Current (https://current.org/series/rewind)
This series features scholars of media history looking back at both familiar and lesser-known chapters in public broadcasting’s evolution. “Rewind” is presented in partnership with the Radio Preservation Task Force, an initiative of the Library of Congress.
“Chicanas who stepped up to the microphone for the first time were not only hearing their own voices audibly broadcasted over public airwaves, they also were announcing the arrival of a sonically distinct Chicana public sphere.”
Forty years ago, NPR was facing another financial challenge — one that threatened its very existence.
In the 1930s, dramatized documentaries produced by the U.S. Office of Education went beyond factual content to foster a desire for civic engagement among listeners.
“Writing a biography of a person or place, much less four people and a place as storied as NPR, is not for the faint of heart.”
Public media’s mission was clear early on, but an emphasis on high-quality programming was needed to earn widespread support.
NPR was incorporated Feb. 26, 1970, marking a new stage in the growth of a public media system rooted in education.
The New York station may not have survived the Great Depression without help from the federal government.
During his 35 years at Indiana State Teachers College — now Indiana State University — Clarence “Doc” Morgan also trained scores of future broadcasters.
To one viewer and parent, competitive pressures and fading institutional knowledge have compromised the show’s “gritty urban utopianism.”
A group of bilingual radio stations founded in the late 1970s “helped distinguish Spanish-language and bilingual broadcasting as a form of advocacy.”