1950
February: Iowa State College launches WOI,
first TV station owned by educational institution, though it operates
commercially (in 1994, Iowa State sells WOI).
Oct. 16: NAEB and educators organize Joint Committee on Educational Television
(JCET) organizes (it later changes its name twice, eventually becoming
the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications in 1966).
..
1952
April 14: FCC’s Sixth Report and Order allocates
local TV channels, reserves 242 for noncom educational TV.
October: Ford Foundation funds Educational Television and Radio Center
in Ann Arbor to distribute programs. In latter-day
tryout of Cooperation Doctrine, Ford also begins Sunday arts magazine
Omnibus on CBS, hosted by Alistair Cooke [article].
(It airs five seasons, the last on ABC.)
..
1953
May 25: The University of Houston signs on
the first noncommercial educational TV station, KUHT [article].
1955
KQED in San Francisco pioneers the public TV
auction.
1958
Sept. 2: Congress passes National Defense Education
Act, which aids numerous instructional TV projects.
1959
Jan. 24: Under new president John White, Educational
Television and Radio Center adds “National” to its name (it later becomes
National Educational Television, NET). July:
NETRC moves from Ann Arbor to New York City.
1960
December: Eastern Educational Television Network
(EEN) incorporates after 1959 demonstration of hookup between Boston and
Durham, N.H.
..
 Reserved-channels advocate Frieda Hennock of the FCC appears on KUHT's debut broadcast, 1953. |
Educational Radio Network established (“Eastern”
is added to name in 1963). Midwest Program for
Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI) experimentally broadcasts ITV to
six states from airliner circling above Indiana...
May 1: President Kennedy signs Educational Television
Facilities Act [text
of law], bringing first major federal aid to pubcasting (predecessor
of today’s Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, PTFP).
July 10: All-Channel Receiver Act, aiding UHF channels, signed into law.
Sept. 9: New York City finally gets a public
TV station, as WNDT (later WNET) goes on-air.
FCC approves Lorenzo Milam’s KRAB-FM in Seattle, first of “Krab Nebula”
community radio stations...
1963
Jan. 25: WGBH begins airing Julia Child’s first
French Chef series (later distributed nationally).
July 25: FCC allows Instructional Television Fixed Service microwave for
education.
1964
FCC authorizes 100th noncommercial educational
TV station. June 10: FCC authorizes first statewide
educational TV translator network, in Utah.
Dec. 7-8: NAEB First Conference on Long-Range Financing proposes presidential
commission on future funding.
1965
Nov. 10: Carnegie Corporation of New York establishes
Carnegie Commission on Educational Television (Carnegie I).
Fred Rogers’ program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, debuts on EEN
regional hookup (goes national on NET in 1968).
1966
Aug. 1: Ford Foundation proposes to the FCC
(in vain) that profits from a nonprofit communications satellite system
for all broadcasters would go to public broadcasting.
..
 Julia Child and producer Russ Morash pioneered how-to programs. |
1967
Jan. 26: Carnegie I releases report proposing
federal aid and an extension of educational TV called “public television”
[summary].
Feb. 23: WETA premieres Washington Week
in Review (it goes national on PBS in 1969).
March: NAEB Second Conference on Long-range Financing reviews Carnegie
report. April: NAEB report, The Hidden
Medium,
promotes aid to educational radio as well [summary].
April: Though Carnegie report and original legislation would have aided
only TV, the final Senate bill creating CPB also includes radio, thanks
to a concerted campaign by Jerold Sandler and other radio advocates [excerpt
from Jack Mitchell's history of public radio]. Nov.
5: Ford Foundation launches Public
Broadcasting Laboratory (PBL), live Sunday-night magazine program.
(CBS starts 60 Minutes a year later.)
Nov. 7: President Johnson signs Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, authorizing
federal operating aid to stations through new agency, CPB [text
of law & LBJ's
message].
1968
March: CPB incorporates.
KQED, San Francisco, innovates in news programming with Newsroom,
begun during newspaper strike.
..
|
|
NET begins regular interconnection for educational
TV; The Forsyte Saga is a hit. CPB begins
general support grants to stations (later called Community Service Grants).
Precursor of Internet, ARPANET, hooked up by
researchers. Nov. 3: PBS is incorporated [document].
(Its board chooses Hartford Gunn as first president, February 1970.)
Nov. 10: Sesame Street debuts.|
|
current.org