If you now work in public radio, Sam Holt made your job possible. In fact, he helped make the entire public radio system possible.
Holt was one of a small group of broadcasters and organizations who made certain that noncommercial radio was part of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Holt and others noted that early drafts of the Act didn’t even mention radio.
Now, The Public Radio Oral History Project is asking for your help to locate Sam Holt. We want to record an oral history interview with him. If he is still living, he is 86 and most likely is in the Washington, DC area. If you have information, please contact Ken Mills at publicradio@hotmail.com.
The Public Radio Oral History Project is dedicated to preserving the words, thoughts, strategies and stories from Sam Holt and other pioneers and builders of the public radio system.
In a recent blog post, Jay Kernis, former VP of Programing at NPR and currently a producer at CBS Sunday Morning described the situation:
“The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was a starting point for major growth and innovation through the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was solely devoted to television. Some called it the “Public Television Act.”
“So, the story goes, Sen. Robert Griffin of Michigan suggested the name change, and at the last minute, “Radio” was added via the use of Scotch Tape. Public Radio was an afterthought.”
In Fall 2021, Kernis produced a segment about NPR’s 50th anniversary. You can see it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxcBK-sJfrs
The Act was amended to include radio when it was approved by Congress. That led to the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
In late 1968, CPB and the Ford Foundation began joint study to learn about the state of educational radio and make recommendations to build the new public radio system.
The partners commissioned Sam Holt, then a graduate student at Harvard, to lead the effort for a flat fee of $30,000. The result was The Public Radio Study.
The release of The Public Radio Study was big news within the broadcasting industry. Broadcasting Magazine published a news article on April 14, 1969, that showed the common perception of educational radio at that time.
The headline for the story said: “Noncommercial Radio Seeks Strong Remedy.”
The first paragraph of the story said The Public Radio Study provided “A prescription for injecting vigor into today’s pallid educational-radio system is being studied by the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.”
Broadcasting implied that educational radio at that time was almost irrelevant. Their story said that educational radio was in poor health, lacked vigor and had very few listeners and supporters.
Quoting Holt from the public Study:
Noncommercial radio has survived some difficult times. It is now perhaps the moment to decide whether or not that will remain its principal achievement. What is done in the next few years may yet determine what the medium will finally be able to accomplish. The vital areas of attention are funding and organization.
ABOUT THE PUBLIC RADIO ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
You can see the entire Public Radio Study on Current’s website at https://current.org/1969/04/the-public-radio-study-1969/
Holt’s research found these facts about educational radio stations in 1969:
• Most of the noncommercial FM stations operating at the time had very small coverage areas.
• Half of the noncommercial FM stations with power above 10-watts had annual operating budgets of less than $10,000. Only seven of the noncommercial educational FM stations operating at the time had annual budgets over $25,000.
• None of the noncommercial stations in the top fifty markets had an Average Quarter Share above 0.3%. Most of the listeners were described as “elderly.”
Holt made bold recommendations. He challenged CPB and the future leaders of the public radio system to create a new sustainable service that is available across the nation. After interviewing over 300 station managers, industry leaders, technical experts and representatives of several foundations. Holt wrote in The Public Radio Study:
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 has already transformed the possibilities for funding noncommercial radio. Even so, any satisfactory and dependable funding of the medium will be possible only after two things happen:
• An adequate system of long-range financing for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting must be established.
• [CPB] must commit a substantial share of its efforts to the aural medium.
Despite the obvious and active interest of the CPB staff in treating radio fairly, it seems almost certain that its higher costs and greater visibility assure that television will monopolize the time of anyone trying to serve both media on a continuing basis.
The needs of public radio are such that a permanent organization with a regular staff is required to guarantee to the radio constituency of the Corporation the continuous and active service it needs.
Without such an organization, the CPB seems unlikely to be able to fulfill its responsibilities to educational radio. The Division must, in effect, serve as a lobby for radio within the Corporation.
Specific recommendations in the Study included:
• Urge the FCC to split noncommercial education stations into two groups: Community and student stations that would operate at low power, and professional stations that broadcast at higher power to serve larger areas.
• Establish an Interconnection system between stations and a distribution center that be capable of transmitting live programming.
• Reassign the existing educational stations in a national radio network.
• Establish a “radio bureau” within CPB to coordinate and advance the development of noncommercial radio.
• Strengthen the governance and financial sustainability of stations.
• Invest in audience research to evaluate the impact of programming.
ABOUT THE PUBLIC RADIO ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
The Public Radio Oral History Project is dedicated to preserving the words, thoughts, strategies and stories from the pioneers and builders of the public radio system.
The project began in May 2022 when public radio consultant and blogger Ken Mills wrote on Spark News about “public radio’s greatest generation.” Partners in the project include:
• Ernie Sanchez, a communications attorney in Washington, DC. Sanchez is the Executive Producer of the project.
• Mike Starling, former Vice President and Executive Director for NPR Labs. After 16 years at NPR, he left to build and operate WHCP, a low-power community station based in Cambridge, Maryland. Starling provides technical advice for the project.
• Nevada Public Radio (KNPR), led by Mark Vogelzang and Dave Becker. KNPR is the fiduciary and fiscal agent for the project.
Jay Kernis describes the need for the project:
The Public Radio Oral History Project is so important to those who teach public broadcasting at colleges and universities, to historians, to future generations of public radio producers and managers, and to caring and curious audiences.
The ¼ inch tapes have decayed. Too many of the original memos were boxed, stored and lost. Memories are fading.
It is time to collect and save these stories before it’s too late.
It is a history worth saving.
- Jay Kernis, September 22. 2022
Read more about the ublic Radio Oral History Project here. https://americancommunityradio.medium.com/the-public-radio-oral-history-project-home-page-49f559c14340