Two Years of Planning
In 1952, Alameda County Schools Supt. Vaughn Seidel and associates
press FCC to set aside 273 television stations for educational use.
They incorporate Bay Area Educational Television Association (BAETA).
Too late, they discover that state law doesn't allow schools to
employ television for instruction. Undaunted, BAETA sets up temporary
offices in Jon Rice's station wagon the next year. Somewhere around
this time, Jim Day's wife, Beverly, dreams up call letters "KQED,"
an acronym for the Latin quod erat demonstrandum ("which
was to be demonstrated"). KQED's first Board chairperson is
Mortimer Fleishhacker, Jr., who signs on until 1972.
1954
With funds from the Ford Foundation, friends, and high school cake
sales, KQED acquires KPIX's old transmitter and studio atop the
Mark Hopkins Hotel. Jim Day heads staff of 12, including program
manager Jon Rice, formerly news director for a Los Angeles station.
In honor of first broadcast, a test pattern on April 5, 17 Bay Area
mayors proclaim KQED Week. KQED broadcasts two nights a week. Shakespeare
on TV first live show; Mills College offers one unit of credit for watching,
and show becomes a hit. Premiere of Jim Day's interview series,
Kaleidoscope.
1955
Money trouble. Curtis Roberts of fund-raising firm Gross & Roberts
dreams up Auction. During next two weeks, station raises $65,000
through on-air appeals, buying the station about six months more
operating time. Studios now at John O'Connell Trade Institute, courtesy
of SF Unified School District. Telecourses include speed reading,
piano keyboard, memory improvement. Focus Magazine, called
KQED in Focus, debuts. KQED sells memberships (at $10, $25,
$50, and $100), first of the country's 11 noncommercial stations
to do so.
1956
Overcrowded offices move from 165 Post to 207 Powell, then entire
station moves to warehouse at 4th and Bryant, rented at $500 a month.
With many donations of furnishings, equipment, lumber, and egg cartons
for soundproofing (KQED originated this cost-efficient idea - since
copied worldwide), staffers and volunteers transform it into a production
center. KQED and SF State College test effectiveness of TV teaching
and find it a success. KQED wins 1955 George Foster Peabody Award,
TV's highest honor, for Outstanding Meritorious Local Public Service.
1957
At last, state law is changed to allow public schools to use instructional
television. Transmitter moves from Top of the Mark to San Bruno
Mountain. Premiere of The Elements, with Nobel laureate Dr.
Glenn Seaborg. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer gives telecourse in mathematics.
Debut of Japanese Brush Painting with Takahiko Mikami, later
syndicated nationwide. Jim Day shares NY Times' TV columnist
Jack Gould's wariness about watering down controversy to appease
affluent contributors. Nobel-winning biochemist Linus Pauling and
H-bomb architect Edward Teller take part in debate on nuclear fallout
and disarmament, moderated by Day. Debate is kinescoped, broadcast
nationally then internationally, featured in magazines, and recognized
today as an early milestone in public TV.
1958
KQED launches instructional services for schools under its first
ITV director, Larry Smith. Dr. S.I. Hayakawa begins national semantics
series, Language in Action. Cal Tjader's Afro-Cubans debut
in Latin jazz concert series. Ed Radenzel is host of International
Perspective, KQED's first "live" news commentary.
Twenty Educational Television (ETV) stations nationwide.
1959
General manager Day begins search for permanent home. Suggests Palace
of Fine Arts, now up for renovation by City. States KQED's goal
is "to educate, inform, and entertain." Broadcast week
expands to six days.
highlights
1950s
1960s
about KQED
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