Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

Reading teacher telecasts a lesson from the WQED (TV) studios WQED (TV): PACESETTER IN ETV "Does anyone remember the city of Bristol?" More than a dozen hands were waving around the roomful of sixth-graders taught by Miss Leah Mellot of the Highland School in Greensburg, Pa., 20-odd air miles east of WQED (TV) Pittsburgh (ch. 13). "That's where Cabot started for America," a boy answered. With his 20 classmates he had just taken a social science lesson via television, second episode in a series of Encyclopaedia Britannica films titled "America" and dealing with discovery and exploration. For a quarter-hour the pupils, recalling their animated lecture on a video screen, traced routes of explorers on maps and discussed the pioneer itineraries of Cortez, Columbus, Joliet and others who searched up and down North America for gold, beaver pelts and a route to the Orient. Miss Mellot's class had gazed intently at a slightly snowy picture lesson. "The janitor says the antenna is broken," she apologized. "This is our second year," Miss Mellot said. "Yes, tv is definitely helpful. The children feel the importance of a subject when they see it on the tv set. They feel they know what the narrator is talking about. When they're sick, they watch at home and keep up with the class. Television is very effective." A mile away at the Taylor Street school in Greensburg, two sixth-grade reading classes joined in a live tv reading lesson. Mrs. Catharine McArdle said, "Tv makes a special event of a class. We discuss the subject matter before and after the tv program. WQED's course helps the teachers as well as the pupils, she said, adding, "The tv training stimulates outside reading. They like to read the books discussed by the tv teacher." Mrs. Ellen Grubb commented, "The slow children, hard to reach, learn more by tv. They pay attention and like television. Actually, they all like it." When Greensburg schools were closed four days in October because of a flu epidemic, a good share of the pupils kept up with their regular classes at home. The 138-kw signal put out by WQED 80 hours a week reaches 308 classrooms in six counties within a 55-mile radius that has a population of more than three million. Public, parochial and private schools participate. They voluntarily contribute 37 cents per enrolled pupil per course. Arithmetic, French, reading and social studies are taught in elementary classes. Physics lessons are used in 35 high schools. Adult at-home classes cover English, world history, algebra, physics, physiology and health, problems of democracy, plane geometry and Spanish. In addition, a summer school tv course had 650 enrolled. John F. White, general manager of WQED, directs this electronic teaching project, aided by 57 fulltime staff people and a corps of volunteers who donated 26,021 hours of service to the station in the last school year. "Managing an ETV station is about the same as any other tv station," Mr. White said. Formerly vice president of Western Reserve U. in Cleveland, he harcfadministered a series of educational tv courses broadcast in cooperation with WEWS (TV), the Scripps-Howard station in that city. "It's just a matter of administration," he said. This matter of administration at WQED has one special similarity to that at commercial tv stations — running a tv operation takes a lot of money. WQED is a community project. It was born out of the desire of leading Pittsburgh citizens to bring instruction to the public and to the schools, plus programs designed to help people live in the 20th Century. In the spring of 1951 Mayor David L. Lawrence of Pittsburgh called civic and educational leaders together. A total of $350,000 was made available by A. W. Mellon Trust, Ford Foundation and Arbuckle-Jamison Foundation. KDKA-AM-FM (Westinghouse Broadcasting Co.), offered to lend its fm tower and transmitter site, since donated, to WQED. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. deeded a valuable old stone building, in the heart of the U. of Pittsburgh educational center, to the university, which in turn turned over the property to the tv project. Many other groups joined the booster list. WQED went on the air April 1, 1954. Its 5-kw DuMont transmitter and 25-kw amplifier are located atop one of the highest of Pittsburgh's hills. The 1957-58 WQED budget includes these items: EXPENSES Operation $279,536 Teaching demonstrations 104,023 School Fund 49,929 Educational Television & Radio Center 77,000 TOTAL 510,488 INCOME Fund for Advancement of Education (Ford) $120,000 ETRC 102,000 School funds (37 cents per pupil) 70,000 City of Pittsburgh 30,000 Allegheny County 40,000 New projects 25,000 Contributions needed 123,488 TOTAL 510,488 Contributions come in dribbles from the United Press news produces! Broadcasting November 11, 1957 • Page 97