CPB

The Public Radio Study, 1969

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This study — partially funded by CPB and the Ford Foundation during CPB’s first year and released in April 1969 — recommended creation of a public radio network and a national production center (a year before the founding of NPR), restructuring of the noncommercial FM band, and formation of a radio division at CPB to look out for public radio’s interests. The study was headed by Samuel C.O. Holt, who later served as programming chief at NPR. Holt’s recommendations are here. Summary
The Public Radio Study was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and The Ford Foundation at an important time for the medium. We have tried to gain a feeling for noncommercial educational radio and its problems, to get from the station managers and others who work in the medium something of their attitudes toward their field and its future, and to make recommendations to meet some of the problems we encountered in our field work.

Public Media Policybase

The Public Radio Study, 1969

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Summary and Recommendations
This study — partially funded by CPB during its first year and released in April 1969 — recommended creation of a public radio network and a national production center (a year before the founding of NPR), restructuring of the noncommercial FM band, and formation of a radio division at CPB to look out for public radio’s interests. The study was headed by Samuel C.O. Holt, who later served as programming chief at NPR. Jump to Recommendations

The Public Radio Study was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and The Ford Foundation at an important time for the medium. We have tried to gain a feeling for noncommercial educational radio and its problems, to get from the station managers and others who work in the medium something of their attitudes toward their field and its future, and to make recommendations to meet some of the problems we encountered in our field work. First, we tried to put noncommercial radio in perspective in a period which has seen great changes in the roles of media.

Public Media Policybase

Proposal on Formation of the Public Television Network, 1968

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What kind of organization should interconnect the public TV stations? On Sept. 23, 1968, a little more than a year before the formation of PBS, two officials of the newly created Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ward B. Chamberlin and Robert D.B. Carlisle, drafted this proposal for a new nonprofit network. INTRODUCTORY

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, and the intensive discussions that preceded its enactment, have given high priority to the establishment of a nationwide interconnected television network to serve public TV daily. To give this system dedicated and professional management in keeping with its significant objectives, formation of an independent organization will be necessary.

History of public media

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

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Enacted less than 10 months after the report of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Broadcasting, this law initiates federal aid to the operation (as opposed to funding capital facilities) of public broadcasting. Provisions include:

extending authorization of the earlier Educational Television Facilities Act,
forbidding educational broadcasting stations to editorialize or support or oppose political candidates,
establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and defining its board and purposes
authorizing reduced telecommunications rates for interconnection
authorizing appropriations to CPB, and
authorizing a federal study of instructional television and radio. Public Law 90-129, 90th Congress, November 7, 1967 (as amended to April 26, 1968)
Title I—Construction of Facilities
Extension of duration of construction grants for educational broadcasting

Sec. 101. (a) Section 391 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 391) is amended by inserting after the first sentence the following new sentence: “There are also authorized to be appropriated for carrying out the purposes of such section, $10,500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1968, $12,500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1969, and $15,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1970.”

(b) The last sentence of such section is amended by striking out “July 1, 1968” and inserting in lieu thereof “July 1,1971.”

Maximum on grants in any State

Sec.

History of public media

The Hidden Medium: A Status Report on Educational Radio in the United States, 1967

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With support building for federal aid to public TV, the advocates of public radio found they had to act quickly to make their case. National Educational Radio, a division of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, hired Herman W. Land Associates to study the field and its potential. The resulting book, The Hidden Medium: A Status Report on Educational Radio in the United States, was published in April 1967. Overview and Summary
The oldest of the electronic media, going back in service to experimental beginnings as station 9xm in the year 1919, educational radio, almost a half century later, remains virtually unknown as a communications force in its own right. Overshadowed first by commercial radio, then by television, it has suffered long neglect arising from disinterest and apathy among the educational administrators who control much of its fortunes.

History of public media

President Johnson asks Congress to aid public television, 1967

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A month after the release of the first Carnegie Commission report, LBJ announced legislation to help pay for operations of public TV for the first time. These remarks appear in his health/education proposals to Congress, between the sections on adult illiteracy and computers in the classroom, leading off a section titled “Building for Tomorrow.” Before the end of the year, Congress had expanded the bill to include public radio and Johnson was signing the Public Broadcasting Act into law. BUILDING FOR TOMORROW
Public television

In 1951, the Federal Communications Commission set aside the first 242 television channels for noncommercial broadcasting, declaring:
The public interest will be clearly served if these stations contribute significantly to the educational process of the Nation. The first educational television station went on the air in May 1953.

Public Media Policybase

Carnegie I: Members, Preface and Introductory Note, 1967

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A 15-member commission created in 1965 by a major foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, released its report, Public Television: A Program for Action, on Jan. 26, 1967, popularizing the phrase “public television” and assisting the legislative campaign for federal aid to the field. (Public radio was added later by Congress.) See also Summary of the report’s recommendations. The commission chair, James R. Killian Jr. (1904-88) had already played a prominent public role as the first White House science advisor, 1955-57, advocating emphasis on science education, the creation of NASA and greater funding for the National Science Foundation as the Eisenhower administration responded to Washington’s post-Sputnik panic. At MIT, Killian was a former Technology Review editor and wartime R&D leader who became the school’s president, 1948-59, and chair, 1959-71.

Carnegie Commission

Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, ‘Public Television: A Program for Action,’ 1967

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A 15-member commission created in 1965 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York released its report, “Public Television: A Program for Action,” on Jan. 26, 1967, popularizing the phrase “public television” and assisting the legislative campaign for federal aid to the field. (Public radio was added later by Congress.) See also the list of commission members and the Preface and Introductory Note of the report. The report’s summary of recommendations:
A Proposal to Extend and Strengthen Educational Television: A Summary of the Commission’s Report
The Carnegie Commission on Educational Television has reached the conclusion that a well-financed and well-directed educational television system, substantially larger and far more pervasive and effective than that which now exists in the United States, must be brought into being if the full needs of the American public are to be served. This is the central conclusion of the Commission and all of its recommendations are designed accordingly.

Public Media Policybase

Carnegie I: E.B. White’s letter to the first Carnegie Commission

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In this letter to the first Carnegie Commission, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker magazine essayist (1899-1985) gives one of the most compact and eloquent descriptions of what advocates hoped public television would become. (White’s books included Charlotte’s Web, and he co-authored The Elements of Style, familiar to many English students.)

On stationery of the magazine where he worked for years, White addressed Stephen White, assistant to the Carnegie Commission chair, James R. Killian Jr.

Chapter 1 of the commission’s report begins with an excerpt from the letter shown in color below. The New Yorker
No. 23 West 43rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10036

September 26, 1966

Dear Steve:

I have a grandson now named Steven White, and I’ll bet he can swim faster and stay under longer than you can. As for television, I doubt that I have any ideas or suggestions that would be worth putting on paper.

Public Media Policybase

Educational Television Progress Report, Sen. Warren Magnuson, 1965

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Sen. Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.), then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, laid out the case for federal aid to public broadcasting in this report published a month before the creation of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television. The senator entered the report in the Congressional Record as an “extension of remarks” for Oct. 22, 1965.  Little more than two years later, President Johnson had signed the Public Broadcasting Act. Mr. President, in 1962 the Congress enacted the Educational Television Facilities Act which made it possible for direct Federal support for educational television stations. Since 1962 grants have been made under the formula set forth in the Educational Television Facilities Act on a matching basis for the development of new stations and for the expansion of existing facilities.

Public Media Policybase

Educational Television Progress Report, Sen. Warren Magnuson, 1965

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Sen. Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.), then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, laid out the case for federal aid to public broadcasting in this report published a month before the creation of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television. The senator entered the report in the Congressional Record as an “extension of remarks” for Oct. 22, 1965. Little more than two years later, President Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act.  

Mr. President, in 1962 the Congress enacted the Educational Television Facilities Act which made it possible for direct Federal support for educational television stations.

History of public media

Educational Television Facilities Act of 1962

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With this law, signed by President Kennedy on May 1, 1962, Congress gave the first major federal aid to public broadcasting. The grants for new and replacement facilities and equipment initially were overseen by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; the successor Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) was operated by a Commerce Department agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Amid budget showdowns, Congress defunded PTFP after fiscal year 2010. PART IV — GRANTS FOR EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING FACILITIES

Declaration of Purpose

SEC. 390. The purpose of this part is to assist (through matching grants) in the construction of educational television broadcasting facilities.

Public Media Policybase

President Kennedy, 1962: Facilities act will help put unused educational TV channels on the air

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Statement by President John F. Kennedy, May 1, 1962, upon signing the Educational Television Facilities Act, Public Law 87-447 (76 Stat. 64), which provided subsidies for educational broadcasting facilities. This marks a new chapter in the expression of federal interest in education. One hundred years ago, with the enactment of the Morrill Land Grant College Act, higher education was made a matter of national concern while, at the same time, state operation and control were retained. Today, we take a similar action.

Public Media Policybase

Educational Television Facilities Act of 1962

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With this law, signed by President Kennedy on May 1, 1962, Congress gave the first major federal aid to public broadcasting. The grants for new and replacement facilities and equipment were overseen by the Office of Education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The successor Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) was operated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Department of Commerce until 2011, when budget cutbacks ended PTFP appropriations (Current, April 18, 2001). The act became Part IV of the Public Broadcasting Act:

PART IV — GRANTS FOR EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION BROADCASTING FACILITIES
Declaration of Purpose

SEC. 390.

Public Media Policybase

David M. Davis memo, 1958: ‘This will not be just another television program’

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David M. Davis, an early TV production executive at Boston’s WGBH, pushes his producers to excel in a 1958 memo. He later became a major grantmaker for the Ford Foundation and chief exec of PBS’s longrunning drama showcase, American Playhouse. Memorandum July 23, 1958

To: Tv producer-directors
From: David M. Davis
Subject: Creativity

I have a great concern that we are not all utilizing the creative imagination that we have to make our programs interesting, stimulating, and even exciting. It seems to me that many of us are in a rather deep rut on stock format types of programs, and that real attempt at creation is not taking place. I think that the lifestyle series which will be assigned to each producer on a rotating basis during the coming season will be very helpful in this regard since each producer will have an opportunity to develop his own program in the direction in which he wishes to go.

History of public media

CPB-PBS Partnership Agreement, 1973

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After three years of conflict between PBS and Nixon Administration appointees at CPB, the boards of the two organizations reached this agreement, securing PBS’s role as operator of public TV’s interconnection. (The pact was adopted May 31, 1973 by the PBS Board’s Executive Committee and the CPB Board. The full PBS Board ratified it June 28, 1973.)

Resolved, by the Boards of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service, that:
In order to effect a vigorous partnership in behalf of the independence and diversity of public television and to improve the excellence of its programs;

to enhance the development, passage by Congress, and approval by the Executive branch of a long-range financing program that would remove public broadcasting from the political hazards of annual authorizations and appropriations;

to further strengthen the autonomy and independence of local public television stations; and

to reaffirm that public affairs programs are an essential responsibility of public broadcasting,
the Boards of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) do hereby jointly adopt the following agreement:
1. CPB will, in consultation with PBS, other interested parties, and the public, decide all CPB funded programs through a CPB program department. The consultation prior to CPB’s decision is vital so that the CPB programming department will understand what the licensees’ needs are and thus avoid any possibility that CPB will fund programs that the licensees do not want.