MUMBAI: US veteran television producer-director Al Schwartz has donated his collection of American Music Awards shows to The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) in Chicago.
The collection will be accessible to the public in the archives of the new $21-million media museum that will be completed later this year.
MBC founder and president Bruce DuMont says, "The American Music Awards are always one of television's highest rated awards shows because of the top-tier talent that performs and because of the quickness of the production. We are pleased to accept this remarkable collection of music television to our collection".
The MBC is one of only three broadcast museums in the US. Its new 70,000-square-foot facility will enable the museum to accommodate an increased number of school groups and extend its educational outreach.
The new facility will include exhibition galleries detailing radio and television history in America, including specific exhibits on comedy, drama and music as well as six other genres. It will also include a media-equipped education center for orientation and teaching, a 500-seat center for screenings and lectures, a gift shop and working television and radio studios.
The American Music Awards were created by Dick Clark in 1973 to honour achievements in popular music and the recording business. The awards salute the entire spectrum of music, from country-western to soul as well as hard rock, and traditional. Schwartz, a former executive VP of Dick Clark Productions, has produced and directed 30 of the 33 broadcasts to date.