Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

SPECIAL REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL TV ETV: 5 YEARS AND $60 MILLION LATER Educational television (ETV), now in its fifth academic year, represents a $60 million investment consisting mainly of 28 noncommercial broadcast stations and related teaching facilities. The FCC's 1952 allocation of 12% of the tv band to ETV— 250-odd channels — stirred a running debate that shows no signs of subsiding. "One of the greatest achievements in the history of education," says Ralph Steetle. executive director of Joint Council on Educational Television which is spark-plugging the development of electronic teaching. A waste of priceless spectrum space, some commercial broadcasters contend. They feel that way despite the fact that 28 ETVs are telecasting 800 hours a week of classroom instruction and programs available to 60 million people. "We're trying to help people live in an era of atom bombs, space satellites and mechanization," Mr. Steetle said. But educators have used barely 10% of their assigned channels, opponents of ETV point out. They are met with the educators' reply that the number of operating ETV stations has tripled in two years and will increase to 42 stations by the end of the current school year. ETV opponents also are reminded that all big-city vhf channels assigned to ETV are in use, or about to be. Heart of the problem, educators say, is the desperate shortage of teachers and teaching facilities — a shortage that can be eased by use of modern techniques. In other words, they feel electronic teaching offers the only hope of providing adequate instruction for the huge crop of American young people as school attendance increases. The present ETV plant, scattered from coast to coast, was built with the aid of the following: (1) $27.4 million of Ford Foundation money; (2) $6 million in equipment contributed or offered by commercial broadcasters; (3) volunteer time and talent; (4) Page 94 • November 11, 1957 services and counsel donated by commercial broadcasters; (5) the energy and dedicated zeal of those who operate educational stations, and (6) funds appropriated by public agencies. Behind this six-way phalanx that is powering what many educators consider one of the great social forces of all time can be found legislatures, school boards, individual schools and the officials and teachers who provide the push needed to put over public projects. And joining Ford Foundation in contributing money have been numerous other foundations and service groups plus uncounted citizens who have contributed to local fund-raising projects. After five years, an inventory of ETV shows 22 vhf, 6 uhf ETVs on the air. Add to this total of 28 noncommercial stations 4 vhf and 1 uhf scheduled to be on the air by yearend. Then add 6 vhf and 3 uhf stations scheduled to start by next summer. The total — 42 ETVs slated to be on the air when the school year ends. After that the prospects look about like this — 30 states have commissions or groups investigating ETV and 40 communities are interested. A monumental achievement, ETV advocates feel. A job 90% incomplete after five years, its critics suggest. This education box score doesn't include three college stations operating commercially on commercial frequencies — WOI-TV Ames, la.; KOMO-TV Columbia, Mo., and WNDU-TV, South Bend (Notre Dame), Ind. WKAR-TV E. Lansing, Mich., now on uhf ch. 60, would like to shift to ch. 10, a commercial facility, operating jointly on a noncommercial basis with commercial owners and getting a piece of the profits. An FCC initial decision favored the idea in March, but oral argument is expected before a final ruling is handed down. When the 1957-58 school year ends, the 42 ETV stations scheduled to be in operation will be five times the number on the air when the 1955-56 school year opened. An attempt to appraise the progress of ETV in terms of cold digits bumps into the impossibility of balancing megacycles and dollars against human values. The social-minded appraiser recalls that a class of 1,000 illiterates learned to read and write by watching the instructive broadcasts of WKNO (TV) Memphis. He wonders how anyone could ever begrudge the channel and dollars that made this feat possible and then points to the enhanced economic potential of these better-trained citizens. A fast scanning of the noncommercial ETV service now on the air shows 28 operating stations are programming about 800-plus hours a week, an average of more than 30 hours. It's too soon to calculate how many school pupils and at-home viewers are studying history, math, physics and other subjects during the current school year. A look at what one of the active ETVs is doing this fall with classroom instruction will help. WQED (TV) Pittsburgh, operating on vhf ch. 13, is feeding in-school instruction to over 300 classrooms in seven western Pennsylvania counties (see WQED story, page 97). Participating are 51 public school districts, 22 parochial schools and two private schools. This doesn't include instruction for school credits for at-home viewers nor the seven to eight hours of evening and weekend programming. Since KUHT (TV) Houston took the air May 25, 1953, as the first noncommercial ETV outlet, progress of the medium has been steady. WKAR-TV followed in January 1954 and was joined by six others before the year ended. Nine ETVs started in 1955 and seven in 1956. In other areas educators have met political and financial obstacles that compounded the problem of starting an ETV on one of the Broadcasting