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Corporations put aside egos, rivalry to help out

By David Lieberman, USA TODAY

NEW YORK  Over the last 5 weeks, Cablevision Systems CEO Jim Dolan has
faced the management challenge of a lifetime.

He's the de facto CEO of a virtual corporation working with some of the
biggest egos in the media business  including executives from VH1, Miramax
Films and America Online  as they've planned one of the most remarkable
events in pop music history: Saturday night's "The Concert for New York
City."

Some 19 hitmakers, including Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Elton John, David
Bowie, Eric Clapton, The Who, James Taylor, Macy Gray and Melissa Etheridge,
will appear at Madison Square Garden to help raise money for victims of the
Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Other stars will play concerts in Washington and Nashville.

"We all are wealthy individuals," says Dolan, 45, whose company owns the
Garden. "We all come from fairly well-heeled companies. We all could have
written checks and just said, 'That's it. We did it.' There was pressure on
us to do that. And everybody who wrote checks did a wonderful thing. But
we're New Yorkers, and we wanted to do something that went beyond that."

Dolan and VH1 President John Sykes hatched the idea for a concert in
mid-September. Dolan agreed to contribute the Garden, with VH1 handling the
live cablecast. AOL Time Warner's Bob Pittman threw in his company's
Internet and marketing clout.

They wanted to raise money for a special fund of the Robin Hood Foundation 
a charity run by New York's media and investment banking elite to help end
poverty in the city.

It turned into a superstar extravaganza after Dolan's pal, Miramax
co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein, enlisted McCartney while giving the former
Beatle a lift to London on a Disney corporate jet.

"I was at a Viacom staff meeting and I got a note: Harvey Weinstein and Paul
McCartney on line 2," Sykes says. "They had just landed, and Harvey made him
go to a phone right there on the tarmac."

Many of the costs are hard to calculate.

"We are probably running, from Friday to Sunday morning, one of the largest
private air services in America to bring in people from all over the world,"
says Weinstein. "Jim's plane, my plane  we're logging some miles."

Organizers won't say how much they hope to raise. But they have ambitious
targets:

 Tickets. They expect to generate about twice as much as the
highest-grossing concert in the Garden's history: Fans shelled out $7
million to see Barbra Streisand last year.

About 5,000 of the best seats out of the 14,000 available were given to
rescue workers and victims' families. But remaining tickets sold for $200 to
$10,000, with most going to corporate backers.

 Telethon. Those tuning in to the commercial-free broadcasts on VH1, the
VH1 Radio Network and Westwood One  and Webcasts on AOL  will be urged to
call in pledges to 888-NYMUSIC.

About 2,000 AOL customer representatives will answer phones. Some 6,000
others will come from AT&T, Aegis, Charles Schwab, Con Edison, Cox, First
Union/Wachovia and Dial America.

 Sponsorships. Organizers expect more than $8 million from companies paying
at least $1 million apiece to back the event. Sponsors include Bear Stearns,
eBay, Ford, PepsiCo, Vivendi Universal and SoundView Technology Group.

 CD and DVD sales. Sony's Columbia Records won the rights by agreeing to
pay a $1 million advance against royalties. The double CD will go on sale
Nov. 27, with a concert DVD to follow.

Columbia intends to donate some, but not all, of its receipts to the Robin
Hood Foundation.

 Merchandise. The charity will get proceeds from T-shirt and paraphernalia
sales. In addition, eBay will auction memorabilia, including autographed
guitars, the $12,000 drum set custom made for Bon Jovi's performance, and
signed stage clothing.

 TV rights. Organizers are talking to U.S. broadcast networks about
rerunning a 2-hour edited tape of the concert.

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm
        (and no pop-ups!)