The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 73

auior WDCN's roving mobile studio pulls out for another day of location filming. When not needed outside the station, the truck's equipment is used for one of the station's studios which as of yet does not have permanent inhouse gear. Smpression, Snc. Complete Graphic Arts Supplies, Equipment. Sales Service Davidson Hamada Itek Challenge Gevaert GBC 3M Keyline Van Son 1705 Charlotte Ave.

329-1633 flVEITS BJ1CES! IH9II1 mm iHTCnvieujs Beginning October 10 DIFFERENT PICTURE OH CHANNEL 8 PRESENTED ON PUBLIC TELEVISION BY WNETNEWYORK After 15 years of existence, VVDCN is now the proud possessor of beautiful new studios. The station has both the potential and the desire to become one of the major production centers of the public television system. WDCN's future is bright, and its present serves an important function for the area. Yet its present, much less its future, could have scarcely been foreseen in its beginning. Only a visionary could have prophesied its success, but then WDCN is the child of visionaries.

The station got off to a very slow start. An educational channefwas first considered here in 1952. But those were the days when television itself was still a novelty. The medium then was truly the message, and whatever appeared on the flickering blue screen was worth watching. Commercial programming had yet to take shape.

Live theatre (Playhouse 90) as well as Milton Berle was an alternative on the dial. And because commercial T.V. was still in its infancy, the proposed educational channel was not seen as an option to its programming. Instead, it was primarily seen as a learning tool for the school system, not as entertainment. Understandably, pedagogical leaders like J.E.

Moss, Superintendent of Schools for Davidson County, and Harvey Branscom, Vanderbilt chancellor, were the station's earliest proponents. Other prominent Nashvillians soon joined the effort. But the idea was ahead of its time for Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Enthusiasts couldn't raise the necessary funding, and the venture faded before it truly began. The idea was revived at the beginning of the Sixties due to the efforts of Dr.

Robert Bogan of the Educational Council of Nashville and Davidson County. And this time with the aid of a year-long, professional study by Au burn's ETV, the Davidson County and Nashville school boards were persuaded to finance the venture by acting as the station's licensee. In 1962, ten years after it was first proposed, WDCN came into being. (The public radio station WPLN was also created in 1962. It, however, is a separate entity with its license held by the Metro Public Library.) The beginning was inauspicious.

With extra funds from Vanderbilt and the state and in temporary quarters lent by the University of Tennessee, WDCN put six in-school shows on the air. The programs were in black and white, there was no network system between WDCN and sister stations scattered across the country, and practically the only source of national programming was one educational station in New York. In fiften years, quite a few improvements have been made. In 1970, WDCN along with other educational stations wasgiven a second name and duty. It became a public as well as an educational channel; and as such, officially began to offer programming to the adult community that entertained as well as educated.

In 1969, thanks to the new "network" system, WDCN was able to air some broadcasts in color. Later the 1973 channel swap with WNGE, the ABC affiliate for this area, made full color broadcasts possible and paved the way for the construction of WDCN's new studios. The network system has had a greater influence, of course, than adding some sparkle to the screen. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) have made it possible for all local public stations to buy excellent and otherwise exorbitantly expensive productions from independents and other countries. "Upstairs Cont.

on page 11. INTO Tll flDUIM B1SUS flfiD MM CRlMUr1 WALKS If SI POXi -I'M i 1 -i 1 f'rtr SLlJ (fflKBSH FRIDAYS 7:30 Dlf CRCNT PICTUR ON (HEl. PRODUCED FOR PUBLIC TELEVISION BY THE MARYLAND CENTER FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING.