hold--forums to discuss “Generation at Risk,” a Public Broadcasting Service presentation that examines suicide, pregnancy and dropping out of school as well as drug and alcohol abuse among youths.

This PBS special is the sequel to “The Chemical People” specials of 1983 that resulted in 85 forums throughout Orange County.

With Nancy Reagan again as a co-host, “Generation at Risk” will be aired at 7:30 p.m. by the Huntington Beach station. It will also be shown at 8 p.m. by KCET-TV (Channel 28) of Los Angeles.

The one-hour special documents 10 model projects, including one on dropout prevention in New York City, a “teen court” in Odessa, Tex., and pregnancy counselors in Albuquerque, N.M.

At 8:30 p.m., KOCE will present its own half-hour, previously taped panel discussion, “Generation at Risk--Orange County’s Approach.”

“We’re disappointed, naturally, that we’ve been unable to mobilize the huge (town hall) numbers again,” said Jo Caines, director of community affairs for KOCE. “But we simply didn’t have enough time to organize and to raise money.”

The chief reason, according to Caines, is that the scheduling of the latest PBS special came on short notice. “We got the firm word only three months ago. We didn’t have enough lead time, not like the several months for ‘The Chemical People’ series,” she said.

As a result, Caines and other local planners said, the Orange County turnout will be sparse:

--Only the Corona del Mar-based Parents Who Care has announced a town hall meeting for tonight. The meeting, which will feature a panel discussion after the broadcast, will start at 7 p.m at the Corona del Mar High School’s Little Theater. A few other parent groups said they were also contemplating forums tonight.

--Five Orange County parent groups said they held forums earlier this month after viewing “Generation at Risk” on videocassette. At least one group, the Irvine Chemical People Task Force, said it will be scheduling a videocassette session next month.

In 1983, the two-part “Chemical People” series drew an estimated 15,000 persons to the Orange County meetings--the largest turnout in any Southern California county--to watch and discuss the PBS programs. (The first one-hour special, an overall look on drug and alcoholic abuse, aired Nov. 2, 1983. The second, a study of projects in various U.S. cities, aired Nov. 9.)

The 85 Orange County forums were hailed by national PBS organizers as among the best attended in the 1983 effort, which nationwide involved 260 public stations and thousands of community sites. (A KCET spokesman said about 30 “Generation at Risk” forums were expected to be held in Los Angeles County tonight, contrasted with the 80 in 1983.)

Since then, according to local organizers, about 20 of the 80 community task force groups formed in Orange County as a result of “The Chemical People” broadcasts are still functioning.

Unlike 1983, the Orange County Department of Education is not taking a direct role in organizing forums for the “Generation at Risk” broadcast, said department administrator Bert Simpson. But he said his agency has been publicizing the broadcast “the best we can” among the county’s schools. Both the Orange County Substance Abuse Prevention Network and the National Council on Alcoholism’s Orange County office have also mounted publicity campaigns.

KOCE originally had announced that it would air a live one-hour phone-in forum as the local “Generation at Risk” follow-up tonight. Such a move would have been similar to 1983, when the station produced a highly successful 90-minute “Chemical People” phone-in, Caines said.

But the phone-in format had to be abandoned due to costs, Caines said. The pre-taped, half-hour panel show scheduled instead is costing the station $5,000, rather than the $20,000 that the live version would have cost. “We simply didn’t have the budget to do the live program again,” she said.

KOCE panelists include Jim Donahue, a Youth and Family Recovery Center counselor in La Palma; Lorraine Kobett, student services director with the Anaheim Union High School District; Dave Larson, Orange County director of the National Council on Alcoholism; Carole Neustadt, a county Children and Youth Mental Services supervisor, and Cynthia Scheinberg, executive director of the Coalition Concerned With Adolescent Pregnancy.