1970
Feb. 26: NPR incorporates [document];
Don Quayle is to become first president. (Lee Frischknecht becomes second
president in 1973.) William H. Siemering drafts statement of purposes
[document].
November: NET and WNDT merge, creating WNET.
Nov. 9: PBS carries NET’s “Banks and the Poor,”
generating major controversy. Nov. 20: Maryland
PTV launches Wall $treet Week.
..
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1971
The Great American Dream Machine and
Masterpiece Theatre debut [article
on origins of Masterpiece Theatre].
April 20: NPR begins service with live broadcast of Senate hearings on
ending Vietnam War. May 3: NPR begins All
Things Considered (ATC). NAEB’s
National Educational Radio Network merges with NPR.
National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT) is created.
Oct. 21: Nixon aide Clay Whitehead challenges public TV in speech at NAEB
meeting.
1972
June 30: President Nixon vetoes two-year CPB
authorizing law; a reduced one-year bill is enacted later [summary,
White House documents]. John Macy
resigns as CPB president, succeeded by Henry Loomis.
Frank Pace, CPB’s first chairman, also quits, succeeded by Tom Curtis.
PBS forms Adult Learning Service.
The Electric Company debuts. Nov. 4:
PBS airs WNET’s first Great Performances.
WGBH Caption Center prepares first open-captioned national broadcast,
The French Chef. October: PBS President
Hartford Gunn proposes Station Program Cooperative to shield program funding
choices from political interference [document];
SPC lasts until 1989.
..
 Susan Stamberg, an ATC co-host for 15 years, was the first woman to anchor a daily national broadcast. |
1973
Jan. 11: WNET begins verite documentary
series An American Family [article].
Association of Public Radio Stations (APRS)
is formed to lobby for field. May 15: Robert
MacNeil and Jim Lehrer team up on NPACT’s coverage of Senate Watergate
hearings. May 31: CPB and PBS make peace with
Partnership Agreement [document],
letting PBS schedule the interconnection. September:
With Ralph Rogers as chair, PBS reorganization cuts parental ties with
CPB, adds board of lay leaders.
..
 Filmmakers lived with the Louds to produce An American Family. |
 NPACT officials receive bags of mail after covering the Watergate hearings. |
1974
March 3: WGBH inaugurates Nova.
PBS establishes Station Program Cooperative (SPC) to aggregate station
funds for national programming and Station Independence Program (SIP)
for pledge specials. Upstairs, Downstairs
debuts on Masterpiece Theatre, runs through 1978.
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1975
April: PBS launches first national pledge drive,
Festival 75. Sept. 15: National Federation
of Community Broadcasters incorporates. Oct.
20: WNET starts The Robert MacNeil Report (in 1976 renamed The
MacNeil/Lehrer Report). Lawrence Grossman
named president of PBS; Hartford Gunn, vice chairman.
Dec. 31: President Ford signs five-year funding act anticipating a new
feature: advance appropriations. In 1976, Congress follows up with appropriations
through fiscal 1979.
1977
May 4: NPR takes on public radio’s lobbying
functions, merging with APRs Carnegie Corporation
establishes Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting (Carnegie
II); the body publishes its recommendations in 1978 [summary].
NPR expands All Things Considered to
the weekend and launches Jazz Alive!
Aug. 1: Frank Mankiewicz begins work as NPR president.
1978
March 1: Public TV’s satellite interconnection
begins operation. July 3: Supreme Court upholds
FCC indecency ruling against afternoon broadcast of George Carlin’s “filthy
words” routine on Pacifica’s WBAI in 1973 [ruling
on FindLaw website].
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January: Public TV splits lobbying function from
PBS. (In 1980, new group will be named National Association of Public Television
Stations. Later, it’s called America’s Public Television Stations, APTS).
David Carley is first president. Jan. 30: Carnegie
II releases report. Aug. 23: CPB creates Television
Program Fund. Nov. 5: NPR launches Morning
Edition. |
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