[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 12 (Monday, March 25, 1996)]
[Pages 520-521]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Museum of Television and Radio

March 17, 1996

    Let me say that I'm very sorry I couldn't be with you in person 
tonight. But I am delighted to be here by satellite to open the Los 
Angeles branch of the Museum of Television and Radio. Hillary and I send 
our best wishes to all of you, and we know we have an awful lot of 
friends among you tonight.
    I'm speaking to you from the White House historic library which 
actually has something in common with the museum. Even though many of 
the books that fill this room were written long before we ever heard a 
voice over the radio or saw a face on the screen, all three mediums 
serve much the same purpose; they enable us to communicate, to pass 
along ideas, stories, histories, reports from one person to another, to 
get a feel for the times. And that's why your museum is so important, 
for radio and television are truly witnesses to our century.
    Among the 75,000 programs available are President Franklin 
Roosevelt's ``fireside chats,'' which helped to pull our Nation through 
the Depression and the Second World War. There's footage of the triumph 
of man's first steps on the moon, a record of our civil rights 
struggles. And having just returned from the Middle East, I am 
especially sensitive to the fact that you have footage of President 
Sadat and Prime Minister Begin and later of the historic handshake 
between Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Rabin. You also have footage 
of the tragedy of President Kennedy's assassination. But I'm also told 
there are even a few lighter moments reserved for ``I Love Lucy'' and 
``Happy Days'' and ``Seinfeld.''
    This museum is a tribute not only to radio and television but 
especially to the men and women who pioneered them and who made the most 
of their infinite potential. Some of our country's greatest creative 
talents have dedicated their lives to writing, directing, and producing 
radio and TV shows. And some of our greatest talents are still engaged 
in that important work. This museum honors them too.
    The Museum of Television and Radio is doing nothing less than 
preserving our historical and cultural legacy for the future. Through 
its screening and listening devices, the seminars, the classes, the 
museum plays an important role as it enhances people's understanding of 
the craft and the creativity of these two media and how they've had an 
impact on our lives. Using the same satellite technology that allows me 
to join you this evening, the museum is able to take its education 
programs to a national audience, particularly through its University 
Satellite Seminar Series, which reaches college students all across our 
Nation.
    I know many of you in attendance have been instrumental in giving us 
the gift of radio and television. Let me thank you for that gift which 
touches millions of Americans

[[Page 521]]

every day. And I want to thank you, too, for the gift of the Museum of 
Television and Radio, first in New York and now in Los Angeles. It's a 
great gift to the American people. You have created a significant 
cultural institution.
    I congratulate you, I thank you, and I wish you well this evening. 
Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke by satellite at 10:40 p.m. from the Library at 
the White House. In his remarks, he referred to former Prime Ministers 
Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Chairman Yasser Arafat of 
the Palestinian Authority.