National Educational Television (NET)

Administrative History/Information:

• Fund for Adult Education created the Educational Television and Radio Center (ETRC): November 1952 with C. Scott Fletcher as temporary president
• Policy decisions of ETRC in 1952:
  • no production facilities - obtain programming from educational television stations and other sources
  • not a library, but rather a network service of regularly scheduled programs
  • serves as focal point for production ideas, professional meetings, programming activities
  • include "radio" in name - improve status of educational radio in the U.S.
• Moved to Ann Arbor, MI: 1954 - Harry K. Newburn first full-time president
• Started program service May 16, 1954: 5 hours of programming on kinescope film circulated among the stations via mail
• John F. White succeeded Newburn as president: 1958
• name change to National Educational Television and Radio Center (NETRC) :
  • Moved to New York City, leaving technical and distribution department in Ann Arbor: 1958
  • Division of Network Affairs with functions including station relations
  • radio activities:
    • assimilated Broadcasting Foundation of America: 1960
    • assimilated support of the Educational Radio Network: 1962
  • National Instructional Television Library established with support of U.S. Office of Education: 1962
  • main focus still adult educational television with programming hours increased to ten hours/week.
  • Ford Foundation announced it would not be sole backer of network services: 1963
• Discontinued radio services and instructional television services and changed name to National Educational Television (NET): July 1963
  • Continued as primary producer of programming
  • NET Television, Inc. created out of previously held Ann Arbor assets: November 1963.
    • Its purpose was to administer duplication and distribution functions involved in making NET's programs available to stations on a cost-reimbursement basis. It continued this function on behalf of the Educational Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) after 1970.
    • It also distributed programs for other organizations, primarily PBS from 1969 to 1973 at which point the interconnection system became fully operational.
  • James Day becomes president: 1968
• Educational Broadcasting Corporation (licensee owner of WNDT) acquired all assets, operations and functions of NET: October 1970. WNDT changed its name to WNET.

Wood, Donald and Donald G. Wylie. Educational Telecommunications. (1970): 47-50, 69; Blakely, Robert. To Serve the Public Interest: Educational Broadcasting in the United States (1979): 202

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Related Collections - NETRC:

• Donley F. Feddersen Papers
• C. Scott Fletcher Papers
• Burt Harrison Papers-Interviews:
  • Albert Hulsen
  • Donald R. Quayle
• Morris S. Novik Papers
• Frederick M. Remley Papers
• Jim Robertson Papers-Interviews:
  • Robert J. Blakely
  • Kenneth Christiansen
  • John Crabbe
  • C. Scott Fletcher
  • William G. Harley
  • Richard B. Hull
  • Armand Hunter
  • Jack McBride
  • Harold B. McCarty
  • Kenneth Oberholtzer
  • Jonathan Rice
  • Jim Robertson
  • John F. White
  • Raymond Wittcoff
• John F. White Papers

Related Collections - NET:

• David M. Davis Papers
• James Day Papers
• Lee C. Frischknecht Papers
• Burt Harrison Papers - Interviews:
  • John C. Crabbe
  • Lee C. Frischknecht
• James Karayn, Jr. Papers
• Jim Robertson Papers-Interviews:
  • Gerard (Jerry) Appy
  • James Armsey
  • Frederick Breitenfeld, Jr
  • Everett Case
  • Norman Cousins
  • David Davis
  • James Day
  • Lee Frischknecht
  • Robert Hudson
  • Frank E. Schooley
  • Loren Stone
  • Donald Taverner
• Gerald Slater Papers
• Paul K. Taff Papers
• WNET Archives Collection

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Reference Shelf Materials

Reading Room

Adler, Richard and Walter S. Baer. Aspen Notebook: Cable and Continuing Education. New York: Praeger, 1973. BCAST REF LC 6574 .A34

Avery, Robert K., ed. Public Service Broadcasting in a Multi-Channel Environment. New York: Longman, 1993. NPBA REF HD 8689.4 .P83

Avery, Robert K. and Robert Pepper. The Politics of Interconnection: A History of Public Television at the National Level. Washington, DC: National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 1979.

• NPBA REF HE 8700.8 .A85
• LAB Collection: 384.575 A (NAB Books)

Blakely, Robert J. The People's Instrument: A Philosophy of Programming for Public Television. Washington, Public Affairs Press, 1971. BCAST PN 1992.8 .P8 B47

Burke, John E. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Washington, DC: National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 1973. KF 2805 .Z9 B87

Carnegie Commission on Educational Television. Public Television: A Program for Action. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

• BCAST LC 6571 .C35
• 374.265 C (NAB Books)

Cater, Douglass and Michael J. Nyhan, eds. The Future of Public Broadcasting. New York: Praeger, 1976.

• BCAST HE 8700.8 .F87
• 384.574 C (NAB Books)

Chester, Giraud, et al. Television and Radio. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963. BCAST TK 6550 .C43 1963

Coase, R.H. and Edward W. Barrett. Educational TV: Who Should Pay? Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy, 1965. BCAST LB 1044.7 .C54

Day, James.  The Vanishing Vision: The Inside Story of Public Television. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995. HE 8700.79 .U6 D39

Diamond, Robert M., ed. A Guide to Instructional Television. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. LB 1044.7 .D48

Fund for Adult Education. A Ten Year Report, 1951-1961. New York: Fund for Adult Education, 1962. LC 5201 .F855

Greaves, William. "Black Journal: A Few Notes from the Executive Producer," Television Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 4 (Fall 1969): 66-72. Periodicals

Harper, William A. "ETRC Grows," NAEB Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1 (October 1957): 19-22. Periodicals

Macy, John W. To Irrigate a Wasteland: The Struggle to Shape a Public Television System in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

• NPBA Collection: HE 8700.8 .M33
• LAB Collection:
  • HE 8700.8 .M33
  • 384.575 M (NAB Books)

Mass Communications History Center. Sources for Mass Communications, Film and Theater Research: A Guide. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1982. P 92 .U5 M27 1982

Robertson, Jim. TeleVisionaries: In their Own Words, Public Television's Founders Tell How it All Began. Charlotte Harbor, FL: Tabby House, 1982.

• NPBA Collection: HE 8700.79 .U6 R62 1993
• LAB Collection:
  • HE 8700.79 .U6 R62 1993
  • 384.575 R (NAB Books)

Schramm, Wilbur, et al. The People Look at Educational Television: A Report of Nine Representative ETV Stations. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963.

• NPBA Collection: LB 1044.7 .S28
• LAB Collection:
  • LB 1044.7 .S28
  • 374.265 S (NAB Books)

Westin, Av. "An Open Memorandum to Mr. John W. Macy, Jr., President, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting," Television Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 2 (Spring 1969): 31-46. Periodicals

Stasheff, Edward. "ETV Revisited," Television Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 3 (August 1962): 78-85. Periodicals

By Request

Carlson, Robert A. "Educator vs. Broadcasting in the Development of ETV: A Brief History of ETV in the US" Educational Technology, July 1971: 13-16. Folder: 043

"Chamberlin to be No. 2 at Channel 13." The New York Times. August 19, 1970. Folder: 625

Davidson, Robert, ed. Children's Television Workshop: The Early Years. 1992. Folder: 672

Doan, Richard K. "Public TV's Most Powerful Friend...May Also Qualify as Its Worst Enemy." TV Guide, September 15, 1973: 6-10. Folder: 120

Dreyfus, Lee S. and Wallace M. Bradley. Televised Instruction: A Series of Lectures.... 1962. on shelf

Duscha, Julia. "Public TV: why still a stepchild?" Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 1971: 8-14. Folder: 128

Education on the Air. 1941-1960. Serials

Friendly, Fred W. "Funds, Pluralism and the Real Light on the End of the Tube." Folder: 164

Jauch, Fritz. "A Brief History of Educational Television in the US: Development of NET: Concept of Public TV" NET 1968. Folder: 210

Loper, James L. and Thomas J. McDermott, Jr. "ETV Bargaining Management View." Reprinted from Broadcast and Bargaining: Labor Relations in Radio and Television, 1970: pp. 185-192. Folder: 780

National Educational Television and Radio Center. Inside Channels. 1959. Serials

National Educational Television.

• "1970-1971: A Prospectus for a New Year..." 1970. Folder: 540
• "N.E.T. Program Philosophy and Purpose: A Guideline for Staff Planning." November 1964. Folder: 300
• "National Educational Television, 1965." Folder: 301
• NET: Programming for the Whole Child. Folder: 303
• NET, The Public Television Network: Fact Book. 1968. Folder: 304
• "Report of the Year, 1964." February 15, 1965. Folder: 307
• "Semi-Annual Report: January-June 1966." Folder: 308
• "Semi-Annual Report: January-June 1967." August 4, 1967. Folder: 309
• "Semi-Annual Report: July-December 1967." February 15, 1968. Folder: 310
• "Semi-Annual Report: January-June 1968." August 15, 1968. Folder: 311
• "Semi-Annual Report: July-December 1968." February 14, 1969. Folder: 312
• "Report of the Year, 1969." February 16, 1970. Folder: 313

Price Waterhouse & Company. "Review of Accounting Procedures, Records and Controls of National Educational Television Relating to Costs of the Interconnected Network System and of the Special Projects Unit." October 3, 1969. Folder: 755

Schwarzwalder, John C. "Educational Television and the Sense of Urgency" July 16, 1959. Folder: 396

Wood, Donald Neal. "The First Decade of the 'Fourth Network': An Historical, Descriptive Analysis of the National Educational Television and Radio Center," Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 1963. Dissertations/Theses

Related Collections in Other Repositories:

• National Educational Television and Radio Center:
  • Ralph Lowell - Reminiscences: oral history
• National Educational Television:
  • Perry Miller Adato Papers
  • National Association of Educational Broadcasters Records
  • National Educational Television Records

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