Keim retires from cable access post

ran in Shore Line Times newspaper on Oct. 27, 1999

Alexis Maislen

Robert Keim has shown Madison’s triumphs and tragedies through his programs on cable access.

He’ll make one cry; he’ll make one laugh. He can move one to action. And he knows how to tell a darn good story, even if he digresses once in awhile.

A Madison resident for a decade, he’s seen a lot and traveled in many circles around town as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission and as president of the Madison Community Television (MCTV) board. At 79, a heart attack and two strokes later, Keim is retiring from the MCTV board after six years of volunteering his time.

Keim’s footprints have not just traveled on Madison’s shores. His career in advertising and public service has allowed him to sail the high seas. He began his journey teaching high school English after he graduated from Queens College. He later entered basic training to prepare to be a private in the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II. He went onto officer candidate school and became a second lieutenant. Toward the end of the war, he worked for the Pentagon as a combat radio recorder covering the trenches in Europe. He stayed in the Air Force after the war and worked his way up to being head of their radio and television division, playing an instrumental role in producing the Armed Forces Hour, a series aired by NBC. Then, in 1952, he resigned from the Air Force to take a job working for the Ad Council.

Working for the Ad Council, allowed him to work on campaigns with the White House and many other notable historical figures such as Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon’s chief foreign policy advisor. In 1954, he was campaign manager for Radio Free Europe, which he did for 10 years. Through his travels in Western Europe, he saw the Russians build the Iron Curtain through Berlin. He worked on the Better Schools campaign that was widely advocated by Time Life to get more teachers and supplies into schools across the country. One ad showed a sardine with teachers and books inside. He left the Ad Council in the mid-60’s to work for Chase Manhattan Bank as head of marketing and advertising but returned in 1966 to become president of the Ad Council. Serving as president for 22 years, his most famous campaign was a call to end pollution in the ‘70s. He showed a Native American, whom they called Iron Eyes Cody, cry after witnessing a car drive by and throw trash into the river.

“This took the nation by storm. He became an icon,” said Keim.

Keim moved to Madison 10 years ago this month and soon became active in marketing various town projects such as the building of Town Campus at the former Hammonasset School site, leading into his involvement six years ago with MCTV.

Now Keim wants to give his talented colleagues a chance to step up. He means people like Kent Sprague, vice president of MCTV, who will serve as president, or Steve Fuest , whom he refers to as the “backbone of the station” for helping build it. Or Matt Lawrence, the 17-year-old Hand senior, who after taking Joe Tenczar’s television production course at the high school helps produce many programs on MCTV. Keim referred to him as a “whiz” at using the complicated studio equipment. After an interview with a political candidate, Lawrence handed Keim a video completely edited with title plates.

Of late Keim has extensively interviewed many of the political candidates running in the local election this year. In every one of his programs, he reminds voters that it is the last time they will cast their vote in the 20^th century. Keim has been impressed with every candidate he’s interviewed.

“I’m impressed with the quality of the people who are running, not only the men but the women are so qualified and so with it. You could almost vote blindly and get a winner,” he said.

“It’s a really good thing that he interviewed the candidates in depth so people can turn on their television at their leisure, and it’s free advertising for the candidates,” said Pam Heflin, a Republican candidate for Board of Finance, after she finished an interview with Keim.

As much as Keim had fun with the election coverage, his most heartfelt program was the series he did on Daniel Hand High School graduate Angela Hubley’s battle with leukemia. He heard about Hubley’s story in church one day and decided to run a program to get people to donate blood to find a bone marrow match. He interviewed Hubley, her sister and their parents and five independent shows as the story unfolded.

“If you heard and saw this girl and knew nothing about her, you’d be moved to donate blood,” he said. “When she died, I felt like I had lost my own daughter.”

After two blood drives that brought out 1,640 people both times, breaking the record in Connecticut and in New England for blood donors, no donor match came through.

Keim helped MCTV get pro bono attorney, Frank Grundman, to do the legal work necessary to organize the station under Connecticut law as a non-profit corporation.

In 1991, Keim experimented with cinema verite by showing classes of students and interviewing teachers about a program in the public schools. He learned this technique from shooting footage out car windows while traveling in Europe in the ‘60s for a CBS documentary on suburban sprawl in Europe.

After his stroke, Keim began receiving therapy at High Hopes in Old Lyme where he rides horses to gain back the coordination in his paralyzed right leg. He filmed a program about High Hopes and its possibility in helping people recover from strokes.

While Keim said he will occasionally produce programs for MCTV, he is primarily concentrating on recovering from his stroke and his therapy at High Hopes.

Keim has received many honors over the course of his life. Serving as president of MCTV for six years his just another honor for him. But Keim makes his program not for honor but as his civic duty. Over the years, he’s assisted many people in producing their own programs on topics that touch their heart.

“I do these programs not as president or employee of MCTV; I do them as citizen of Madison,” he said.

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