Great White Plays At Wildfire Benefit Concert

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 24, 2008 at 12:40 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

A concert tonight in San Diego hopes to raise money for victims of last October's wildfires in the county. Slow ticket sales have caused promoters to slash prices. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyc

A concert tonight in San Diego hopes to raise money for victims of last October's wildfires in the county. Slow ticket sales have caused promoters to slash prices. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

Rock bands Great White and Asia, along with Dokken and Sweet are performing at what's billed as a community benefit party to promote healing.

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Great White was on a Rhode Island nightclub stage five years ago when the band's pyrotechnics ignited a fire that killed 100 people, including the band's lead guitarist.

George Salameh is general manager for Love and Roll Productions, which is producing the benefit.

He says 90-percent of the money raised will go to Rancho Bernardo United to help fire victims with counseling, insurance and other needs.

Salameh: There area a lot of folks out there that have not rebuilt. I mean Rancho Bernardo alone 360 homes were lost. Less than 150 started rebuilding. You still got 210-plus homes that have not even pulled permits.

He says prices for the benefit concert at the Qualcomm practice field have been cut in half because only about 2,000 tickets have been sold.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

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Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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