FCC Annual Report 1965 - Education TV Underwriting

[Eli Polonsky]

> > From: John Bolduc <n1qgs@yahoo.com>
> To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 09:44:49 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: FCC Annual Report 1965  - Education TV Underwriting
> 
> I noticed in the 1965 FCC Annual Report an interesting item.
> 
> April 1, 1965 - Permits TV Station WNDT to underwrite educational
> programs on an experimental basis.
> 
> I can't imagine education radio or television without all the
> pseudo-commercial underwriting announcements we now see and hear!

I remember it, as a kid in the early 60's. Public TV was, in general,
much more basic and stripped down back then, and some of the daytime
programming was actually educational enough in nature that the grade
school I went to used to occasionally wheel out their old 21" 1950's
tube sets on rolling carts and have the class watch WGBH-TV programs.

These were the old sets that always had weak vertical and horizontal
oscillator tubes, which invariably required multiple adjustments of
each "hold" control as the sets warmed up. I was always the one who
convinced the teachers to allow a little kid to "touch" the set to
adjust the proper controls, after the poor teachers spent half the
class fruitlessly puzzling over trying to stop the picture from
repeatedly rolling up, down, and sideways. It happened each time.

I remember no commercial-like underwriting announcements in those
days, though I seem to remember occasional grant acknowledgements
from educational and government institutions, and frequent basic
appeals for viewer support, but not like the glitzy fundraisers
they have nowadays.

Eli Polonsky