KCTS: The Black and White Years

The. The. The. The the. Law. Yeah my feeling so good. Why am I feeling so strong. One thing is quoted here. You have given a mighty. Kick. Back with better we both know what yes you did and you skillfully just said go down do it. I don't remember any term professional at least at the outset.

It was very creative. We made it up. It's great fun. Frankly. This may not be too important but on the other hand it may be too. I really don't know that there. Should not be restricted. Hello and welcome to a strange time in America. The time when the furniture suddenly started to glow. I'm Greg Palmer. And I'd like to share some stories with you about a lot of brave folks standing in front of pegboard trying desperately not to sweat. People I grew up watching or claiming I watched live in the hopeful shades of gray days of Channel 9. An anniversary is a good time to remember that Casey wasn't always on the old Philco dial so

return of those now to those thrilling days of 1948 before Casey TS in Seattle was a one channel town. My dad bought a television set and the test pattern was the big thing. Wow. What's the plan I was going to watch just coming out at 5 o'clock going to be there you know. You had to have a TV light on either on top of the screen or a light surrounding the screen or we were all going to go blind because we sat there with the blinds boat all summer long watching that too. You know people would meet where someone had a television and other people did in the block and they would meet to a great social programs. Oh it was and there was this wonderful thing called television in our homes. Follow my star. Came on the air and 948 that was Channel 5 that was the name of it then because it

was owned by the radio sales corporation. Mother bought it. It was very chancy. I was I was afraid to do it but they tell me should they be saying it. I first went on television with I do and we had a little 15 minute show called to beef with the keys and that was in 1949. I am I am. Oh and we saw what was happening on the East Coast so we know what it was and it was the coming thing you know and that was it. And we were just thrilled and honored to be chosen to. Be on the television. Was the big one some people bought television sets you know to see Milton Berle.

It was either live it was on film and it was ratty looking because the film in those days was soft focus because the equipment just wasn't sophisticated. When a few stations started to go on the air they soon discovered that they had miscalculated a lot of things and that television signals were reaching under a lot of places something you never had expected them to reach. We're talking serious primitive here. So the phrase was put on by the FCC so that the engineers could work all those things else they had to really start over again from scratch. But the. Hold that note Dave. This is Dave Eddie of let's sing and play. And if he seems anxious it was the license phrase was important educational TV history because while engineers were trying to figure out why Iowa milking machines were broadcasting the camel news caravan the Federal Communications Commission had time to think

about stuff during the four year freeze the FCC kicked around the bizarre notion of a nonprofit educational channel. And thanks to pressure from Dorothy Bullock and others when the freeze ended Channel Nine's across the country including Seattle's were up for grabs to any organization that promised not to make a dime out of them. So it became the interest of the Seattle Public Schools to begin to learn how they would use it for instruction. The University of Washington was interested to see our university. The public library. The King County schools. And I think the Boy Scouts were also interested in the critiques the Post-Intelligencer was a heavy critic. Yeah. Right. As it was than our Municipal League who published a pamphlet

railing against establishing an educational station when the school districts in the university were already hard pressed for money. Things look very chancy young until Mrs. Bowen called on Dr. Allen who was present at the University of Washington and had donated one hundred eighty two thousand dollars worth of equipment. I've done a lot of refuse Did she talk to some professors over at the UW and they just said no this is this is ridiculous this is just a toy. Nobody ever learns anything from pictures. So then mother went to Governor Langley by then she was determined that this opportunity not be overlooked. I love the looks. Of. All of you. To mae. The university gave in and applied for the license on behalf of an odd group of interested parties

from the Junior League to the Boy Scouts broadcasting makes strange bedfellows. The FCC remember them told to build a studio raise money train a staff get a zillion advisors program the station and get it on the air and all in a year's time or lose the permit. And probably because all those good community folks were video virgins. They said hey no problem. So our whole brand new crew of people who had very little if any experience in producing television programs got their heads together and did a lot of rehearsing a lot of learning and working up toward that December date when we were scheduled to have our inaugural broadcast. The transmitter was operated by the Seattle Public Schools who at that time ran Edison technical school. Some of our here was secondhand from one source or another and a lot of it was put together by at least one that's spent a lot of time

working for the station and learning at the same time. OK back to school said that the curriculum committee which was made up of people curriculum people from all the schools in the area we had meeting after meeting after meeting to discuss what we could do in terms of what they wanted in the classroom the way they raise money. As far as the schools were concerned they charged a dollar per student and that became. About 75 percent of the operating budget. The minister channelled I thought that it should be. Lots of talking heads with lots of information. There wasn't any need for bells or whistles. Warren St. was the first manager channel Corps. He came from KIRO Radio. Warren was the most conservative wing. Of educational broadcasting. Resenting me for him.

And that commercial is a new conception. One of the big ideas about educational television which is what we called ourselves then was that it was an alternative to what was available on commercial television commercials. Well Casey T.S. was trying to rewire Cain's old equipment King was playing with color as was the new guy in town. Just flags and test patterns but color nonetheless Kyra by the way was still just a city in Egypt for most of us because the eventual station owner Sol Haas was up to his format in hearings with the FCC remember them. Fortunately competition and technological advances weren't worrying the KC vs crew. I worked out a schedule. After careful planning with the curriculum committee and took it with fear and trembling to my lawyer Ryan who is a half time program director of the station. And I sort of wanted his approval for what we were going to broadcast.

I gave it to him and he looked at it. With a very serious expression on his face and said I think we're about ready to get in our boat. And. Get ready for sailing. Hang on there Dave. First the great interruption that almost seem to be our ruin was the unanticipated course fire that almost destroyed the entire wiring and engineering part. Of the studio itself burned up the control room burned up the announcer burned up a lot of the stuff so they frantically went to work to get it you know fixed and they couldn't get the announcement fixed so they decided to use the furnace room. So. That when the furnace room there was a monitor that said. Turn off the furnace get ready to take the cue over the headset read the brakes and shut the

furnace back on and go out and do something on the record in their half hour later shop for a new phone. We were able to get on the air very close to the announce a date when when Channel 9 was due to be a reality. Those were exciting times for this little station. Now Dave. OK that was. All. Good. I think. And right. Coming round to feel. Welcome. Oh My Stars Who is that slim lady with black hair. Welcome to happen my house. I was so nervous I could hardly talk. Here's our model of the atom.

My children like you know the words well enough. If you've ever seen a book progress for. What you think you can. Hope to. Have. Well we got off to a bank event put it back on again billing if it will work. I was teaching fifth grade. I was teaching full time I was cooking this thing up and we had to grab up to get all this little girl on here I wish I could remember a name yet. All right Mark Plotkin what can find the box. Art file. Now this is rather temperamental. We put in three drop of. Yeah. You know we put a stop around that and when people in the park go through if we're lucky we're going to eat a little bit of internal combustion If not I will give her a second try go ahead. You know what happened here. It was one of these things that you come to school in morning. And get the class started and turn it over to a substitute pick up the kids and drive down in my car and

unload everything set it all up. They run the program I'm generating and nothing will happen. Look it all up. We took this one apart class warfare go back big up the glass and finish the day you know if you don't know it we will try next week and every week until the very sober you pick yourself up and dust yourself off when things went wrong but it wasn't the end of the world. I wonder why I keep using it. I don't think we should maybe we had $5 to. Go around. In essence came out of our own pockets. How much is one take and what think you did then. It was a plastic miss a chance to begin involved in something that was new and was exciting and for some reason they seemed to be willing to give me the chance to experiment. Below are you beginning to browse. Our you're point. So unless that is repeat that.

Yeah I mean they. And then they would repeat it. I thought you'll. Like that back and forth. Everything repeated many many many times. I think. The stage was so small that well let's mistake it was a cubicle and you had a I had a blackboard in the back which I pinned up the visuals. There was no teleprompter. My cheat sheets were all over the floor. Computers would've been really useful at that time. Or even Velcro. And now we come to a most important area. Listen Johnny could you. So when Casey finally got on the air the plan was visual aid. Monday through Friday

1:15 to 2:15 into the classroom with shows that followed the curriculum came with study guides for teachers. Then five to six young people's programming for all of us kids who weren't allowed to watch Stand got so many I didn't know if you live in one green was blue and about your. Share of taxes. I wonder wonder because our parents were anti anything but educational television. In other words weird parents from seven to nine adults who had enough of Robert Young's infallibility on Father Knows Best and policemen like Broderick Crawford and Victor Jory who never took off their hats could turn to Channel Nine for Shakespeare childrearing tips and less fancy shows the actor the co-director and the children crying. About helping and encouraging individual children to participate.

TVs were in the library to check them out and use them according to the schedule of the PTA bought the first television sets that were available in the classroom and with rabbit ears Channel Nine was a little weak at that time. You can get a very good program and one of our principals Albert honey cutt got the idea of getting a Yankee antenna and he got an old broomstick and he mounted it on the broomstick and fastened that to the television cart and then wheel that from room to room and when Mrs. Barclay wheeled it into our third grade room I looked over a little doggy Hofner at the next desk and we thought great Lassie Davy Crocket cartoons in school then the glow came up and I heard Are you ready to work today. Oh of course you're ready to work today. This is a program to help you learn to speak more correctly. We hope you will listen and then speak clearly. Your television teacher is

Mr Adam Mynott. Today we have an impression of television based upon so many marvelous electronic possibilities. But when Channel 9 was starting out we had two cameras. Great big boxes square wheels no zooms clunky and when it came to a Cold War Iraq would use their day care on the tube long enough so it would start to burn and I would start to get an after image. We would get him at or we would use them until they were completely destroyed no we would stored them under the floor for spares. It took a lot of patience a lot of skill a lot of maintenance. And a lot of ingenuity to keep all that stuff wired together. Anything that happens you know. Oh arch be careful how you wield that we don't want you to put on a Punch and Judy.

Oh it was crazy. It was once a week and I would hurry up and decide what we were going to do. You know we're going to make it. Nobody really knew anything about it and so they said would you do the puppet show and I was always eager to spread the gospel. So I said oh yes I'm being a. Helping Hand. You have to have a balance between show what you do and what you are not the children to do on their own house don't cut me. Nowadays everything is done for them you have to imagine anything. Imagination is more important than. Archery. I think of it.

Buttons and his buddies who was the program of them but soon they sent one of the zookeepers down every week. Yeah Jack Alexander would bring these animals and they were could be anything snakes or lizards or monkeys or could choose or turkeys or elephants or pigeons and you would sometimes have birds in the grid maybe for their for days but this was a monkey. But but it was not always the same and you have to break it to you and adult. Right now there was a child there and the monkey changed but in some software some cack monkey a chimp spider monkey for a while the monkey was a kinkajou I think they thought should it widen the audience won't know the difference. Yes uncut. And what about buttons will do it. Along with buttons the body they brought an elephant a little elephant to kick the back of the trailer down we started across a campus I was on had

set a course in studio. No one go get that a lot of. Smaller one but I don't think so no. But the worst animal we ever got in there was a Thanksgiving turkey. Those things are crazy. I hope I can grow. It will bring a wonderful time of the year to take a walk through the woods. Teachers don't like to go out and swing an axe and split logs and stumps open to get these termites to tend to the top of the termite. And look down and see the termite damage and they don't like to go out and wander into the ponds with their shoes on to get spring peepers. And when the spring peepers were singing out in nature they were in front of them on TV. YOU WAS DOING YOUR was. Let's take a look at some of the features of the home of the

of the mole. Part of me. Ecological biology was part of me. But what is Europe at birth. Would you like to take it out so you can show the boys and girls what your mole looks like when a camera be in a red light went on there and I was being shot directly and I knew that there was just was no trauma because all I saw were children. Those were really pioneer days and we sort of felt our way along and if we had successes we were delighted to know we had failures so we said OK. We'll pick up the pieces and oh I wonder how that not in there. Well there's a June bug. It's the biggest battle of the Pacific Northwest. It's an inch and a quarter long but he never made it off.

You know you was. Good evening. I am the king. RUMSFELD They do i do. My. Hair I'll call doesn't really me right now I think. Fellows tell me why you're in the. Room. That I was yet you know that you're not going to. There was no way to measure the audience for primetime Channel 9. So success was not how many people were watching Casey TS but how many people wanted to be Casey ts. The university build a new drama TV building on campus to accommodate the line of people with show

ideas and if you were to queue up there to teach fly casting or trigonometry chances are you'd be in line with the Art Museum the Urban League. Every department head. And your next door neighbor Mrs. Crenshaw who was clutching her cat and pitching pet grooming a 24 part series. I wasn't hired to go in the closet come up with an idea for you. I was hired to help but many want of a number of agencies throughout the city that I might be assigned to work with to tell their story. I had promised them grow up a lot. I think if you have an art museum with another chapter of Man stories. And it would be attached to the helmet. And the idea of course but Mike you get the arrow hits looking at possible this was really remarkable because Dr. Fuller allowed objects. Many objects to be packed up and brought to the studio unpacked.

Put out on tables hand shown and drawn in a very powerful than an OB who are you and why you would hope that everyone would come down and see the original work of art if they kept This is the next best. This is the Washington family. Joe Washington and his sons came down to the KC TS studio to do just dance which is a very very unusual privilege. We just made Dr M had them there was an anthropologist you know and devoted much of her life to studying the native peoples of the Northwest He was extremely knowledgeable of the spirits come back into the country. And at that time to end you receive them welcome visitors while she was here she was a rich treasure from the northwest.

Stanley Chapple absent. I was. Working with him was because of him frankly that to this day I love opera. I'm not the same guy but on the other hand you may hear a few and that will be me. And. Then listen. It's just like in a Beethoven symphony. Why didn't you recognize it. Perhaps you did but most of you

perhaps listening to music. Attention or style. Chappell is a man from members who Thank you very much. Public perception of Channel 9. Was probably somewhat dry. It was a little pedantic and published it was very hard for the station to come by. I first was and thoroughly embarrassed by the whole of. Given this many years later mis Channel 9. We are. I am with you ideations and so forth and there were about a dozen of us selected. Norman is looking for women who are writing really emotional spots for upcoming shows. Plans call for one girl to the Miss Channel Nine each night of the week and we hope that this evening you'll stay tuned for university conversations. And if you can stay with us through that we'd also like you to see buttons and his body for.

The 60s. The FDA gave us the pill the White House gave us Camelot just. Has. The. JP Patches Gertrude gave us drag for kids and Channel Nine was still determined to give us an education about everything. All things really from something about hope. They had all sorts of help to show us and one of them of course was smart and climbing and no other sort of monster under such buffers for you know maybe used to yodel at the thought of that should. Be a thank you and bowing out of the bowl in the studio. I produced a show called spoken banker. Who was a great show.

Rich. And only the face is exposed. Face you know. That's my wife and mother of four children. By the way same wife same boat yourself down in back just about as I am position now. Dr. Lee West was the waterski teacher and he was terrific I mean he was an actual teacher and an actual doctor. Yes we did demonstrate in studio. It's practically impossible to do this so we did it. How do deep water start her where her heart is bargaining. With things on in the water. My Simon at that time was just to say you know no what's watching him do this and let's look at that again I think this is going to be interesting. That's Well I think it's going to be a web show anyway. Honestly I produced a thing called.

University conversation was I thought a wonderful wonderful interview show and tell you why. Delightful gentleman did it. Lyndon Mander the community must accept. And so one of the first things this is where the leaders of the community what I learned from this man that I still have used today is that he would sit down across from somebody as you and I are sitting and you would ask him a question. You saw that middle of the day and he would listen to their answer. A bit of a revelation. What are you doing here in community development and does it have any relation to the kind of thing would have been done in your down south Italy or what have you. He was an eloquent interviewer a brilliant man I went in wanting to discuss myself and find out what you were doing. Lyndon Mander was indeed a wonderful man he was also my grandfather. Like a lot of people in Seattle I had a personal connection to this community station. For me it was university conversations with Grampa Lynn. I'd like to be able to say that I loved watching it but

watching was a weekly ritual for my family gathering together around the Philco to see our potter familias do his stuff. But I was 10 and the competition was written Tintin and Superman and my grampa Lynn. A man of great generosity always understood that. From me. And they all still goes yeah we had some wonderful man. Patriotic day oh they followed So yeah those right. Joshua Green the former shipping magnate and later comments you have a banker. And I do believe at the age of ninety six or seven which he was I think was the first time he'd ever been on television. He said all of Sammy's were dead so we thought he could do a TV show but it turned out they weren't. So several other civic leaders were more than happy to come on line and do shows. Dr. Charles he ordered. President of the University of Washington. This has been a visit with Cecilia shops Dr. and Mrs. Richard Farleigh visit with Gordon

Clayton Our host is hope something. I welcome a good businessman in Seattle and they had these funds that came from Poncho to put these people on the tape so they would be remembered. Nice to get these things on record so I know that yes you can go back on them you know as you say you know nobody can refute I know one of the reasons that those early shows look so unsophisticated is that all of this was done live. Normally what we would do if we had a mistake we would just stop the whole program go back to the beginning and run through it. Well we through well through and everything OK that's fine. We were here to supply information and that was all just doing straight forward quote unquote education could get to you after a while so many of us who were younger directors that time would look for ways to do musical programs opera a dramatic piece here and there dance and so you try to do things. They were great fun.

In order that you may understand fully what you are about to see and hear. I feel I must tell you something that happened to a certain office typewriter got I was pontificating obviously and there was a gigantic cockroach jumping about all the teams I died. And my spirit migrated to the shell of a ship. Marcus was a columnist and he created this concept of a cockroach who jumped up and down on the keyboard of his typewriter and even when he was gone and the cockroach wrote about characters in the cockroaches life that knocked out you Dawn you will thinking as I looked to my foot and there was me hit a building. Yeah there were parrots and all sorts of wonderful characters. There was a mom for example who was always hurling herself at the flame. We tried all kinds of AAGAARD things at least we thought some of those days

was on the must merit. When Ralph Rosenbaum who would normally produced an opera on campus came to Channel 9 and said they're tearing down my home Meenie Hall was the theater that he had used and it was old and ready for renovation. So he wasn't going to have a venue to do it after. And he had in mind that maybe he would choose something that could be done on television. This was oh no it's all over. First of all the black and white is right I mean if you were to do Markheim in color it would be wrong. And one of the reasons I was chosen is that case you didn't have color and this was very suitable because of the dark Songbird tones of old clothes. The funny thing about it was it was presented to PBS says the program and they just thought it was really clever that we had done the show in black and white when in fact

that's all we had was black and white television. OK so the rest of the planet was in color. Big deal. Nine's audience was growing when the 70s hit thanks in large part to a big yellow bird. Here he was still gray and a man with a heart of gold. But the neighborhood was changing. Ed Sullivan missed out the cavity in the 747 and the pricing heater started coming down. The pace picked up and we picked up the remote control. On through the 60s and early 70s which. We know was a really tough time in our country where we thought it was coming apart all around us.

Weekly television programs about social issues urban issues state wide issues on a weekly basis. What are the chances that Seattle might not be able to have any of this land for life as a park for the city. Well we've already been assured. Why the army. There were so many outwardly active things happening in those days that we just sort of kept up with it really. And I hope you'll be with me next Friday for another profile. Thanks for listening today. Actually I left King and that was when I became aware of Casey. Yes because Casey yes at that time was very open to letting people come in use their equipment. Of course all this was for free. My name is the name of the program Face to face. I considered it such a privilege to be able to develop a show with a burden that I think we work for. I shouldn't say this but I think we were to learners as

volunteers. Sargent Shriver right wing white community and the left wing black community are in bed together against the war on poverty. What is your attitude toward this. And Roberta was ruthless. She was ruthless. They have established things for you to do so that you weren't burned burned up to Seattle this summer how do you feel about that Maurice. We went back to King with the show and King carried the show for about five years. Then we came back to KC. Yes. And so we raged through the community for six years. This is traces of the city. Kenneth Young was still program director was very concerned the Watergate hearings were going to be televised but the stations were being encouraged to accept an edited version. I predict we will represent the president not the state.

I'd like to say that I was adamant that we should not allow anyone to edit anything of such major importance. It is my honest belief. That while the president wasn't far out so we ran it. I think that when the facts come out we ran it in its entirety. I hope the president is forgiven if there was anyone who had heard of Casey TS before and he certainly had after Watergate. Hello Dr. Ritchie mind the new channel 9 station manager arrived in this Washington just about the time Richard Nixon was leaving his Washington. He started buying a lot of national programs. So when Lauren stone retired they bought a national manager to pleasure the power in the fly. Richie was aggressive in northwest sort of way. Some local folks thought he was exactly what he needed while others didn't.

FERGUSON Why job changes from the Rectory to manager of utilization which I could never figure out. Really what I was supposed to do. When I first came to KC. Yes. It was like going into a time warp. I knew right away that we needed to get color equipment because all of the major markets tanking. All of the other public stations all over the country were in color. The bottom line variable of the year. Hope you enjoyed tonight's very special presentation of the Philharmonic Orchestra. Well first of all they need more phones. The very first person who called up to make a play was Mrs. Darcy Bullock. And. The mayor just didn't seem to be the station Channel Nine's televised live from those things out there.

He had allegedly been watching public television for three years and had never once joined or contributed for $25 you get a family membership. Please don't let us fade away. Good bye new studio cameras new film chains a new tape machines a new switcher that money was put into programs that were more detailed in some respects scripted put on videotape highly edited like. Fresh water. To go back to a basic thing where one person is standing in front of a camera as they say with just a pointer or perhaps a piece of chalk and have that have any impact. It is pretty hard to do. I'm sure it would have. I was. To be there at that time it won't happen like that at least I don't give too much thought to what was possible.

I worked with the possibles until next week going like that. Thank you so much by. What those grey intense people did was give television not just a brain but occasionally a heart soul. They were doing it because they believed and believed in the medium believed in the message and believed in their audience. And we still do. And I do. Like morning. It would only. Be me and I I and and and I and me

I and my man and an old man.