WGBH: Station with a Purpose

. . the prosperity of my native land, New England, which is sterile and unproductive, must depend hereafter, as it has here- tofore depended, first on moral qualities and secondly on the intelligence and information of its inhabitants ..."

LL THE unyielding determina- tion, the realistic philosophy, and the will to find a way which characterized the Pilgrim Fathers are reflected in the words above, quoted from the will of John Lowell, Jr., under which the Lowell Institute was established in 1836. Last October, in furtherance of the purpose of the Foundation, one of the most interest- ing projects in radio broadcasting his- tory was inaugurated when FM station WGBH went on the air in Boston. There is always an uneasy feeling that non -commercial, educational stations are probably stuffy as to program man- agement, and slightly sub -standard as to technical performance. Obviously, WGBH is an exception in those respects, because the percentage of homes with FM receivers in the Boston area in- creased over 40% in the first four months this station was in operation. Ever since it was announced that WGBH would open up by carrying the first concert of the Boston Symphony's fall season, dealers there have been hard put to supply the demand for FM sets and tuners for use with high -fidelity audio systems, and they credit these sales to public interest in this station.

What's New About It?

Because I wanted to know what kind of a station, educational or not, could at- tract such interest and attention, I went to Boston to find out. At that point, I knew only that WGBH was licensed to the WGBH Educational Foundation and that it was operated with the ad- vice and cooperation of the Lowell In- stitute Cooperative Broadcasting Coun- cil. And I knew that Major Edwin H. Armstrong had presented a complete