ETV History; ETV: First 30 Years

The. A. The production of the South Carolina Educational Television Network TV began in South Carolina and survived in South Carolina because there were a handful of the right people at the right time and in critical positions the most committed to a big task to broaden and diversify educational opportunities for all South Carolinian. No matter the age or educational level where they might be located. This with an ambitious undertaking but in truth can you share some. Oh yeah. Me face.

Yes maybe clay. We were pioneers in Guinea so. And we were willing to try because it sounded interesting. And everybody was excited about wondered if it could work that way. And so we were talking all alone about using television we the state of public education in South Carolina elementary secondary and third higher education was at a bottom in the country. Television was going to give us quality quick. I'm not sure whether you all realize it but I can say that you have here one of the most remarkable educational television programs in the country from early on educational television in South Carolina lift the imaginations of almost everyone. Some said it could make South Carolina a model of progress. Others were afraid it would change too many things. Some said it was impossible. A few said

maybe but what if. Yes. The time was the late 1950s America was prosperous and its peace and in the middle of a burst of population the baby boom. A new generation bigger than any previous in America's history was going to school. That same generation was the first to grow up with television. Perhaps it was inevitable that both schools and television would come together today. Henry Carleton Is the president and general manager of South Carolina ATV. Well the South Carolina schools like so many schools around the country particularly in the south were not providing the kind of educational opportunity for children that the children needed in deserved. But it was an economic problem that all the state faced and.

A lot of people were searching for ways how do you improve education within the economic environment that existed at that time from the very beginning in 1958 he and a few others were convinced of the potential of television to do one thing for which it had not been used to teach. I was working in commercial broadcasting at that time with that television had been for about four years at that point and I felt like that there was something you could do more usefully with the television than what I was doing in commercial broadcasting. Although I love commercial broadcasting I just thought it was such a powerful device that you could make great use of it in education. My father was in the textile industry that it would take the industry at that time and we spent many hours talking about how you could use Education Television to improve education in South Carolina. Now my interest in television on education

started back and little did. I think really during my McCarthy hearings. During the hearings. The great possibility and the immediacy of television and. Getting for knowledge and information. Right from the right from this thing. And we talked a great deal about how television might be utilized. In public education. Neither one of us with an educator we didn't have that side of the the background to to know really what you need to do in education. But we knew that television with a very powerful communication device and that education with the process of communicating we were fortunate very early.

Operation of the. Train the services of our children. One of the. Finest. One of the most courageous man that I have ever known. Victory my able man was opened it. Was gone electronic. My husband had the sort of background that worked with both. Electronics and teaching. And so he could see the need for. A way to get good teachers in every school there was a proposal that had been put forward by some of the missing Go to do a study on 12 month schools running schools 12 months a year until just at our third request they tacked on the idea of also looking at the possibility of an experiment in the use of television. Well as it turned out the television experiment was the one that was approved by the legislature.

That point they had to find some school that was willing to try this and fortunately we had imaginative aggressive principals a caper over a very high school at that time and Mr Bloom said he would try this. We had another extraordinary educator or link come up and put him in charge of evaluating the project find out whether or not television really could. Improve education whether you could teach effectively through television. At that point was still working with that. Yes and I applied to the Columbia City schools for the position of technical director for the project and was fortunate enough to get the job. The point was to put the best teachers possible on television to teach the most number of students a grand idea but not one without opposition. In the beginning we were but it might usurp their positions.

And that leave them with the vision teaching you to concentrated preparation without classroom distractions able to present more subject matter in 30 minutes before the camera as in twice the time in the classroom. This would provide the classroom teacher or individual attention. Giving assistance and answering questions. Teacher relationship would indeed be on an even closer basis let it be emphasized that none of the base teachers would lose their jobs. Not every teacher was pleased. Yes and I'm sure it was very difficult being a classroom teacher. Many wrote urgently. But to have somebody else teach the critical part of your lesson and you just follow up I'm sure wasn't easy. That when the pen he said For me it didn't really represent a threat to me I was

interested in how it was going to work and what kind of contribution it can make and to see if it was worthwhile you know. So no I didn't look at part of the story and I think there were those teachers and some and theys cation community at this time though who did. Have some fears that TV might replace teachers. And that perhaps was in the back of the mind of some of the decision makers as was a total new concept for administrators as well as teachers. Politically I think there were other questions on the minds of what you would call the professional educators like at the department of a head and the legislature will this thing really work because you know we were really early pioneers. So it took a number of years really to. While to make the teaching ranks I think and none of the writers comfortable with the concept of bringing a piece of technology and and using it as an instructional to the experiment

address at high school the first year was just within high school itself it went to several classrooms and the staff for it was Mr. gantry who is the Project Coordinator myself with technical director of the project and two teachers Lucy Turney high and continued Turnbull and 24 student if I recall the done the correctly and the students were the support group they ran the cameras. They built the sets they did much of the artwork. They made the project possible. I was interested in it and I applied for the. Position as a student in the program and I got accepted and was really excited about it and that it was probably at that point in my life the most exciting thing I've ever done was all done fairly heard live because I think there wasn't time after the legislature had put the money for the experiment and assign it to the Columbia

City schools are driven so that is the project. At. High school to announce this to students at the end of the previous academic year. Summers decided to use students in a learning situation. Nice way for slave labor to get the work done while students got a wonderful experience and got. Credit. There was kind of a little summer to have a hustle and bustle. To round up some students to be and enrolled in television. Take me switching to golf and taught. And and also provided the production. Team that made the program and so they were first in. A second star library ability in the OHL library studio members of the first student TV crew met to reminisce. You had football practice and

then I think it was our right to be upset as well. In retrospect it seems remarkable that the fate of the entire network lay in the hands of teenagers. So it was not the ideal. I'm sure that no television executive in the right mind would select this location to start experimental television right. One person was going to get a person in the booth and then they had a four person. Now it's like we're going to get rid of the fearful and i like we knew what we doing. And to camera people. That was one and then the rest you don't need the hard work of some kind of had me writing about what happened we are going to write that when they come every few weeks we switch jobs. Everybody got to do it with everybody else's job on. Many times they would stay late in the afternoon and a lot of times I would stay

late into the night to get ready for the following day and then they would come in and they would be let out of their classes five minutes ahead of time so they could rush down to the studio and get ready for this class it was start right at the beginning of the bell period and we didn't miss. As I recall but one class in that was when we had power failure. The lights went out and I miss Tony I was teaching French. The studio of course didn't have it when there's an event thing so we were in absolute pitch black mist turning hard in the midst of words at the end of the first year we had convinced ourselves that we had something really worthwhile for education but that time centered around contacted us and said What are you going to do but your television experiment and we said Well Senator you know we the city schools doesn't feel like it's their responsibility to come to the legislature to ask for money to continue a project that you asked them

to do and he said Well we we can solve that. All right I think Suppose we just put in $100000 for the for the second year we had 75 for the first year and they said well we ought to be able to extend it to four additional schools with that and carry the project on for another year. In that point we should be able to tell you whether we would recommend that it got me a state wide ride. We carried forward with the second year the experiment went into four additional schools in the city. And you know how screw work I work free of all the students in the Draper. So all of those students who were in first class of the TV had been through our school system or as all of us were interested in how this experiment was going to work and how it would turn out and we you know tracked it pretty well. I did the first year live I think it was in 19 59 60 whenever it was the second year first year continued turmoil and Lucy Turney high did their own camera

presentation I came the second year so there were the three of us. I don't think I would have ever been willing to try. Television had I not already told you. I would put it this way some actresses or whatever you want. They don't have that background experience as I did. I think well I really did laugh the first time I was told I was being considered. The deejay on television. I laughed I said that's funniest thing I've ever heard of in my whole life. Asked me on television. As well. That's why I'm perfectly happy where I am leave me alone. And the last hour I had my arm twisted a little bit. It was a very very successful second year as well. At the end of the second year we were prepared for the legislature that for it we got a report out of the evaluation from Mr. It was indeed a birth successful project that we could not only teach with

television that we teach very very effectively with television with that concept with with that with the proof in hand. We went to the legislature and proposed the creation of a statewide system of cable television going into all the schools. And the appropriation of six hundred forty three thousand dollars to start off first here and take it into eight cities. Well this is obviously. A pretty revolutionary idea in the legislature that had it support is that it had those who didn't support it very strongly and those who opposed it. The show really. What fascinated us I think in coming from Allendale and Bill who came from Hampton particularly was that being concerned about education in the rural counties that we could take the best classroom teacher out of Dreyer highest school and put her in the classroom in Annandale and Hampton. We could go somewhere and find the very best math teacher

and put her in those classrooms and we looked on it not just exposure to the kids we don't dispose you to the teachers we saw an opportunity but the math teacher really learned how to become a better math teacher by watching one of the best. And course as the thing grew I don't think any of us really had any idea that the TV would go away when it was not easy and that they were stumbling blocks in it at the progress as there always are. But. Mr Edgar Brown and Solomon blot. Mr. Emberg damn those people of that ilk were all for the TV and worked hard to help them and get these ideas through the legislature and all gained a point and to Brown when they came to us and said we think we can probably get five hundred thousand.

To begin the pride you can can you do it with that. We said in order to do the project right you have to have quality equipment you have to have facial staff you have to have the highest quality in both. If you're not going to go with quality shouldn't go at all. 1968 was the time that one closed circuit statewide. We didn't have any money to spend. When we got the money. We only had six weeks to spend with them. So in that six weeks time we had to find a place. Converted into a television operation hire a staff of 37 people. And they have the first videotape lesson in the can in six weeks. They found a vacant supermarket at 27 12 male would. It had been sitting there and I could cried for two or three years. So the landlord was delighted to read it. Mr. Boyd he was very interested in what we were doing in the greed to

allow us to to take over this building without a contract in hand and the first contract a matter of fact literally was written on the back of a paper bag from the supermarket and we were knocking who was inside of the building before we really had all the final dot over the eyes of the thief growth. But he was willing to take that gamble with us. The first summer Henry Kaufman hired me for $5 a day to build a TV studio. I was the only one course in this business building or I guess the building next door was a Winn-Dixie store. Or Dixie home perhaps back then. And in that summer we can vary that. Winn-Dixie still from a Winn-Dixie store to TV studios and we were we would hand screw drivers and told to put this in here and screw this in and put this in here and do this and do this and do this. We were probably 18 hours a day. All summer long putting the studio together and I don't

really know what I did. First thing we did we picked up the telephone and called RCA and said send the equipment and we were up and running and it was in terms of actually having people on board and then beginning to turn this supermarket in the television headquarters in just a few days. Our software then was done as producer director of camera operators engineers it was anything that came along. That's what had to be done. We had one room the equipment came in on our own trucks and we loaded them in one of these studios and use a stock room where we would get it wants to be already in the control room right so all of us sat around in little groups and what I call the knitting part is and then sort of wire and. It's a wonder anything work of the first two years it was there but it turned out to be. Technicians are people that sort of wire hung nail flats sets together and we did everything.

In the very earliest days some of the instructional programs if you happen to get one out of the vault and and watch it you hear hammering in the background because we were literally still putting the place together when it was time to meet our fall classroom commitment. So I drove nails and I snipped wires and I pull cable and I climbed through the attic and there had been no video tape machines in south carolina commercial or educational. At that time. And so. Mr. Carleton's advisor's. MCELVEEN at the beginning OK television Mr. Shafto at that the ideas and the rest of a board of advisors that he had. Said Hank you can get that on the air in six months much less six weeks. We had already communicated with RCA and they had. Video tape recorders and cameras and the other necessary equipment on the loading dock awaiting

for us. They shipped it immediately the telephone company had to sending a load of coaxial cable to the west coast. They stopped at somewhere around Chicago and diverted it to South Carolina. Those large video tape machines those first machines that came into us were. We were talking about this recently and now three tall racks of those things came in the video tape machine there is no bigger and even bigger suitcase. But those things had three racks at around five to six feet tall. And they were all connected those things had to be unloaded off those trucks and you know it was our response we will be getting those things off the truck in the building so we we always look forward to arrivals each day of what was going to come next but it was a very compact close knit group. Oddly enough the mood was not one of desperation the mood was let's get it going at last do it right. The mood was let's put this together and make it work. And we didn't think that we were very visionary as we didn't think that we were pioneers we didn't have any

sense of history our destiny. We just were in a thing that we found to be exciting and we decided that maybe it was worthwhile or we wouldn't we wouldn't be there and we went ahead and we did it. As I look back on it the chances of our having succeeded and moving to where we are today were very very slim. It's incredible that all the pieces fell in the way they did. And as I said the right people were in the right place at the right time because if any of those things had not been there this project probably would have died somewhere along the way. Just come back up was the logical one to be the first general manager of the TV because obviously we needed and respected educator to leave the project and it turned out to be an extraordinary leader for the TV. And until his very sad an untimely death in 1905 he gave this system what it needed to get up and running.

I don't think we appreciated the opportunity to use that we were going to develop from all of us. It came about really as a result of what we call than Sputnik and that was a good thing. You know it was the age of space as I call it with the bomb and everything outside and it was a great fear in the country and really rightfully so on the science and mathematics and things we just weren't doing an effective job and educating our. Children and bringing them along and we need to do something else. I remember one incident early on when we were trying to convince the legislature of the potential of this because we were still very much in the period of the legislature was looking at this infanticide and do we want to continue to invest money in this. We knew we had to get their attention. So we invited one of John Brown to speak to the legislature. I should like to mention Of course one of my principle source its just a story you said. Believe that the destiny of our

nation is being decided in today's classrooms. You also pointed out and I quote We have come to value. According to the esteem in which it holds its scholars our youngsters must obtain their knowledge of the world and of themselves from all possible sources in order to develop into mature responsible citizens. It was sort of like talking about Buck Rogers you know so it was the space age and all of that and I was amazed at the reception from people that you know normally would have frowned on on a unknown adventure like this in education at the same time the Press Association that schedule the meeting in which they were going to invite the legislature to and they were going to have Dr. Alvin Eureka the Ford Foundation fund for the Advancement of education speak to them.

They knew that with the legislature having to choose between Van Brown and new Rick that they were more likely to go see you on Brown because he was the one of the most exciting figures in the country at that time. And so they came to us and said Why don't we join forces and we'll have brown in Europe on the same program. We said what a fire that sounds like a good idea. Doctor you came in the Columbia several days in advance of the talk because you'd heard of the South Carolina project and being in charge of the fund for the benefit of the Education Foundation you want to see first thing in Athens so what we're doing is what I plan for. He says I've got to have a couple secretaries because I want to rewrite my thought. And what he did is he went back and he totally rewrote his toe and it turned out to be oh on the potential for improving education nationwide using the model that South Carolina was building

this occasion gives me an opportunity to learn more about the imaginative way in which you are televising instruction to schools and colleges in your state. I'm not sure whether you all realize it but I can say that you have here one of the most remarkable educational television programs in the country. You would literally merge the best print just get developed into the first legs of the structure. Much for education not only here but throughout the country. You have a good start on this first coordinated network of state wide closed circuit television in the United States. Because you have adopted the clues there is no limit to how far you can go. We did UK tional television at levels.

We were all enthusiastic supporters of it and you know from there I think it was it was unique in that sound which had always been looked on as one of those southern states along with Mississippi and Alabama that hadn't yet reached the modern day we hadn't gotten into the new age that that was coming. And there we were pioneering in something that became internationally recognized as there's a real real breakthrough in learning in in the country. In school instruction was the primary reason for the creation of South Carolina ATV but soon the potential of the system cried out for expanded use the enhancement of education beyond K through 12 became the second function protected by the umbrella of the TV. We were trying to get competent teachers to all the classrooms and particularly in higher education we have all of the outstanding doctors to

be able to talk not only the medical university but to the doctors of the state of Alabama in treatment. And so we were talking all alone about using television continuing education was one very first services that the network established. It had to do with that initial mission of looking at ways to improve improve life in South Carolina. The mission is for. All kinds of adult education services beyond K-12 post-secondary medical continuing education professional education for lawyers doctors physicists. We do a lot of work with state agencies and through the course circuit system for the first few years the NDTV was the only priority nonprofit noncommercial television for the general audience progressed slowly in South Carolina. The first efforts had to wait until the TV was able to broadcast. Ladies and gentlemen the day I joined the official of the South Carolina Educational Television Center in opening a new facility for the western

portion of our state. The prosperous Piedmont section will be the first to participate in this new medium of education in South Carolina open circuit educational television the earliest program seen on the new broadcast channel were simply an extension of the close circuit teleco orses not exactly great performances but the seeds were there for every kind of show currently in production national shows were part of an experimental Ford Foundation initiative National Educational Television in E.T. Jean upright was program director at that time. Well we did some of the obvious things we counterprogram against the commercial stations as best we could in those days but educational television then was really strapped for funds and we couldn't put together an 18 hour broadcast just certainly not enough programs available.

So the Ford Foundation was the principal angel of registration in broadcasting then some third world funds but the bulk of the funding for program development came from the Ford Foundation with some private underwriter support. We programmed a very limited as I say prime time schedule with a lot of how to programs that were low budget productions on weekends in the late 60s the Johnson administration came up with the public broadcasting bill that funded public TV in a big way. This new effort would alter many of the old ne t priorities although the money increased. The idea of public television wasn't an easy transition free TV. Fortunately there's beginning to be a move back towards education. But no I have always felt that central to the functioning of the last system and what should be central to the plan. You know some of the systems around the country should be education at its centerpiece the central purpose of it

and most of what is put on the air in the evening and called Public Broadcasting really is very educational material. And we've done a good bit of that ourselves already. We did it with the series on China heart of the dragon the day the universe changed. Series with James Burke to talk about events that sort of change the course of world history I have always felt that education can be one of the most enjoyable experiences a person can have in there's no reason for it not to be. And in spirit. Well I think we are in the entertainment business in that kind of job man caravan was South Carolina's first version of public television evolving from the socially conscious times. The show's still put its priority on being informative and educational. In 1968 the job man caravan premiered from the beginning Bill Terrill has hosted the Emmy Award winning show.

There's so many things that have changed. Not only in the television industry but the program itself. And basically after 20 years to look where we started from with the program and where we are feel good about it man was started to help African-Americans in the job market to help them. Basically people who were unemployed and underemployed. And it was really here too. To give him job information theory information and to encourage people to see some of the jobs that have not been open in the past. So we were basically trying to help people in the job market and get them into a new position. Sam and to pursue let's say those kinds of things with a program in order to motivate people to watch for the dissemination of the job information we used entertainment. As a vehicle to attract people. John Mann was a wonderful program for South Carolina new

TV that was probably is I recall the first major grant for a program production for e TV which came from the Ford Foundation as I recall it might have been $250000. And. That program as you know has won several regional Emmys and it's been recognized everywhere. And it was a very basic concept that worked well in the 60s because when we first ran it in 68 it was kind of a landmark program because there were no black programs running at that time either in commercial broadcasting or on educational television. Today the job man still uses entertainment but most of the show profiles leading black professionals role models for a new generation of young blacks seeking their future. But this was only half the battle. Where they are going only made sense if they knew where they

came from. I saw that there was a need for black people to get a better understanding of who we are to get an understanding and to know our true history our true selves. Not. The history. The self. That was created by the European mind and imposed on the black collective. In his 10 years as host of for the people list of L.. Middleton has explored the roots of civilization in search of the contributions blacks have made to modern culture. We've had people to to call us and say that. This program makes me feel good about myself right. Seriously I'm a whole lot of letters and calls saying basically that some think this program makes me feel good about us. I didn't know

black people. Had made these contributions. Local television. Is perhaps the most important television I think at least. That a television station can perform. Because there is no other way that you can provide service to the citizens of the Upstate. Weather. There's no way t they can except. Through providing. The local programming that is not provided in any other way. The commitment to the community extends beyond just producing programs. The largest commitment by TV was the establishment of regional production facilities scattered throughout the state. Four television stations give each TV a local face in Buford Sumpter Rock Hill and Spartanburg. Bob fryer currently senior vice president at the network's headquarters in Columbia. At some point has managed every one of the regionals. We had only transmitter stations across state and we put those transmitters on the air for one thousand sixty

three. Up till 74 with no people it was just engineers of course. But we did not have any involvement in the community other than those people working with us. So a survey was done and and we found the communities that really desired and could contribute to helping us establish a station in the communities. As a very unique situation of a community and the state were involved. The community is guaranteed space. For us if we would go in and but the equipment in the personnel there many of our programs are programmed out of Columbia or. Out of the tree they were part of the network and that's as it should be. But our role here is to serve this community to become involved in the community could benefit. Programming opportunities here. That are not available to people in other

ways and to show that resource to the people the regional stations each produce local news and public affairs programs. They also make shows that are state wide. Mary long as yesteryear is a Rockhill based production that looks at historical sites across the state. Popular local shows may even go national. A prime example is nature seen. Beginning as a simple show about nature walks in South Carolina. Today nature scene travels all over the country. It was really. Unplanned. I never never had any knowledge about television but I was a naturalist. Interested in the out of doors. And when the state museum in South Carolina was forming they needed a curator of Natural History and I needed one person who could dabble with plants and animals. My name. Kept coming up so I left Spartanburg and came to. Columbia. Really not knowing exactly what I was supposed to do as a curator but all excited about it and

it just so happened that our offices state museum were right here at educational television when in fact this is the same office I had when I came to work for the state. Believe it or not serendipity it just happened. And it's strange that this is a 30th anniversary. This is the tenth anniversary of nature say it started in October of 1978. The reality of television can make even the simplest show a demanding proposition for nature seemed the green of the trees and the grass are definitely important but the most important green doesn't grow on trees. I'm director of science and nature programming at South Carolina Educational Television. I want to talk with you just for a moment about our December fast every few months. TV viewers tune in to watch Mickey Welsh and others raise funds for the EDV and down during marathon fund raising festival. Viewers send in hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for programs like nature sing.

Over a decade ago a group of dedicated supporters got together to form the endowment. We started them a very modest two I'll never forget that first meeting we had almost no one. But we did have the reputation of radio in the state to target. And that was very substantial We found it was it was significant. There was good recognition when we went to see who they knew who we were. But of course what this also meant was. I. Could not get into big productions and we think it's very important that this separation between evening schedule and the instructional schedule be maintained and it's appropriate for the public who's receiving benefits from this to provide the support for it. And we've gotten marvelous backing from the public may help us put

in damage without the endowment. Most of the programs you see in would not be available to us. That. Concept. And asking the people who enjoy the programs to join forces was I think successful in expanding the network's impact not only in the state but the close tie between the publicly funded a TV system and a privately operated endowment has two benefits. The endowment pays for many of the TV's production costs such as on the mini series Roanoke. The endowment also underwrites the cost of airing the evening schedule of nationally distributed PBS programs but the TV not only airs this endowment funded schedule it also plays a major role in determining what PBS viewers watch from coast to coast. I have a little better sense of the quote from Mark Twain however where he said that the coldest winter he ever spent was one summer in San Francisco

in the city by the bay. The weather is a little cooler than in the rest of America even in the middle of July when it hosted this year's annual PBS program fair. The station Programming Consortium is of major significance to the national public broadcasting community. Station managers programming executives and producers from public stations all over the country come to exchange information discuss policy and plot strategies in an increasingly complex programming environment. Overseeing the entire affair is PBS president Bruce Christensen. Just like you have in South Carolina there are folks from all over the country trying to find programs that meet the specific needs that their audiences want to try to make connections with what's important in their lives to try to make sense out of our daily activities and to provide information programming excitement that people have come to expect on public television. That's really what the program Fair is all about. SPC is the station programming cooperative and station managers and program

directors from across the country. Think about the programs they want in the coming year and think about whether they want to renew Nova Wall Street Week Washington Week in Review nature. I love the culture of great performances American Playhouse Wonder Works The MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour. I love these shows add up to over 50 million dollars a year which comes from the viewers and from the stations. The guy who thought the whole process up program cooperated might be afraid to admit it. But I guess it's born out of a need to. Share your resources nationally and this consortium funding with SBC worked pretty well I think the first time a lot of people had doubts about it. And as I think back on it I probably had some experience in the first three or four program WA produce. One of the earliest of the success stories as a program back from its inception has run

counter to the currents of public broadcasting. What we find is a bubble an opportunity for somebody to present a position so to speak on the fly that is to say anything that's lazy and his argument on his organization of his rhetoric way will instantly challenge that. That's correct but people in Texas Texas say he's out of he's a phony Texan he's from what is Connecticut I guess it was that it was also the state it was meant to be Bush. If my stats are correct and that's one of the appeals of Lloyd Bentsen on the ticket and firing line continues today is one of the longest running regularly scheduled programming on PBS that he would powered off. And there have been other success stories for South Carolina. And I mean in the middle 70s Professor Benjamin Dunlap of the University of South Carolina was to do something educational with some of the classics of European film. It was 1970 maybe 76 and Jean upright was a

program director and he acquired a package of feature films European films that Exxon had paid I think two million dollars for that would be shown over public television stations around the country but a lot of station managers were concerned that it would look as if public television was going to be competing with commercial television and to reassure their view was they wanted the professor who would come on and say in effect what you're about to see may look in attaining but in fact it's painfully edifying what you're looking at is Berlin and 1900 a side show a nightmare a joke and nobody laughs at. And we did a pilot that was called cinematic and PBS lost it and we got a national We got a spot on the national schedule and we produced a series that later won lots of prizes and got nominated for an Emmy. I think it's the only college credit course ever nominated for an Emmy still other programs done by the network include some groundbreaking efforts in children's programming. See the

news magazine is a fast paced probing Journal that examined some of the key issues and most controversial stories of our time. S. E. stands for children's express meaning that all of the reporters are children. Harry Moses a former producer of the CBS program 60 Minutes is the creator of C.E. news magazine which he based on an innovative newspaper called Children's Express. It started actually when I was in CBS News and I produced a story and children's express for 60 minutes at that point there was never yet an organization of kids who were doing print journalism and I thought it would be interesting to take them into television and that's how it was born. Well what we're here for today obviously we got funding for the first out of PBS. We're in the process now of trying to secure funding for the series from the rest of the space in the system to the SBC which is the purchasing market for programming for public broadcasting should students be allowed to cover a breaking story of this nature. I don't want to put that question to a high school principal

government. Electronic ambassador to the world is what the South Carolina U TV network has become and it's we're known throughout the world we're known throughout the country because of the many fine programs that South Carolina TV makes available for nationwide distribution on PBS. We have one of the four major producers of programming for the national schedule. The others being anything New York can be GBH in Boston the Los Angeles station in South Carolina. And for long time people would say and South Carolina they don't say that anymore. South Carolina is well recognized as one of the major produces a quality program in the public good. Yes. OK let's get back to more good sounds here right. See twenty seven and a half past the hour of work love. This is a list Brown featuring enjoying Greer on sentimental dream.

Gay the other it is and that's a return to radio in the early 70s might have seemed counter to all sense. But there was method in the madness. TV was becoming more costly to produce. By 1972 William de hay was already a long time member of the TV staff. There was very little public radio as we know it in this country at that time there were a few key key stations hardy pioneers that went way back almost as early as commercial radio. But there was no real national impetus for public radio. Until then the federal government began to allocate money and said he decided to build radio stations for the public as it had all at previously done for television. I expressed my interest in the project and it was another one of those gate posts or sign posts where I jumped from commercial television into this educational television experiment. And then again I jumped into a. The new thing basically on

triad about 1971 or the possibility of building radio. We quickly found out that the game is quite different that in TV since as I mentioned it so hardly expensive most of the programming is generated all over the country and brought into a central facility for PBS distribution. Not so when radio and radio have most of the program was generated on premises at National Public Radio and then distributed from there because it was cheaper to do so and out of that we get into national programming we had to persuade NPR that we had something that was worthwhile to distribute. My guess today is. OK let's start here. Sherry Hutchinson and Bill Sexton spend dozens of weeks each year in this small recording studio with educational radio's Columbia headquarters editing and re-editing. They are working on a program that has become an institution on

public radio stations across the country. This is as each week for the last 10 years listeners have heard this little noodling theme that introduces Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. That they came with you and they said oh that's fine. But the thing that was really nerve wracking when I was recording this thing was that Bill Evans was sitting there waiting for me to get through taping the thing so that he could do the show with me and I could see him sitting there haven't caught up my and I thought Oh my goodness now I have to play this thing in front of him because Bill Evans as you might imagine wasn't is one of my idols. But anyway I survived and survived and prospered into a major success for us. Yes the show has become the most listened to performance program distributed by

National Public Radio. It's won dozens of awards including a Peabody the second Peabody earned by a South Carolina Educational radio. The first went to the predecessor of Piano Jazz American popular song with Alec Wilder. And Marion had been around in that I think that was an idea of Alec Walters to pull her into that when the series ended. Marion had a lot of good connections in the jazz world which made it really easy did it to get a good guest in. You know I could think of about 10 people I wanted right off the bat bang bang bang you know Hazel Scott Mary Lou Bill Evans George Schering Oscar Peterson and John Lewis and so on to know the list was never ending. About the 10 years when I started I thought it was just going to be 13 shows and that's it. Well it was sudden. They say well we want you to do another one. And time went on rather than another one and another one you

know it's it's got to the point now where if I didn't do it it would be terrible. I mean I can't stop I have to keep doing this. Show one way or the other. Today in South Carolina and in other parts of the Country Public Radio means class. You can use it. From Greenville to Charleston educational radio also features local performances among them the Spoleto chamber music series from the Backstreet theatre in Charleston. But this is only a part of the unique position educational radio occupies in the holy city by the sea. You're listening to trance migration the center of music that comes your way every weekday afternoon from 4:00 until 5:00 o'clock and Kiefer to whom. This is ws Charleston radio's soul regional station. The only complete radio station aboard an aircraft carrier. An aircraft carrier like the Yorktown may seem an odd home for a radio station but

then again ATV has never done anything in the usual way. When the unusual would get the job done from the very beginning when they converted a high school library into a TV studio the people of the TV have made the best of the least. They put together a media phenomenon with the bare essentials and a lot of hope and pride. So there is faith there is a law. But if you want to call it involved I guess in a lot of things with any life involved nothing but I kinda feel like this is the kind of a fated. Event the EPB that. Somebody has been looking over. That this was meant to happen. Well like you've always helped. I love the hardihood and a lot of talented people. We've been. Fortunate in that and it's fellow new talent. That. The development operation of this system not only talent but it will.

Put them at the limit of what we're hearing. Today. It is still people but make the system work. The technicians production assistants editors the producers administrators. Crews in the studio and in the field all pitching in to make the whole thing fly. In 30 years the system has had more than its share of setbacks. Like the untimely loss of its first manager. There were fires in 1969 in 1985 they threatened to destroy all of the hard work of the previous years. There were times of triumph to programs that earned the highest honors in the industry. The TVs programs explore a thousand and one subjects from yoga to cooking from theater to documentaries. As CTV reaches out to the best and varied audiences with programs that entertain and inform delighting the heart and the mind. South Carolina ATV has been a model for how things should be done and will continue to be done in the next 30 years.