John C. Crabbe
1914-2001

Biographical Information:

From 1937 to 1958, John C. Crabbe worked for the College of the Pacific, Stockton, California where he started the first broadcasting degree major west of the Mississippi River. There, he also worked for KUOP-FM as its station manager, having assisted in putting the station on the air in 1949. During World War II, while in Baltimore, Crabbe lobbied the Federal Communications Commission for reserved FM channels for educational use which was finally granted in April 1952. Meanwhile, from 1950 to 1953, he also served as President of the Association for Education by Radio-Television.

In 1961, Crabbe worked as a regional consultant to a National Defense Education Act survey on the need for television channels in education. In March and May of 1961, Crabbe testified on behalf of educational television facilities construction in front of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Power, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.

Other positions held throughout his career include: general manager of KVIE-TV of Stockton, California (1958-1969), vice-president of the Western Radio and Television Association's Western Educational Network (1967-1968) and then president (August 1968 to 1969), director of University of Southern Colorado Telecommunications Division (1981), and general manager of KTSC, Pueblo, Colorado.

John C. Crabbe died in 2001.

Bibliography:

Articles

• Crabbe, John C. "The Writer's Radio Theatre" (Book Review), Western Speech, vol. 6, no. 2 (January 1942): p. 28

Books

• Crabbe, John C. Master Plan for Television Consortium of Valley Colleges. Sacramento, CA?: Television Consortium of Valley Colleges, 1972.
• Crabbe, John C. Television Distribution Systems for Northeastern California. 1972.

Other Resources:

Papers of John C. Crabbe
Oral History with Burt Harrison
Oral History with Jim Robertson