Dick Clark to have Syracuse University studio named for him

Syracuse University said Wednesday that it will name a renovated broadcasting studio on its campus after the late television producer and host Dick Clark, who graduated from the school.

Syracuse is in the midst of an $18 million refurbishing of the studio, which is in one of the three buildings that house the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. The project is expected to be done by September 2014, said Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham.

Clark, the former "American Bandstand" host and creator of ABC's annual New Year's Eve telecast, died in 2012.

Clark's widow, Kari, brought a $5 million check Wednesday to the Mirror Awards ceremony in New York, which annually honors journalists reporting on the media. Branham said it was the largest single gift toward the renovation.

"This is just a continuation of what he did with 'Bandstand' — he gave youth a stage, then got out of the way," Kari Clark said.

Some 18 members of the Clark family have attended Syracuse, said Clark's daughter, Cindy, a 1986 graduate. Clark also donated $1 million for academic scholarships to the Syracuse fraternity he belonged to.

The Newhouse building that is headquarters for Syracuse's radio and television news programs opened in 1974. While its facilities were state of the art then, it is now outdated and putting the university at a competitive disadvantage with similar college programs, Branham said.

The project will make the Newhouse facilities fully digital. The renovation will include high-definition production rooms, a virtual set studio and other spaces for classroom and lab space and room for the student-run television station.

Clark graduated from Syracuse in 1951, and began his broadcasting career at the city's WOLF-AM radio station his senior year.