Educators in the 1940's sought government and public support for educational television (ETV). Although some broadcast licenses were granted by the FCC for this purpose and monies to move forward procured, ETV did not flourish as had been hoped for. Entertainment programming in the new medium became extremely popular, and advertisers "educated" the American public to become consumers and thus better the economy. So many commercial licenses were applied for in the immediate post-WWII war years that the FCC initiated a "television freeze" in 1948 (ie. no new licenses granted) in order to restructure the system and study the UHF (ultra high frequency) band. During this freeze, a dynamic FCC commissioner, Freida Hennock, combined support from educators and the general public with financial backing from the Ford Foundation and formed the Joint Committee for Educational Television to lobby the FCC for reserved channel space for noncommercial television (or ETV). Hennock's view was that without reserved channels, by the time educators were financially and technically prepared to pioneer ETV, there would be no available spectrum space available. Finally, in 1953, the FCC allotted 242 channels for education, and KUHT in Houston, Texas obtained the first noncommerical TV liicense.
Submitted by Li-Lee Tunceren
Retrieved from the Musuem of Broadcast Communications website on January 27, 2007 from http://museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/educationlt/educationalt.htm
