NAEB Newsletter (Apr 1958)

ANNIVERSARIES OBSERVED Radio station WBGO, Newark, N. J., will observe its tenth anniversary in educational broadcasting with a special program on April 16. Board of Education President Morris Fuchs asks that NAEB members send congratulatory messages to be read on the special program observance featuring Gov. Robert B. Meyner as guest speaker. Communications may be addressed to Fuchs in care of WBGO. ***** A two-hour program was broadcast March 24 by radio station KBPS, Portland, Ore., in a special ob¬ servance of its 35th birthday. The program, produced by Fred Warner, featured guests from the city, schools and community to celebrate the station’s start in educational broadcasting. HOUSE PASSES IMPORT BILL The House of Representatives passed a bill Feb. 27 that should prove beneficial to educational broad¬ casting. Known as the Eberharter Bill, it will permit the importation of tapes and recordings without duty when they are used for educational purposes. According to NAEB attorney Leonard H. Marks of Cohn and Marks, it is hoped that the Senate will be able to consider the bill this season so that it may be¬ come effective immediately. WASHINGTON U. GIVES CIVIC EDUCATION BY TV Washington University last month established a Civic Education Center to help increase understanding and disseminate information about metropolitan prob¬ lems, partially by means of an informal, non-credit TV program. The center will develop television broadcasts for groups of people situated at “viewing posts” through¬ out metropolitan St. Louis. The first of its kind, it will be a pilot project for the entire country in the ef¬ fective use of TV for adult civic education. Eugene I. Johnson, director of civic education and TV activities at the university, has been named di¬ rector of the center, which will function with an all¬ university advisory committee. The center will seek to develop new techniques for spreading knowledge about modern urban problems in areas of economy, governmental structure, history, culture and the move to suburbs. The idea of audience participation by means of organized “viewing posts” was introduced to the St. Louis area for the first time this fall with a series of nine TV programs over KETC. Issues raised during the half-hour program were discussed by people gathered in groups of six to sixteen at “viewing posts” throughout the metropolitan p,rea. NEW ITHACA ETV USES CABLE SYSTEM Ithaca (N. Y.) College opened its new WICB-TV studios and started its broadcasting schedule last month with programs distributed over a local coaxial cable system. The community cable serves approxi¬ mately 15,000 viewers in homes and business places of the area. ETV programs are offered from 8 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday when the college is in session. The operation of WICB-TV marks the first local origination of television programs in the Ithaca area on a regular basis. Prof. Royal D. Colie, chairman of the television-radio department, said the schedule has been designed' to present information and enter¬ tainment programs which will supplement the offer¬ ings of commercial stations, and to serve as an outlet for community expression. WTCB also opened its FM studios to provide the college with modern equipment in both radio and TV. Students use the studios in closed-circuit class work and assist in producing programs. WE BEG YOUR PARDON! The program series described in the February Newsletter on page 2 had' one word of its title omitted. It should be corrected to read, “Man Is Not a Thing.” NEWS OF MEMBERS GENERAL ^ Station WKAR-TV of Michigan State University has been presented a certificate of recognition by the Ingham County (Lansing) Medical Society. The award, made during the WKAR-TV program “Medi¬ cal Forum,” cites the university station for “an out¬ standing contribution to public knowledge in the field of medicine.” “Medical Forum” is produced in cooperation with the medical society and other Mich¬ igan health groups and organizations. ^ Results of a survey conducted by the Alabama ETV Commission indicate that there are 455 televi- NEWSLETTER