KQED History Date Description Mar 22, 1951 Representatives of all public school districts in 7 Bay Area Counties (Not SF) including UC, Stanford, Mills, SF State and many private and junior colleges meet to support FcC proposed rule setting aside Channel 9 for non- conmercial, educational use. Sep 4 | 1951 Bay Area Public Schools Television Council and the Bay Area Educational Television Committee sends a petition to FCc requesting reservation of Channel 9 (as proposed in rulemaking) and argluing vehemently against a cBS Proposal that a IJIIF channel be given to the educational broadcasters in San Francisco. Vaughn D. Seidel argues that it would be practically impossible to obtain public interest or capital funds if they were to be rfshuntedff to UHF. rfVaughn Seidel . .. was without any doubt the founder of KQED. Starting in the very early '50s when educational, nonconmercial television was a brand new idea, Dr. Seidel, then supervisor of schools for Alameda County, saw the potential of nonconmercial television when most educators in Bay Area media still scof fed at the whole idea. rf Focus 3 /7e Jun L2, L952 Bay Area Educational Television Association (BAETA) incorporation papers f iled rt. to stimulate and advance education by telecast. ff . Principal off ice is at the County Court House, L225 Fallon Street, Odk1and. Vaughn Seidel named President. George A. Pettitt (VP UC Berkeley) named Vice President. , JUI 28, L952 BAETA discusses the various options for going on air. The feasibility of purghasing the KPIX facifities, setting up a new facility on San Bruno Mountain that is currently also being used by NBC and KRON-TV (San Bruno, incidentally, was owned by the Crocker Estate) , setting up on Mt. Bacon in Marin County with the facilities of KPFC, and using the present tower on Mt. Sutro owned by KGO-TV. Board also discusses possible studio facilities such as Dwinelle HaIl on the University of California campus. Dr. Pettitt indicates that Cal rnight look favorably on BAETA's use of this facility. Aug 1L, L952 President Seidel reads a letter to the board saying that school districts cannot support BAETA because it is not exclusively dedicated to educational research. This means that school districts can not support educational television until the law is changed. Aug 22, L952 Meeting of the BAETA Board which began long, key association with the Ford Foundation. Here the Board met G.H. Griffiths of Fordts ffFund for Adult Educationfr... ETV' s Golden Goose. At meeting Fletcher outlines plans to KQED History Date Description set up organization that became NET and described rules by which BAETA could gualify for a matching grant for capital expense up to $150, oo0. (Grant which put KQEO on air) . rrwhile the Ford Foundation did not give birth to DoD-conmercial television, it did provide the tiving costs'. (to the tune of $Zeg million) needea to bring publi; j television through its traumatic infancy and chaotic youth.: . (fn addition to) direct funding (of KQED) , the foundation provided total support for NET, the predecessor':l of PBS. Additional Ford money was given to KQED by NET for, production of nearfy a thousand programs produced by KQED '* f or national distribution. fr Focus 2 / 80 Sep 16, L952 First organi zaEional memberships : California College of Arts and Crafts $500. OO Golden Gate College 500.00 UC Berkeley 250.00 Sep L7, L952 Board adopts membership plan: $10 per year. rrone memb€rr one voteff Oct 2 | L952 BAETA Board establishes first norninating committee for Board election. BAETA Board learns Emerson TV Co has offered $f0,000 each to first ten ETV stations. BAETA Board orders 2000 letterheads and 1000 membership cards. Nov 28, L952 FCC Commissioner Frieda Hennock, the first woman on the FCCr and national leader of the drive to set aside TV channels for education, responded to the invitation of Mrs. Horace '. Cochran of AAUIf, to come to SF for radj-o interviews, a pres conference and BAETA reception. ffToddy, the notion of education via television no longer seems controversial. But during the late | 4Os and early t50s it was one very hot potato. FCC Commissioner Frieda Hennock, the first woman ever appointed to the FCc, was spearheading a drive for the FCC to set aside channels exclusively for educational TV. o o Finally, she prevailed. In the spring of 1952, the FCC set aside 242 (later 245) i educational channels. ff - Focus 4 | 80 ffUnheralded and all but unremembered is the role of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in that struggle (for ETV) - and in the founding of KQED. The SF branch of the AAIII{ had taken an early interest in demandi excellence in broadcasting, with its L937 project , ,,Radio as a Social Forc€r tt . Starting in L947 , the branch awarded certificates of achievement to broadcasters whose KQED History Date Description programs--t------ were long on conmunity service and educational value. o o. (after WWIf ) the SF branch joined in a statewide effort to launch a California educational radio network. Though this drive failed, it laid the groundwork I for the beginnings of educational TV. rr - Focus 4 / 80 Dec L, L952 First Annual Meeting of BAETA in Moose Club Hotel, Oakland. I 25 members show up (782 of the membership) o Dec 3L, L952 Board appfies to The San Francisco Foundation for $tZ, o0o for ff developing educational television in the Bay AreEt. ff The sponsoring institutions donating $r00 or more now include the Alameda County Music Teachers Assc. and I'{ills College. Jan 6, L953 Herbert C. Clish, Superintendent of Schools for San Francisco, writes a letter to the San Francisco Foundation for funding. At this point, H€rb is Chairman of the Board and Vaughn Seide1 is President of BAETA. \ frln an interesting by-play, Dr. Seidel (Superintendent of Schools for Alarneda County) and his counterpart in the San Francisco school syst€rr, Dr. Herbert Clish, disaglreed on almost everything, including the ffwild ideaff of educational broadcasting. Since it was clear to everyone cgncerned that BAETA needed the support of the San Francisco school syst€flr a compromise was engineered by Frieda Hennock . .. and Roy Sorenson, a BAETA board member and a nation$lide authority on the art and science of board membership. Thus, Seidel became president of the corporation and clish became chairman of the board (a post he accepted despite deep seated reservations about the venture) . rf Jan 10, L953 R,A. Isberg evaluates the KPfX proposal. He outlines the I usable eguipnent that KPIX is offering and the costs of converting it from Channel 5 to 9. He estimates the value of the KPIX equipment at $49r000. Mark Hopkins transmitter costs are estimated at $1575 for 22 hours per month of programming. Jan 20, 1953 The San Francisco Foundation agrees to a grant for $f2r000. Mar 25, 1953 KPIX agrrees to sell its television transmitter on the Mark Hopkins hotel to BAETA. The transmitter is just below the ttTop of the Markrr restaurant. The contract cost to BAETA will be $25 ,25o. KPIX will also do the conversion to channel 9 for an additional sum of $32 t25o. Upon completion BAETA agrees to pay $11r 500 with the remainder in pa)rnents of $1,000 per rnonth at 4 percent interest per year. The agreement is between Philip G. Lasky, Vice President for KPIX and Vaughn D. Seidel, President of BAETA. KQED History Date Description Mar 25, L953 rrKPfX made a gift to KQED of the first transmitter that ' enabled Channel 9 to conmence operations. The conment in Focus (Ll79l inplied that the transmitter was purchased with funds from the Ford Foundation and cake sales. The facts: BAETA (KQED's parent organizaEion) had an FCC license but not money to buy equipment or start operations The Ford Foundation agreed to match whatever funds KQED i could put up. Prior to L952 KPfX, Channel 5 t had :.,ir transmitted from atop the tlark Hopkins Hotel. Late that year it switched operations to Mt. Sutro. At a cost of approximately $z s , ooo KPIX converted ( involving extensive engineering) its old RCA transmitter and antenna on the Mark Hopkins Hotel to operate on Channel 9, and contribut it to KQED.rr - Phil Lasky, Ietter in Focus 4/79 According to Jin Day, KQED's general manager, ttThe man wh negotiated all this was the then general manager of KPIX,', Phil Lasky, who constantly reminded our audience that he u gave the transrnitter to KQEU. f always said that I though it was a very good business deal for both of us. They (KPIX) got rid of the expense of getting rid of the transmitter by giving it to us, and we assumed that expense... and ultimately we did have to get rid of it.rr Apr 27 , l-9 53 Board negotiates with Jon Rice for position of Program Manager. Rosenberg Foundation gives $30,0OO immediately and another $goroo0 when Channel 9 goes on the air. May L | 1953 Jon Rice and his farnily move to San Francisco from Los Angeles. They quickly f ind an apartment out in the Avenues. Jiro Day conmutes from PaIo AIto. l{ay 31t L953 KTIIIT in Houston, Texas goes on the air as Channel I under the auspices of the University of Houston. Jun L | L953 Jirn Day and Jon Rice start working as the stationt s f irst , employees. There was no office and they worked out of the back of Jon Ricets station wagon. Jun 15, 1953 Ruth Lane hired as secretary. Jun 30 | L953 rfContracts were signed during June which granted BAETA the; use of television studios at the University of Californial,* and in the John OtConnell Trade School in San Francisco.