Toward A New Era: WGBH Dedicates Its New Building: May 1, 1965

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Whoa box society Orchestra under the direction of Gregory this has played the Brandenburg Concerto Number three by Johann Sebastian Bach and now continuing our WGBH dedication program the next person I have the honor to present has had in the last few years a career in educational television which can only be described as sensational. In February 1963 Julia Child started doing what sounded like just another television cooking show. But within a very short time she was getting hundreds of letters a week from viewers men and women as well as expressions of interest from radio and television stations all over the country. And now she is being seen and enjoy every week almost 90.

Educational Television stations throughout the United States. In addition to our regular viewers in the greater Boston area which number in the hundreds of thousands. I am happy to be able to say at this time that last Monday Mrs. child was the recipient of WGBH his fifth Peabody Award. Julia Child. Well no connection to go to prison and no one to do nice things about a really really wonderful new building our building that belongs to

all of us. So this is really kind of a celebration all of us working stiffs here and all of you out there and me all over the last two WOMEN OF THOSE OF YOU SEE ME most many many of us who call Ravenloft to superjet it takes at least seven women on the ground to keep one woman in there. Well anyway we all love our work at WGBH and what we're seeing and see we just love being at Channel 2 because you see something particularly It's about the atmosphere it's the atmosphere of people working together because we want to work together and of people working together because they like what they're doing. Well also because we can do what we

believe I'm doing. And I think to all of us it's the most important part of educational television because you're able to express and to create and to experiment. And this whole opportunity for free creative expression is something we need in this great society of ours. And don't we girls don't appreciate it. And we have you our audience to thank for all of this because of course we could go on creating and start talking about in front of the cameras and lights to our hearts content. But we could fill the airwaves with these masterpieces of ours. But if you didn't Peniston we'd be broadcasting in a vacuum. In fact we would be tinkling bells in the wilderness you know there because we get letters from you when we get telephone calls from you and we know you're looking

at this. In fact we feel that your family and you love you always help us out these families do. But the very nice thing about this family relationship you know is that you can always turn. So the nice thing about tonight is that you turn the phone on the evening of the first TV and we want to thank you because it's you who has made this deal possible. So we're hearing not only to dedicate the studio but we're here to dedicate ourselves to you to a new era. Thank you. Thank you Judy. Tonight we celebrate the 10th anniversary of WGBH to the book by a remarkable coincidence. It was exactly

19 years ago today. Five letters went out from the office of president Conant of Harvard to the presidents of five other colleges in the Boston area inviting them to a lunch with Ralph Lol at that meeting. Important decisions were made which led up to the events we are celebrating tonight. Here is Dr. Conant. One might say it all began at the luncheon on May 24 1946. Based upon my house I had invited to a luncheon at staff house prices of six institutions Boston College. Massachusetts Institute of Technology in northeastern Boston University and of course I was there myself representing them and I'd after the same

line can Lowe the trustee of the local institute. I think that my invitation to Lincoln had said nothing about broadcasting but had indicated that I had something to discuss with these colleagues of mine about the possibility of cooperative action in regard to golf education. I'm with that time discuss the project that Ron Paul and I had talked about in preparation for this luncheon about which I've been speaking. I don't remember which one of us I thought of the idea. First time in the Lowell Institute with radio broadcasting and with a cooperative enterprise involving six institutions that we had quite a family come to our own opinions far far away broached the idea to the other five institutions that this mansion. Now the law in the US had a long tradition. I was very familiar with them because I remember as a small boy in the first decade of this century

tending at least two series of lectures given by the low end to the lecture then I work in a buildings which belong to Massachusetts Institute of Technology which are on Boylston Street in Boston I form a lecture room. I can say now that transrational as a young man a distinguished philosopher already speaking to his audience and a professor at Harvard two I was later to work on the professor Richards giving his lectures on chemistry. This time. But as time went on I think the Boston people became less interested in attending this type of public lecture. Unless I'm mistaken Rob flood said to me I think something new has to be done with the reins to the lowlands. You had a long history of adapting to change. You began 130 years ago with the extraordinarily far sighted well of John Lowell Jr. son

of the man who had so much to do with the introduction of textile mills into New England and he was a founder of the town of John Jr. lost his wife and two daughters. He was still quite young after that tragedy took a trip around the world. He was traveling in Egypt with the artist Cherie Blair who painted these exotic portraits of him finding himself in hell in luxo the age of the pharaohs. Lolo made generous arrangements in a codicil to his will for the education of the people of his native region the soil of New England is starer sterile and I'm protected and the prosperity of the region depends first on the moral quality and secondly on the intelligence and information of its inhabitants. I therefore instruct the executors of my state to make provision for courses in the sciences and literature for any subject if their wants and tastes of the age may demand some of the courses were to be

free and for others more specialized. The students might have to pay but John with typical New England frugality specified that those who could do so might pay a sum not exceeding the value of two bushels of wheat. The will specifies that there should be a sole trustee and over the past 130 years there have been only four trustees guiding the destiny of the loneliness and the first was John or the lower and under his direction the lower letters began in 1839. Over the years Boston audiences have heard from some of the greatest intellects of America and your good ever. Oliver Wendell Holmes William channel William Deane Howell Enry Adams William James and Bertrand Russell. The second trustee was Augustus Sloan the third a and

slow president of Harvard University established the Commission on extension courses. Another co-operative venture supported by the Lowell Institute and then Ralph Lowell the present trustee Ralph Lois graduated from Harvard and the class of 1912 a member of five beta kappa like his ancestor John Lowe Jr.. He took the traditional family trip abroad in India. He attended the wedding of his classmate the Gaekwad returning home by the clan Siberian Railway. In 1915 and Plattsburgh New York. Ralph Lowe was amongst the first Americans to claim preparedness for the coming conflict in Europe. He was one of the two youngest majors to come out of training at the time of mobilization when he was promoted to a kind of left wing age of 28. His commanding officer strongly advised him to make the Army because he wasn't likely to do better

anywhere else. In 1917 major law married Charlotte and between the two wars they raised a family of six children in 1943 when the trustees took you from a long slow route he was actually sitting on the boards and committees of scores of businesses charitable and educational organization. It was three years later in 1946 when he was at an age when most man had become fixed in their way of thinking. Then he took on a demanding new career. Finding that play had gone page to the age was changing and faced with the emergence of radically new means of communication Ralph Lowell took on the task of adapting broadcasting for the purpose of education. And somewhere in the discussion between Ralph on my side the idea that the Lonely would be concerned with broadcasting radio broadcasting

and that the six institutions would cooperate in the venture. And they did cooperate within a few months Focker Weekly was appointed director of the local institute co-operative broadcasting council and on February 3rd 1947 the first programs went out on commercial radio stations of Boston University as well taking an unprecedented opportunity to reach out into the community. All of the member institutions including Northeastern University lent their facilities to a series called we human beings. You see the only audience for that program is going to be around 33000 people. From Boston College including Reverend David Cameron of a program called our children on station w. Event was represented that first day by Dr Richards who gave readings and commentary

from the Iliad and The Odyssey station WHDH by May. He was reaching an audience estimated at 25000 live in. Lectures go right back to the numbers crossroads of the future on station w. Meteorological experts and an MIT led by Professor presented the community with a new type of weather program on WBEZ. On WNYC. Donald born and another professor from Boston University put on an American lecture series called Have you read. Hundreds of faculty members gave freely of their time and energy to make hundreds of programs. The Boston radio stations were helpful and cooperative but eventually it was decided that the next step would be the regular

operation of an FM radio station devoted entirely to educational and cultural programming. During 1951 they rose on a hill in Newton Massachusetts a new transmitter and the call letters of the station were designated b b a long break. The transmitter was donated to MIT by Major Armstrong. The search led to the discovery of FM broadcasting transmitting equipment was housed in the room balletic kind of a hybrid meteorological observatory on the summit. The offices of the broadcasting Council and to Symphony Hall as the Boston Symphony Orchestra became the eight member institution. GBH half an went on the air Saturday

evening October 6 1951 with the opening Boston Symphony Orchestra concert of the season. It's the first time since the very earliest days of radio that the orchestra cast a symphony in its entirety. Charles Munz conductor and Karen cope unless the intermission cast on the initial radio broadcast. To other neighbors on Huntington Avenue joined the broadcasting council that year the New England Conservatory of Music which has since brought an unbroken series of weekly concerts to our audiences. And the Museum of Fine Arts Boston inclusion of the museum being primarily a visual institution came in anticipation of the next big step. Television. The FCC had reserved channels throughout the country for educational non-commercial stations and the casting Council with its record of experience in educational programming was the natural applicant from Boston

having received authority to build a station. The council then faced the problem of money. It was only when the fighting finally recognized the future of educational television and provided major initial funds for construction. Channel 2 really got underway with additional help from the funding for adult education and from a public funding campaign it was possible for WGBH to move from symphony hall into a free model roller skating rink opposite the main entrance to an tea and pamphlet television broadcasting. Ten years ago tomorrow May 2nd 1955 WGBH TV Channel 2 went on the air the way lions came out of his makeshift radio studio in Harvard Square into the television studio the Museum of Fine Art was completely wired for a weekly television show is in all its gallery in a few years that follow. I have been reading with Boston College Albert Duhamel move into the

television studio the MIT science reporter came into being courses in the graphic arts from Northeastern and the school of the Museum of Fine Arts took advantage of the visual possibility even a new series called discovery April Mary Leila Grymes and her natural science programs into the homes of thousands of families jives with Father O'Connor became a regular Friday evening on television. Robert Beram of Boston University began his long series of commentaries on the New England scene. Elliot Norton started an uninterrupted series of drama criticism and interviews with Myron Spencer came along with the business near Metropolis without a WCT Joyce exploring metropolitan covering thousands of programmers thousands of faculty and students enthusiastically donated their time. Many individuals in the audience came in and volunteer to work with WGBH without pay and they still do. And although before the coming of

television the member institutions were the sole financial support for WGBH greatly multiplied expenses expensive television made it necessary to call upon WGBH and seize upon companies upon foundations to contribute to the station's operating expenses and they did so generously. During this period. Brandeis University became the eleventh member institution in 1954 followed by the Museum of Science in 1956. The programs are always the main thing. Many of them are considered good enough to find audiences out New England New York and Washington and all across the country. National Educational Television on occasion at WGBH program guide and a little like who's who I showered on the station and was decorated the most

praised educational station in the country. Then came October 14 1961 just as WGBH was beginning a new series of program. And within two hours everything was foggy. And a few bleak moments of labor and teen years had come to naught but the spirit of the enterprise carrying it on.

Broadcasting on radio and television continue. Hardly missing a commercial station once again came to the aid educational broadcast. WHDH studios for months and the Catholic television center gave us a shelter for over a year. We were able to move into temporary studios and the Museum of Science Technology is often working space for all the person and lavishing their courage and their money materials and volunteer how we communicate. So for an important part of life. More than 50000 individuals companies trade unions organizations and foundations save one million eight hundred thousand dollars to rebuild.

All that has been lost in the flames. And the membership of the broadcasting Council amplified once again with the addition of Simmons College in 1964. And another great institution in a neighboring state Yale University on April 28 1965. And here at last after more than three and a half years since the fire at WGBH building has completed a facility that's admired and even envied by commercial and educational broadcasters alike. I must say it's rather odd that I should be making this trip in the television studio at WGBH. If anybody had told me or anybody any of the battlelines that 20 years later this would be happening this would have seemed to us absolutely impossible. As players we had no idea of them at the low end. I pray broadcasting Council what operating station of any

song it was in the distant future and I for-TV a friend of mine who ought to know all about such technical matters. Ray was closely tied in one of the big companies involved and equipment had told me some years before that he knew all about television that was absolutely had no future. It was too complicated and couldn't possibly make day to work. So I came out of this meeting at the Dana Palmer House was something which none of us couldn't foresee. The fact that this community educational radio and television station has this group serving it tonight is due in no small part to the fact that Routh following the paths pointed out by John Lowe Jr. more than a century ago has devoted his energies to the task of helping to educate enlightened and inform the inhabitants of his native New England. We are in the lobby of this fine new building for the ceremony towards which this whole program has really been pointing. This

wall just inside the front door. Two planks. This one reads these studios are owned by the WGBH educational foundation. But in a larger sense they belong to the community which made them possible. More than 50000 persons and organizations contributed to the cost of the building and major donations were made by the Ford Foundation the 20th Century Fund. In honor of Edward filing the Committee of the permanent charity fund incorporated we at WGBH can never sufficiently express our gratitude to all of you who helped make this building possible. And now it gives me the greatest pleasure to read the other plaque to dedicate the Raffles studios. Named in honor of founder of the Lowell Institute of

co-operative broadcasting Council first president of the WGBH Educational Foundation and so forth and his line to serve the cause of education in this community as trustee of the lower Institute. May 1st 1965. Will. You pay tribute to me because I recognize and I'm sure you do that WTVG could never become used today without the help of a great numbers of

people. I would like to pay tribute to the president of the citizens abroad I can count both those who are in office when the century began and those who have succeeded to cooperate and support gay marriage have always given been the major reason for the success of WGBH. I also wanted to take his advice and help during the whole existence of the council to here his secretary the cooperation of Congress and even a member of the executive committee of WGBH since its very beginning his guide to me and to all of us. We all agreed that it would also the weekly amalgamation for him because it really

is gonna be great. How much go I. You do. Primary educational television and approach. How can we combine two solid realities and an understanding with many are accounts with WIVB has been one of the most pleasant and rewarding things in my life and could explain why. Tell me how much they enjoy a big town or two. I feel it is a significant point in our community. I am proud to play a part in helping to make it so. In closing

facts I can remind you that this place has always existed for one community with the best television and radio in mankind. And I wonder if just quit her job to deviate really belongs to the community as a whole. This is a wonderful came from the vantage point from the bottom of my heart. For.

God. For

you for. God. So.

I knew this has been a special program to dedicate the new global studio on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of WGBH TV channels you heard on the program with Ringo and conservatory brass ensemble paired by Rajeev was playing for the common man then conducted by Aaron Copland also the Harvard University Choir conducted by John Sayles and the orchestra under the direction of Gregory the master of ceremonies was authored in John Junior General Manager of Richard university professor at Harvard. From the other speakers were James B.

CONAN And Lyons and narrator were William Piers and William campness. His program was directed by Russell Moran Caruso used by Robert Larsen. This has been a production of a local institute collaborative broadcasting Council