The idea for AIDSWatch came four weeks before World AIDS Day, 1996 — a way to bring the names of those lost to AIDS into people's homes. Bill Rosendahl, then head of Century Cable in Los Angeles, made the first broadcast possible on December 1st — reaching over a million households. He had just lost his own companion, Christopher Lee Blauman, that year.
Thirty years later, it still runs. Christopher Lee Blauman's name still comes first.
The History of AIDSWatch
There would be no AIDSWatch if not for several failed attempts to create a panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
The idea for AIDSWatch came in a flash. In 1996, while working with Century Cable broadcast Carnaval in West Hollywood, the thought arose: World AIDS Day was four weeks away. Why not put the names of those lost to AIDS on television?
The idea was mentioned to the crew in the production truck. Their response was simple: “Call Bill.”
Bill Rosendahl understood the idea immediately. Although he was the head of Century Cable/Los Angeles, his support made the first broadcast possible. Rosendahl had lost his longtime companion, Christopher Lee Blauman, earlier that year. He understood bringing AIDS directly into the living room.
There were nowhere near enough names.
In 1996, the internet was in its infancy, email was not yet a practical organizing tool, and social media did not exist. AIDS service organizations were contacted, and roughly 500 names arrived by mail. Several executive assistants volunteered to enter them into DOS computers.
The directory of The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was also used. Thousands of names had been catalogued, although many were incomplete.
The first broadcast was technically primitive. Television's “black” was actually dark gray, the white was less than white, and the names remained on screen for only two seconds. They moved too quickly.
There were fewer than five hours of names.
The names were looped repeatedly to fill the twenty-four-hour broadcast.
The concept, however, endured.
The first broadcast, 1 December 1996, reached more than one million households.
Rosendahl became even more important to AIDSWatch after leaving Century Cable, elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2005. Century became Adelphia, and the company was no longer eager to surrender twenty-four hours of cable time for the project.
John Heilman, then mayor of West Hollywood, offered one of the city's cable channels for AIDSWatch on World AIDS Day.
At WeHoTV, Bob Abrahams became essential to its survival.
Abrahams provided the technical expertise that carried AIDSWatch into the next century. When the project first moved online around 2000, the television signal was simply fed online. The result was crude. Abrahams eventually helped create a cleaner, sharper presentation and developed the code that allowed the site to recognize December 1 on a user's computer and automatically begin the program.
The transition mattered. AIDSWatch was no longer dependent on a television channel.
Christopher Lee Blauman remained central to its history. He was Rosendahl's longtime companion and an important part of his life. He was also a close friend and collaborator of David Reid, who created AIDSWatch. Their connection dated to 1985, when they worked together on a proposal called Lambda Link — a project to satellite the Gay World Series of softball.
Blauman's name remains permanently associated with AIDSWatch. It is always the first name seen when the program begins. Then the names are generated randomly.
George Grubb was another indispensable figure. From the beginning, he secured the AIDSWatch domain, established the website, and for years paid the site's online expenses. He also absorbed significant freight and other costs.
Without Grubb, AIDSWatch would not have survived.
Famed visual artist Yu Tsai created the original artwork that remains the visual theme of the project to this day.
Other supporters contributed along the way. The executive producers of Frasier allowed AIDSWatch to use postage through the show's fan club. Individual donors helped keep the project moving.
AIDSWatch eventually moved beyond television.
In 2007, Michael Kearns installed the project in a Hollywood art space on Fountain Avenue. Twenty-seven television sets, ranging from 1960s models to contemporary sets, displayed the names continuously for twenty-four hours. The installation created a quiet space for people to sit and watch the names appear and disappear.
Other public presentations followed. A computer laboratory at the California Institute of the Arts streamed AIDSWatch for twenty-four hours. In 2017, four movie complexes on Hollywood Boulevard displayed the names on their street-facing marquees.
The City of West Hollywood later projected the names onto the facade of the West Hollywood Library, extending the presentation to seventy-two hours.
West Hollywood Television continues to dedicate a channel to AIDSWatch each year on World AIDS Day.
For most of its history, AIDSWatch was a one-day event: twenty-four hours devoted to names on December 1.
Technology eventually made it possible to change that.
AIDSWatch now runs continuously online. On World AIDS Day, it becomes a full-screen presentation of names, running from midnight to midnight according to the viewer's local time.
The original idea was deliberately simple: names, and nothing else.
That remains the point.