A Descriptive History of America's First National Public Radio Network: National Public Radio, 1970 to 1974.

Abstract

This study explores the reasons for the formation of the National Public Radio (NPR) network and then presents a mainly chronological examination of the formation and development of the network, taking it from its first program on April 20, 1971, to the end of the fiscal year 1974. The study begins with the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which made possible a national public radio network, and describes the events which led to the actual creation of the network. The events of prime importance for the first interconnected national network of educational (noncommercial) stations were detailed. Among them were the various legislative acts which affected the organization of the network; the formation and modification of its philosophical tone, and how the tone in turn affected the programming; the building and changing of the staff, and how their individual personalities affected the network; and the development of a program policy that became the foundation for the network's reason for existence. The study recorded the route taken by NPR, starting with the creation of a planning board (established with the assistance of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) which helped set a philosophical base for the network, and which also gathered a skeletal staff to organize and administer the network during its early days. The study also examined the formation of the network's Programming Department and the development of the programs submitted through it, notably the daily news magazine "All Things Considered...". Although the study concentrated on the major purpose of the organization and the department most responsible for it--programming--it also examined the administrative structure of NPR, the relationship of the Washington based unit with the member stations, and the development of various policies and concepts (such as decentralization) during the network's growth. The study was limited to a descriptive history of the organization; it was not its purpose to evaluate the efforts of the network, although at times the recital of the facts implied some evaluative judgement. NPR was created almost by accident when a few persistent personnel in public radio caused the expansion of what was intended to be the Public Television Act of 1967 to include public radio as the Public Broadcasting Act. A planning board m and ated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting spent nearly three years in laying the foundation for the proposed network and then implementing it; a staff was assembled, an administrative plan set up, programming devised, and member stations recruited. Some subsequent confusion and frustration resulting from a lack of careful planning occurred, and it still exists, to some extent, to plague the present organization. The programming developed from the inspiration of the first head of the Programming Department, whose humane, laissez-faire philosophy created existing but unstructured and unpolished results. As improvement and a sense of direction was brought to programming, it was accompanied by a gradual increase in similarity to commercial broadcasting.