WGBH is on the air! For the first time, live Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts and educational television, including Lowell lectures, are broadcast.
April 1951
WGBH is licensed
The Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council (LICBC) receives a license for one of the newly reserved FM radio channels set aside by the Federal Communications Commission for educational use. The WGBH Educational Foundation is incorporated to operate WGBH, the call letters of which come from the Milton location of the station's transmitter: Great Blue Hill.
The Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council (LICBC) receives a license for one of the newly reserved FM radio channels set aside by the Federal Communications Commission for educational use. The WGBH Educational Foundation is incorporated to operate WGBH, the call letters of which come from the Milton location of the station's transmitter: Great Blue Hill.
October 1951
On the air!
Conductor Charles Munch gives the downbeat, and 89.7 WGBH radio is on the air with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, live from Symphony Hall. The inaugural date is chosen to coincide with the first Saturday performance of the BSO's 71st season. During the intermission, composer Aaron Copland calls WGBH a "bright new hope among radio stations" and says it's "heartening to know that a station is now on the air broadcasting programs designed to be of interest to an adult mind." William Pierce hosts the symphony broadcasts from the station's inception through the 1989-90 season.
Conductor Charles Munch gives the downbeat, and 89.7 WGBH radio is on the air with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, live from Symphony Hall. The inaugural date is chosen to coincide with the first Saturday performance of the BSO's 71st season. During the intermission, composer Aaron Copland calls WGBH a "bright new hope among radio stations" and says it's "heartening to know that a station is now on the air broadcasting programs designed to be of interest to an adult mind." William Pierce hosts the symphony broadcasts from the station's inception through the 1989-90 season.
WGBH is a bright new hope among radio stations
Aaron Copland, composer
January 1952
Family circle
Families gather around the radio for 89.7 WGBH's Children's Circle. Nancy Harper of the Nursery Training School of Boston at Tufts College hosts the daily program.
Families gather around the radio for 89.7 WGBH's Children's Circle. Nancy Harper of the Nursery Training School of Boston at Tufts College hosts the daily program.
May 1955
WGBH 2 debuts
Television channel WGBH 2 airs its first program, Come and See, a show for children from Tufts' Nursery Training School with Mary Lou Adams and folk singer Tony Saletan. 89.7 WGBH talent Louis Lyons follows with the news. The station operates out of a converted skating rink at 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, leased from nearby MIT.
Television channel WGBH 2 airs its first program, Come and See, a show for children from Tufts' Nursery Training School with Mary Lou Adams and folk singer Tony Saletan. 89.7 WGBH talent Louis Lyons follows with the news. The station operates out of a converted skating rink at 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, leased from nearby MIT.
October 1955
See me, hear me
89.7 WGBH and WGBH 2 simulcast a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at MIT's Kresge Auditorium, beginning a tradition of music broadcasts unique in the United States.
89.7 WGBH and WGBH 2 simulcast a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at MIT's Kresge Auditorium, beginning a tradition of music broadcasts unique in the United States.
January 1956
Man, woman, child
WGBH adopts a new logo: an Aztec symbol combining three signs that together signify "family." Over time, small black decals with the gold stick-figure design decorate the windshields of WGBH contributors all around town.
WGBH adopts a new logo: an Aztec symbol combining three signs that together signify "family." Over time, small black decals with the gold stick-figure design decorate the windshields of WGBH contributors all around town.
June 1957
Pops!
First telecast of a Boston Pops Orchestra concert, direct from MIT's Kresge Auditorium. Conductor Arthur Fiedler becomes a familiar WGBH personality.
First telecast of a Boston Pops Orchestra concert, direct from MIT's Kresge Auditorium. Conductor Arthur Fiedler becomes a familiar WGBH personality.
September 1957
Discovering science
Mary Lela Grimes hosts Discovery, geared to a young audience. Her guests include a spectrum of distinguished Boston-area scientists—and a fair share of frogs, snakes, and bats that sometimes run loose through the studio during the live show. WGBH begins recording the programs on kinescope film and distributing them to educational TV stations around the country.
Mary Lela Grimes hosts Discovery, geared to a young audience. Her guests include a spectrum of distinguished Boston-area scientists—and a fair share of frogs, snakes, and bats that sometimes run loose through the studio during the live show. WGBH begins recording the programs on kinescope film and distributing them to educational TV stations around the country.
March 1958
Instructional TV
Eight weekly science programs broadcast on WGBH 2 to sixth-graders in 48 Boston-area school systems mark the beginning of what will become The 21-Inch Classroom. Among the programs offered by the TV classroom are Parlons Français, two 15-minute leçons a week from Madame Anne Slack, and Exploring Nature, hosted by professor and mycologist William H. Weston.
Eight weekly science programs broadcast on WGBH 2 to sixth-graders in 48 Boston-area school systems mark the beginning of what will become The 21-Inch Classroom. Among the programs offered by the TV classroom are Parlons Français, two 15-minute leçons a week from Madame Anne Slack, and Exploring Nature, hosted by professor and mycologist William H. Weston.
September 1958
Two on the aisle
WGBH brings the dean of Boston drama critics to the small screen with Elliot Norton Reviews, conversations with prominent actors, directors and producers that will air through 1982. With Boston a pre-Broadway "tryout town," Norton often becomes part of the artistic process, most famously when, on the program, he suggests that playwright Neil Simon bring back the ditzy Pigeon sisters in the third act of the then-flailing The Odd Couple.
WGBH brings the dean of Boston drama critics to the small screen with Elliot Norton Reviews, conversations with prominent actors, directors and producers that will air through 1982. With Boston a pre-Broadway "tryout town," Norton often becomes part of the artistic process, most famously when, on the program, he suggests that playwright Neil Simon bring back the ditzy Pigeon sisters in the third act of the then-flailing The Odd Couple.
November 1958
Day camp
Fun, games, toothbrushing and other daily tasks are the order of the day every afternoon on WGBH 2's live Ruth Anne's Camp with Miss Ruth Anne Flaherty and her eight grammar-school charges.
Fun, games, toothbrushing and other daily tasks are the order of the day every afternoon on WGBH 2's live Ruth Anne's Camp with Miss Ruth Anne Flaherty and her eight grammar-school charges.
June 1959
Before there was PBS
WGBH helps launch Durham, NH station WENH, Channel 11. The interconnection between the two represents the first educational TV "network" and forms the basis for the Eastern Educational Network, a precursor to PBS.
WGBH helps launch Durham, NH station WENH, Channel 11. The interconnection between the two represents the first educational TV "network" and forms the basis for the Eastern Educational Network, a precursor to PBS.
October 1959
First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt interviews world leaders on the monthly Prospects of Mankind, produced by WGBH and carried on a number of educational and commercial stations around the country.
Eleanor Roosevelt interviews world leaders on the monthly Prospects of Mankind, produced by WGBH and carried on a number of educational and commercial stations around the country.
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