Many of you may know that the library of congress has the most comprehensive collection of sound recordings, Radio Broadcasts in world, honor to host this event with wgbh educational foundation, our collaborators in the american archive of public broadcasting or a apd. A apb. Up. T my centuries mixed [laughter] 1964. The National Education television and radio center. Incidentally, last month, we digitized two of these programs so they could be more accessible the of the librarys website. The librarys public Broadcasting Holdings have grown since 19th before to include tens of thousands of film, video, and audio masters from eta, and inet and w addition to the thousands of excess copies, we routinely acquire as copyright deposits from public broadcasting stations and producers across the nation. Americahief steward of s in the world record of knowledge, we took to heart the television and video preservation study commissioned 20 years ago by the library of congress, which characterized Public Television as the richest audiovisual source of cultural history in the United States. So we are proud to join with wgbh to ensure that Public Televisions legacy survives. At this time, i would like to make some news. Some excitingunce new acquisitions and projects related to public broadcasting preservation. First of all, as a library and come at you dont get to break news that often. [laughter] you newspeople, bear with me. I want to thank mr. Dec vett for donating his collection. [applause] his collection of approximately 2500 shows from , including the 1000 shows he may for pbs. He interviewed more than 5000 guests for the shows. The list is astonishing and a testament to his ability to draw people not normally seen on latenight television, katharine hepburn, alfred hitchcock, angela davis, marlon brando, and on one of the more memorable and notorious shows, gore the doll and Norman Mailer gore the l and norman vida mailer. He featured rock n roll musicians including john lennon and your go on oh, jimi hendrix, janice joplin, david bowie, joni collins, i was pretty excited to announce that today the a apd will and will launch a new exhibit on its website that will make Public Televisions first coverage of the Senate Watergate i am breaking news all over. [laughter] Available Online for the first time. [applause] this was one of the most Popular Series in public broadcasting history and the library of congress has digitized all of the master videotapes of the coverage we 1989, and are making them accessible online to anyone in the United States. The broadcast created what dick cavette called watergate junkies, to refer to himself another to watch the hearings and others who watched the hearings incessantly. It was created this summer by a library of congress junior fellow, a history major from yale who was with us today. Could you please stand up, amanda . [applause] carla there is amanda. We sent the detailed background essay she wrote to jim lehrer, who anchored the coverage was robert mcneil. Jim after reading the essay he , wrote back, it is as terrific as it is accurate. Two years after the hearings, leher worked together again on another landmark public broadcasting program. I think you have all heard of it. The rest of it as they say is history. Jim has commented without watergate, there would have been not be anything called r. Neillerhre jim will be on a panel later today and will show a few clips in the watergate coverage. Aapb is in the process of making Available Online full interviews conducted for a number of landmark pbs series. Ken burns civil war, and the definitive series on the civil rights movement, eyes on the prize. And the biography series an american experience. They are telling me to get off the stage because there is so , much more i could tell you about the project, but i have run out of time. I want to thank miss patricia harrison, president and cto of and ceo of the corporation for public broadcasting for their support of the library of congress. Unfortunately we have learned that pats wife has been delayed and she cannot join us this pats flight has been delayed and she cannot join us this afternoon, but can you give her a . And in absentee [applause] carla i would like to introduce the Senior Vice President of communications for ctb to speak on her behalf. [applause] thank you, dr. Hayden, and thank you for your leadership and for hosting this important gathering at the library of congress. I would like to recognize senator markey and thank him for his important support but only for his hometown station, wgbh, but also for his leadership advocating for in helping to sustain a vital public media system for all americans. [applause] it is largely because of his and others that consistent support of public media that we are here today celebrating the 50th anniversary of the public broadcasting act. The 1967 act articulate a vision of a strong of the Media Service providing access to every american to the highest quality of educational and informational content for free and commercialfree. The goal then, as is now, is to strengthen our civil society, through content that would result in educated, informed and engaged citizens. The three pillars of a vibrant democracy. From 1967 to 2017, the act continues to provide us with an evergreen mission and vision for public medias Important Role in American Life. One the corporation for public broadcasting is proud to advance. Because the act created cpb, and designated us as a steward of the federal appropriation, asking tasking us with ensuring these funds with the public media stations to serve underserved and unserved communities. From our youngest to our oldest citizens. We are directed to utilize technology in innovative ways of connecting with new generations, to serve as americas largest classroom, to help inspire lifelong learning, and to invest in journalism that is factbased, in depth and committed to editorial integrity. Today pbs, npr, and nearly 1500 local Public Television and Radio Stations and will, small in rural small town in urban , communities across the country are for filling the mission and vision of the public broadcasting act. Reaching 99 of an increasingly diverse america with content that continues to be of value long after the initial broadcast, for digital presentation. Content that is cultural and historical relevance provides us with insights about the way we were and about the way we are now as a people, as a civil society, as a democracy. The value of this content is priceless, but it was deteriorating and would no longer be accessible to future generations. That is why following a twoyear pilot that began in 2009, cpb provided almost 3 million in grants in 2011 to the public media stations so they could inventory and protect their station archives. That first step helped to build the foundation for the american archive of public broadcasting. Cpb did not do this alone, and we are appreciative of wgbh, the library of congress, and many others for their ongoing commitment to this important initiative. In addition to thanking dr. Hayden and senator markey, i want to thank john abbott, the president and ceo of wgbh for his leadership. Wgbh is an Innovative Community focused station providing public broadcasting for new england, and is also pbs leading content provider, producer, and a major supplier of programming for public radio and Digital Content nationwide. Johns leadership has resulted in a Strong Partnership with the library of congress to preserve public medias legacy content for the american archive of public. American archive of public broadcasting. We are so appreciative of his commitment. Please welcome john abbott. [applause] john what a gathering. What an honor to be with so many extraordinary leaders through the history of public broadcasting. Let me add my welcome to all of you who joined us today for this extraordinary meeting, this opportunity to share with the panels, these reflections of history. My special thanks to dr. Hayden for hosting us. The library of congress is a fitting occasion to mark this milestone. Wgbh and the library came together four years ago to form the american archive of public broadcasting, to collect the significant historical content created by Public Television and Radio Stations over these 50 years. Because of the vision and support of pat harrison, cpb and its board, they are preserving programs that tell americas stories. More than 100 Public Television and Radio Stations across the country, from maine to guam, have shared their content of the archives. The collection has over 50,000 hours of content, and we are adding 25,000 hours every year. In keeping with the mission of public media, the american archive is available directly to the public with some 23,000 programs in addition to Resources Available daily for educators and researchers. Wgbh is proud to be working in partnership with the library of congress to preserve these historic treasures, and make them available for future generations. I would like to knowledge are acknowledge our dedicated american archive team. [applause] john as we celebrate the legislation that created public broadcasting, we know the federal governments investment in our work. Consistent, persistent, and forwardlooking. For wgbh, one individual embodies that work in that is our senator, edward markey. He hoped to be with us today and we are sorry he cannot join us. He has served on the Advisory Council for the american archive and served on the hill for 40 of the public broadcastings 50 years. He knows our work very well. In throughout, he has been a stalwart champion of all we aspire to do for the American People across the country. My thanks to all of you for being with us here today. Im looking forward to hear it to hearing from our Extraordinary Group of panelists, assembled for this occasion. I will turn his back to her cash back to our host dr. Carla , hayden who may squeeze in a few more releases of new information. She only got halfway through her list i think. Which is very exciting. To begin proceedings, thanks again to the library of congress. [applause] unfortunately carla had to leave so it is me. I am the senior director of the wgbh archive and the project director for the american archive for public broadcasting. Alan my esteemed colleague is in , the back managing our audiovisual materials. He is a special assistant to the chief of the library of National AudiovisualConservation Center at culpepper for the library of congress, and project rector for and project director for the American Library of congress. Thank you for being here celebrate our 50th anniversary. Our first panel is what the origins of public broadcasting. We will start up with a clip , the minogue ftc chairman during 1961 to 19 six e3 and instrumental in getting the public broadcasting act launch. How could something happening this week that is really revolutionary and the passing of this bill for Educational Television . The president this week signed a bill which for the first time will commit federal funds for the construction of Educational Television stations and to link the stations together. This will be the first time that is on a matching basis with the states and private institutions. Federal public funds will be administered for this purpose. In many countries the government operates public broadcasting. We have taken a different course. We think broadcasting should be in private hands, in commercial side for private profit. We are hoping to develop an alternative service for those people who want it. I wish i could be with you in person to welcome you to this important anniversary. My it is tough to travel, so 90s, i will communicate a little history to you this way. What i want to do is tell you a couple of stories about history. My involvement really stemmed 61 years ago. In during the president ial 1956, campaign, my roommate was Robert Kennedy who had been sent by the Kennedy Family to learn about national campaigns. They were looking forward to jack kennedy becoming a candidate one day. Bob and i were the same age and often roommates on the travel. We got the springfield, illinois and he turned to me and said, you and i have heard the same speech 5000 times. Have we got time to look over to abraham lincolns house so i could see it, i have never been to springfield. Then will get back in time to catch the plane. I said is only six or seven minutes. Lets go. We went over and saw lincolns house. On the way back bob kennedy said to me, you and i each have Young Children, families. He said when i grow up i thought there were three great influences on a child. The home, the school, and the church. He said i realize now raising my own children there is a fourth. It is television. He said my kids are watching television, they are fascinated by television. Cant we do something to make it more educational and informative for kids . That started a relationship. Four years later when his brother was elected president , the day after the election i got a call saying would i please consider joining the administration. I really said no because i could not afford it. We had Young Children and no money. They knew how interested i was in television. They offered me the job at age 34 of being chairman of the federal communications commission. How can i resist that . We moved to washington. The fcc had been in a series of scandals. The place was a mess. My job was to clean it up. The first day i was on the job, the first issue i chased was the the first issue i faced was , the senate wanted our testimony on an impending bill to use federal funds to help but was then called Educational Television. My colleagues at that time there were seven commissioners, they said we dont take a position on that. I said, wait a minute. Our job is to protect the public interest. Certainly this is in the public interest. By a vote of 61, with my single dissent, we testified for the senate. I was the one that said we are very much forming this legislation. I brought today something that long preceded the Public Television act this is the first act. You see president kennedy hidden you see president kennedy. Im sort of hidden in the background. This was passed and the president signed it on may 1, 1962. President john f. Kennedy signing the tv educational bill 205, may 1, 1962. I was privileged. I realized i had come to the fcc from chicago where we had wttw. President kennedy came to the had come to the white house from boston, where there was wgbh. Little did we know there was no Public Television station in washington, d. C. , the capital of the United States. None in new york city, the largest city in the United States. Not in los angeles, largest city on the west coast. There were very few stations. The first thing we have to do was get more stations. The way we did that was the past two laws. One was called the all channel receiver act, which makes Television Sets have a uhf tuner that enabled new stations to come on the air. The other was to provide funding to build Public Television stations. We launched what later became what is now today the nationwide system. We also helped public radio, which i preceded television in any way we could. I always think without a station in new york, without a station in los angeles, without a station washington, it would be impossible to build a national system. I am very proud of that. President kennedy was proud of it, and later when i left the government, went home to chicago, i became involved in our local station, wttw. Later became chairman of it. Public broadcasting has grown and developed because it was bipartisan. I tell our board at wttw that the most important asset we have is the word trust. It does not show up in a financial statement. Everyone trusts us. Everyone trusts pbs and npr is as being honest and fair. That is why it is so important that now we archived and preserve the great things we have to. We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Public Television act. [applause] panelist the first could come up to the stage . The first piece with Eleanor Roosevelt was a thank you to henry morgenthau. [applause] karen the first panel is about the origins of public broadcasting. Our moderator will be cokie roberts. Cokie roberts is a political commentator please, i have it all written out. I am dying to at least say she was cited by american women as one of the greatest women in the history of broadcasting. In 2008, the library of Congress Name for a living legend, which we totally agree with. [applause] cokie i am thrilled to be moderating this panel because this is one of the rare times in my life i am a kid. [laughter] thanks. Cokie i joined npr 10 years after the public broadcasting act was signed. I have been there 40 years. These gents preceded me. Predeceased you . Cokie i did not say deceased. They were there at the beginning. They each have a wonderful story to tell. Irvin dugin to my left was in the white house the time the bi