Grant Brimhall/T.O. Library to tune in new radio wing
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

The Thousand Oaks City Council approved a proposal to build a radio archives museum as an addition to the Grant Brimhall/ Thousand Oaks Library.

Now the Thousand Oaks Library Foundation, a nonprofit organization managing the project, must raise $30 million. According to the report prepared by library director Stephen Brogden, the city won't have to provide any money for the project.

Building the two-story, 40,000-square-foot addition to the library will fulfill the goal of having a place to hold library collections that include the documentation of the career of radio legend Norman Corwin. The library has his correspondence, scrapbooks, radio and television scripts, motion picture screenplays, sound recordings, video recordings, photographs, business records and contracts, press clippings and other documents, most dating from 1938 to 1990.

A collection of musical scores, scripts, letters, scrapbooks, recordings and photographs of the late entertainer Rudy Vallee may also be included in the proposed new wing.

The Conejo Recreation and Park District, the library's landlord, has also given its approval.

The site selected is at the northeast end of the library on the side of the administrative offices. Outside is a parking lot for employees.

The funds for the $30-million new building will come from a national campaign, former foundation president Roy Thorsen said.

The Conejo Valley Historical Collection will be housed in the new building, along with a valuable collection of radio archives from the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, which is currently in a sealed room in the basement of a bank at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood. When that collection is brought to Thousand Oaks, it will be protected in a humidity and temperaturecontrolled environment in the library.

Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters claims on its website to have accumulated one of the largest private collections of memorabilia pertaining to the history of radio broadcasting. They also note that when their memorabilia and the library's are combined, the result will be the largest collection of radio material in the United States.

"This will be a major accomplishment that will be a lasting and significant resource, not just for the community but for the nation," said former city manager Grant Brimhall, for whom the library is named.