WGBH Educational Foundation

The LICBC, now comprised of seventeen member institutions, was established in 1946 as a cooperative broadcasting venture in adult education. In 1951, the LICBC founded the WGBH Educational Foundation as a nonprofit corporation having broad cultural, informational, and educational aims. The Foundation operates: WGBH-FM, 89.7, Boston; WGBH-TV, Channel 2, Boston; WGBX-TV, Channel 44, Boston; and WGBY-TV, Channel 57, Springfield. WGBH, which is a member of the Public Broadcasting Service, receives funding in part from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, corporate underwriters, private foundations, and membership. Expanded educational activities include: interactive multimedia software, home video, CD-ROM, and print materials.

From the description of Administrative records of the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council (LICBC) and WGBH Educational Foundation, 1945-1994 (bulk 1951-1991). (Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Archives). WorldCat record id: 86123368

The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH ca. 1974 to serve as a creative center within the WGBH Educational Foundation. Its purpose was to support the development and production of experimental video art works across many disciplines including dance, drama, music, performance and the visual arts. Production was done primarily on video, although some production work was done on film. Fred Barzyk, a WGBH producer and director, was the Workshop's Executive Director from 1974 to 1982. Susan Dowling was Executive Director from 1982 to 1993 at which time the Workshop ceased production at WGBH. Major broadcast series created by the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase," "Frames of Reference," "Dance for Camera," and "New Television." Of individual works, "Visions" was created for WNET (New York) and "Alive From Off Center" for KTCA (St. Paul-Minneapolis). "Poetry Breaks," a series of poets reading their works which was broadcast between shows as "filler," was co-produced by the Workshop and Leita Hagemann Luchetti.

From the description of New Television Workshop Collection, 1967-1999. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 180705705

April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the City of Boston approached WGBH/Channel 2 with the hopes of broadcasting special programming to ease racial tension in the city. Within six hours of the request, WGBH televised a James Brown concert taking place in the city that evening. In the weeks following the broadcast, WGBH management decided to create a weekly program produced by African Americans that would be about African Americans. The program, called Say Brother, debuted July 15, 1968, and offered a variety of public affairs programming relevant to African American communities throughout the United States, such as the desegregation of schools, civil rights, Black political leadership, religion, African liberation, and popular culture, while ensuring coverage of issues in Boston's African American neighborhoods, such as affordable housing, community clinics and health care facilities, local student movements, state politics, and community schooling.

Say Brother's early producers included Jim Boyd, Ray Richardson, and John Slade (through 1973) and Topper Carew and Marita Rivero (through the 1975 season). In the fall of 1975, under Rivero's direction, Say Brother aired thirteen programs developed specifically for a national audience for broadcast by PBS. National programming, however, was short-lived, and Say Brother quickly returned to being locally-televised in the winter of 1976. Between the fall of 1976 and spring of 1983, Barbara Barrow-Murray produced the program, significantly adding multicultural content (through the 1980 season) that incorporated issues in Boston's Chinese American, Hispanic American and Native American communities. Successive producers--Beth Deare, Juanita Anderson, and Cynthia Johnson--have continued to program based on social, cultural, economic, and intellectual issues relevant to African Americans. The program was renamed Basic Black in 1998.

From the description of Say Brother Television Program Collection,f1968-1982. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 180705492

The Ten O'Clock News was a nightly news program produced and broadcast by WGHBH, a public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts. The Ten O'Clock News succeeded Evening Compass, a news program broadcast on WGBH in 1974 and 1975. Evening Compass found an audience through its in-depth coverage of school desegregation in Boston, which began in 1974. Reporters Pam Bullard, Ed Baumeister, Paul de Give, Gary Griffith, Greg Pilkington, Judy Stoia and others covered press conferences with city officials, protests by activists on both sides of the issue and the effect of court-ordered desegregation on the Boston Public School System. The Ten O'Clock News debuted in 1976, and many of the Evening Compass staff members worked on the show.

Christopher Lydon signed on to anchor The Ten O'Clock News in 1977, and was joined by a series of four co-anchors, including Gail Harris in 1984 and Carmen Fields in 1987. The program featured nightly in-studio interviews as well as coverage of local, national and international issues by a group of reporters including Christy George, Marcus Jones, Meg Vaillancourt, David Boeri and Hope Kelly. The program was broadcast on WGBH until May 1991. The Ten O'Clock News Project has preserved 523 tapes from the Ten O'Clock News library. The tapes focus on news stories related to Boston's African American community, and include coverage of school desegregation in Boston, race relations, politics, education, health care, urban issues and the arts.

From the description of The Ten O'Clock News Project, 1974-1991. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 180705634