Metzger to Continue TV Tapings Off Cal State Campus

Former Ku Klux Klan leader Thomas Metzger said Thursday that he will continue to tape his “Race and Reason” show at Group W Cable, which announced it was moving off the Cal State Fullerton University campus.

The cable company plans to relocate its public-access taping, which Metzger has used, from the university to Group W’s central office at 1501 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton.

For more than a month, students have been staging marches and demonstrations at Cal State Fullerton against Metzger’s use of public-access television equipment on campus. Group W provided the equipment to the university in exchange for use of its buildings.

The protests began when the student newspaper, the Daily Titan, wrote a story about the little-known tapings, which have been going on for two years.

Activities Too Fragmented

Jim Bray, manager of Group W’s north Orange County office in Fullerton, said Thursday that plans to move public-access taping off campus had been under way long before the Metzger controversy broke out. “We’ve had this under discussion since last August,” he said.

Bray said the company will consolidate all its equipment at its West Commonwealth Avenue office because activities were too fragmented before. He said Metzger and anyone else still may use Group W equipment to make public-access television shows. But, he said, they must provide people trained to operate the cameras and other equipment.

Metzger, contacted at his office in San Diego County, said the switch poses no problems for him.

“We’re set up so that our staff can use the new facilities,” Metzger said. His White Aryan Resistance organization, he said, already has members trained in the use of television cameras.

The only “loss” to his Fallbrook-based organization, he said, will be the loss of publicity about student protests.

Metzger said the protests and news stories have generated “a lot of mail and applications for membership. . . . What can I say? I’ve got good enemies.”

‘The Issue Dissolves’

Jerry Keating, public affairs director for Cal State Fullerton, said Thursday that the Group W move apparently ends the campus uproar over Metzger. “The issue dissolves with his being physically off campus.”

Keating said it is not clear what will happen to $200,000 worth of Group W television equipment on campus. He said the university is negotiating with the company to keep most of the equipment for taping educational shows.

Group W’s contract with the City of Fullerton requires televising at least 72 hours a year of educational material, Keating said. Cal State Fullerton has provided those shows and plans to do so in the future, if the equipment remains available.

The educational tapings, Keating stressed, are separate from the public-access TV tapings.

Metzger praised Cal State Fullerton President Jewel Plummer Cobb, who repeatedly told students that she would not prevent the Metzger tapings because freedom of speech was involved.

“She has handled the situation well and earned great respect,” said Metzger.