VPM 60th Anniversary
VPM 60th Anniversary
Episode 1 | 1m 43sVideo has Closed Captions
Discover the origins of VPM and revisit shows from the past.
Take a trip down memory lane and discover who created the public media station now known as VPM. It took multiple years, from an educational concept to becoming a fully operational TV station. WCVE, Channel 23, came alive in 1964.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
VPM 60th Anniversary is a local public television program presented by VPM
VPM 60th Anniversary
VPM 60th Anniversary
Episode 1 | 1m 43sVideo has Closed Captions
Take a trip down memory lane and discover who created the public media station now known as VPM. It took multiple years, from an educational concept to becoming a fully operational TV station. WCVE, Channel 23, came alive in 1964.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch VPM 60th Anniversary
VPM 60th Anniversary is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(mellow music) (upbeat music) (static crackling) (upbeat music continues) >>Long ago, in the year 1963, a teacher went on live TV and taught a science class.
Tom Boushall, a banker and a Richmond School Board member, took notice.
He asked some colleagues, why don't we create a TV station dedicated to making educational programs for the schools?
They agreed and raised some money to build one from scratch, but none of them knew how to construct a TV station.
(upbeat music continues) Bill B.W.
Spiller read a classified ad in a newspaper.
Some people in Virginia were looking for someone who knew how to build a TV station.
Spiller had already built two, so he was hired, and he moved to Virginia.
By January 1964, the TV station was little more than a vacant lot.
B.W.
had only nine months to construct a building, buy cameras, lights, transmitters, and broadcast equipment, wire it all up, and get it on air.
But the station also needed teachers, so Tom Boushall hired Mary Anne Franklin.
She hired a full-time staff of teachers to create lesson plans.
With help from producers and artists, they all figured out how to turn the lessons into educational TV programs.
On Monday, September 14th, 1964, B.W.
Spiller flipped a switch and WCVE, Central Virginia Educational TV, went on air and into classrooms for the first time.
It was the beginning of a new era.
(upbeat music continues)
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VPM 60th Anniversary is a local public television program presented by VPM