Porn Valley- The hour didn’t end with Wayne Newton coming on singing Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. But it could have. Bob from Dane Productions was on KSEX Thursday night and made an impassioned plea on behalf of the annual MDA Telethon which is held labor Day weekend. With Tony Batman feeding questions, Bob got a full hour to state his case and did so quietly, sometimes sadly but nobly.

Adding a touch of history to his involvement with MDA, Bob talked about how he had been working telethons since the age of 11 in New York City where he grew up.

“A very good friend of mine who I grew up with- Martin- he contracted Muscular Dystrophy at 8 years of age,” recalls Bob. “And what happened he made it to 11. He was my best friend and it kind of shook me up. I said what can I do, even at that age, is there anything I can do to make an impact or do anything to help. At that point in time Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis had the telethon at the Americana Hotel in New York City. What I did was the first year I took the train over there and I worked the telethon outside. They had a big fishbowl put up. There’s an ice cream back in New York called Carvel. I sold Carvel ice cream and gave donations in the fish bowl. I was 11 years old and over the years I kept with it and did what I could.”

Bob went on to talk about how his later participation expanded when he became a Rotary Club member.

“I was able to bring my members into the telethon and answer the phones and do whatever had to be done under the banner of Rotary International,” he explained. Because he’s going through a very messy divorce, plus the fact that his wife is on the board of directors for Rotary International, Bob says he couldn’t stay in the organization.

“Plus I went through a very sad relationship with a young girl in the industry,” he added. “That ended badly and I was to the point where I was going to get counseling. And I did. I am and I’m not ashamed to say it because you need someone to talk with especially when you’re married for 30 years and it breaks up. I was able to do that.

“So I got a call a call about two weeks ago from MDA,” Bob continued. “They said, Bob, can we depend on you for the normal 20 people that you bring us every year. I thought and I said, well, I’d be more than happy to, but unfortunately I’m not a Rotarian anymore. Then I thought to myself, I don’t want to give this up. I said I’m with the Free Speech Coalition. She said who? I said I could bring people that I’m sure would be more than happy to volunteer their time. She said let me check it out and I’ll get back to you. So at that point in time a week and a half went by- I didn’t hear a word. I figured, well, there’s no way they’re going to call me back when they find out what the Free Speech Coalition is. I’m going to be resigned to sitting home this Labor Day for the first time in many, many years. I’ll call in my pledge and hope this is the year that it’s beaten.

“Last Friday I got a call from MDA. They said they wanted me to participate. And I was very excited so I called Gene Ross and I called AVN, which is a very interesting story in itself. And what happened was I told Gene, I told AVN what’s going on. I said I need your support and I need to get it out there. Then I called you guys [KSEX]. You got it out and all of a sudden the phones started ringing. People started wanting to know how they can help me and what they can do. Unfortunately, not enough.”

As people began volunteering to man phones Labor Day weekend, Bob had another thought.

“All these clubs that are out there and all the people in the industry that make the money- the dancers, the girls, the club owners, they could give some money.”

Bob talked about a summer camp for MDA victims and the fact that it costs $600 to send a child for a week to one.

“These children have nothing to look forward to all year- except for this. This is their life. They go to camp and enjoy themselves. This is what they look forward to all year.

“The people that I’m working for depend on others to help them,” Bob went on to say. “There’s no way they can do anything on their own without the help of us. I was able to get help on my own but these people can’t. So this is a passion with me. It’s something I take personally and I see people in this industry that are making a lot of money- my company included- and we want to do something. And I want people to step up and do something. This may be the only chance that we get to do something under the adult industry banner with a national telethon. This is a very unusual thing that’s going on here. I call the customers I deal with and they can’t believe it. So what I’m asking them to do is donate some money to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.”

Bob went on to say that he spoke to Paul Fishbein of AVN this week.

“This gentleman called me and we spoke about various things, about both of our moms being breast cancer survivors- a very wonderful man. The man didn’t have to talk to me. He probably gets hit everyday with 30 or 40 different calls for charity and doesn’t even have to deal with me. In his kindness he said, Bob, I want to work with you. I want to help you out. It’ a wonderful thing you’re doing. And what he did was the award show in January at the Mandalay Bay- he donated six premium tickets to me which are $240 apiece.”

To clarify, Batman said the premium seats are those close where you can actually see the show.

“What is happening is this,” Bob added. “I’m going to have these tickets in October but I would like people to call in and give me a donation. The ticket value is $240. I would like to ask the people that bought these tickets to give a little more. If you bought these tickets you would write the check out to AVN. But this time you can write the check out to MDA and it’s tax deductible.”

Batman said if a company, for instance were to buy the tickets for $300 apiece, their name would be announced on KSEX “for doing the right thing.”

more to come in the days ahead