Jerrold Sandler
1931-1995
During his childhood in New York, Jerrold Sandler appeared in live drama on WNYC-AM. He returned to educational broadcasting in the mid-1950s, becoming acting manager of the University of Michigan Broadcasting Service, Ann Arbor, while he was a graduate student. In 1964, he came to the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) as executive director of National Educational Radio (NER). Noting that the Carnegie Commission report of 1967 and NAEB's conference on long-range financing in 1964 focused on educational television, Sandler hired Herman Land to put together a quick report, The Hidden Medium, to advocate funding for educational radio. After presenting their report to the Senate communications subcommittee in 1967, the Public Television Act was amended to include radio, becoming the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.
In 1968, Sandler moved to the Smithsonian and became the first director of the national Reading is Fundamental program. From 1976 to 1979, he was the executive producer of Footsteps, a public television series on parenting, funded by the Office of Education. He returned to universities in the 1980s, with jobs which include director of television service at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, in 1982, and general manager of Black Hawak College's WQPT-TV in Moline, Illinois in 1990. He retired in 1992.
Jerrold Sandler died on February 24, 1995.
Other Resources
Oral history interview by Burt Harrison in 1978.
Reference Shelf: Sandler, Jerrold and Jack D. Summerfield. "A Study to Determine the Feasibility of a Live Public Radio Network." June 15, 1968. Folder: 583
