(gentle music) - Okay, so this is an image dissector.

- [Narrator] September 7th, 1927.

San Francisco.

Philo Farnsworth, his wife Pem, and brother-in-law Cliff prepare for experiment number 12.

(group indistinctly murmuring) Cliff places a drawing of a triangle in front of the makeshift tube camera on one side of a dividing curtain.

On the other side, Philo and Pem stare anxiously at the receiving tube.

- Oh, wow.

- [Narrator] One horizontal line appears.

Philo Farnsworth asks Cliff to turn the slide.

(gentle music) And the line rotates 90 degrees vertically.

- There you are.

Electronic television.

- I'm so proud of you!

- We did it.

- You don't hear much mention of him at all.

Maybe a few television history books.

Maybe in our intro to mass comm course that we teach, we have a little paragraph or two about Philo Farnsworth, but we don't give enough credence to him for what he created, and he was not a person that really even wanted any kind of glamour or anything out of it.

I don't think he even really wanted any kind of monetary aspects.

He was just this bright guy with an inquisitive mind, and that was Philo Farnsworth.

- [Narrator] Farnsworth's achievement rekindles the energies of competitors working to develop electronic television.

Across the globe, electrical engineers create better and more reliable tubes and improve additional components.

England wins the race to the first high-quality broadcast.

From a converted wing of the Alexandra Palace in London in 1936, the BBC broadcasts Adele Dixon singing "The Magic Rays of light."

♪ Magic rays - [Narrator] Three years later, the Radio Corporation of America launches the National Broadcasting Company television network.

NBC broadcasts the 1939 World's Fair in New York, including a speech from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

During World War II, television talent joins troops overseas to support the war effort.

At war's end, millions of soldiers return home to a booming economy, taking civilian jobs and buying homes.

Migration from cities to suburbs creates new neighborhoods and communities.

A typical suburban evening consists of coming home from work to relax in front of the family television.

(lively music) NBC shifts into full production for commercial television.

By the late 1940s, "The Texaco Star Theater" starring Milton Berle and kids' show "Howdy Doody" are on the air.

- Say, kids, what time is it?

- [Kids] Howdy Doody time!

(exciting music) - Yes, sir, and boys and girls here in Dootyville, kids in Olean, New York, and all over America, let's go!

♪ It's Howdy Doody time ♪ It's Howdy - [Narrator] And two new broadcasting corporations emerged to capitalize on this new medium, the Columbia Broadcasting System and the American Broadcasting Company.

(peaceful music) As commercial entertainment television takes root, some believe that television can also serve an educational purpose.

Educators across the country advocate for a fourth network to serve as a teaching tool.

- Initially, it was balked at.

Why do we need that?

Television, we've got these networks now which were in place with Sarnoff and his NBC and his monopoly, and we've got these local stations that we gave these contracts to that are starting to get ground in these markets.

Why do we need this different voice?

Why should we fund this different voice?

And that's the difference.

Non-commercial?

- [Narrator] Support for this cause comes from the royal family of Detroit.

Under the direction of C. Scott Fletcher, The Ford Foundation Fund for Adult Education becomes the leading backer of educational television.

Fletcher's first challenge is to secure educational channels from the Federal Communications Commission.

Frieda Barkin Hennock, first woman to serve on the FCC, convinces the commission to set aside several channels for educational television.

Anticipating the need for programming, Fletcher and the Ford Foundation Fund for Adult Education create The Educational Television and Radio Center.

The center facilitates exchange and distribution of programming to local educational television stations.

The formation of these stations begins in May 1953, when the University of Houston debuts the first non-commercial TV station, KUHT.

The following year, educational television stations come on the air in East Lansing, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Madison, Wisconsin, San Francisco, California, St. Louis, Missouri, Lincoln, Nebraska, Seattle, Washington, and in Cincinnati, Ohio.

July 26th, 1954.

WCET's first broadcast comes from a converted closet in the Cincinnati Music Hall.

University of Akron president Norman Auburn is inspired by these developments in educational television.

- And one of the things that was really important to my dad was to try to get the new stuff that was gonna be funded on the University of Akron campus.

- In 1954, Dr. Auburn helped formulate a consortium of three organizations to talk about educational television.

It was Kent State University, the University of Akron, and the Akron Public Schools, and, unfortunately, in 1954, it didn't get anywhere.

There was some hostility between the University of Akron and Kent State that was being expressed.

The Akron Public Schools got out of the consortium altogether, and Dr. Auburn sort of went off on his own.

- So he talked to the governor about how good it would be to have a PBS station, and the governor said, "Well, we'll think about that."

- [Narrator] It is not until 1959, five years later, that the Ohio legislature creates the Ohio Interim Educational Television Study Commission.

Ultimately, this commission envisions a 29-station UHF educational network, closely linked to the state's grid of colleges and universities.

Among the areas recommended for a station is the corridor surrounding the University of Akron, Kent State University, and Youngstown State University.

While Ohio is moving forward with educational television plans, progress is also being made nationally.

In January 1959, The Educational Television and Radio Center adds "national" to its name.

The organization eventually moves to New York City and becomes National Educational Television.

The new name and new location do not change the mission to provide educational programming to stations across the country.

In 1961, the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction eliminates the need for a tower within broadcast range, beaming programming to classrooms directly from its two DC-6 airplanes.

The aircraft fly for six to eight hours in a figure-eight pattern at an altitude of 23,000 feet.

Pre-recorded programming transmits from an antenna lowered in mid-air.

MPATI serves thousands of students for eight years until 1968.

Educational television trots steadily forward while commercial television sprints ahead with a constantly growing supply of programming.

Some see little value in many of these shows.

May 9th, 1961.

Newly appointed FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow addresses a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, D.C., arguing that television has yet to benefit the public interest.

- [Newton] When television is bad, nothing is worse.

I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air.

Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off.

I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

- [Narrator] In 1962, President Kennedy signs the Educational Television Facilities Act, bringing the resources of the federal government into play and prompting Kent State University President George Bowman to seek a channel for his school.

- The next development occurred in 1962 when the president of Kent State University applied for a television license to the Federal Communications Commission, much to Dr. Auburn's chagrin.

It angered the mayor of Akron, Edward Erickson.

He got involved.

The University of Akron filed a counter petition with the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC looked at these two universities, and from Washington, D.C., they looked like they're like next door to each other, not 20 miles away from each other, if it's that far, and they said, "You guys figure this out.

We're not giving either one of you a television license."

And there it sat for a period of time.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] In 1967, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television recommends creation of a fourth television network, non-commercial and publicly funded, and built around the educational non-profit stations already in operation and in development.

Stations will act independently to serve local needs, but be loosely affiliated at a national level.

On November 7th, 1967, President Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The fourth network first envisioned in the early '50s becomes a reality.

In 1968, 93% of Americans live in homes with a television, and demand for educational television is rising.

- [Kid] Dad, the TV's not working.

- Give me a minute, okay, kids?

Give me a minute.

- Dad!

- Hey, let me call you back, okay?

- It's not working!

- Dad!

- Think, guys.

Come on.

- No.

- Anything?

Do you have anything?

- Nothing.

- It doesn't look like it's working too well.

- [Narrator] For the Akron, Youngstown, Kent region, the closest educational television station is Channel 25 in Cleveland.

Getting clear reception is a challenging ordeal comprising finger-crossing, prayers, and delicate antenna adjustments.

- I know growing up for myself, our antenna was in our attic.

We didn't even have a tower.

Most people either had a tower, they had it strapped to their chimney, and they had an antenna, and if you were trying to get Cleveland stations, you would actually physically turn that antenna towards the Cleveland area, if you will, and then it would come into your house.

It may not be great, but you could see it and hear it, and there were good days and bad days of it too.

You'd have great reception one day, and then the next day, it wouldn't be as good, but that's just the way it was.

- [Narrator] The area clearly needs its own educational television station.

Efforts are led by the University of Akron, Kent State University, and Youngstown State University.

- [Kid] Why don't we just buy a new TV?

- This area was one of the last in the state to actually have its own station, and one of the reasons for that was each of the universities, Akron, Kent, and Youngstown State, wanted a station, and the state was willing to put up some money to see that this area was served, but they weren't willing to build three stations.

- Back in the day, the three universities, Youngstown State University, Kent State University, and the University of Akron, all wanted their own public television station, but the governor of Ohio, knowing that the state of Ohio was going to have to fund this station, said, "No, you're too close in proximity.

Instead of having one station for each university, why don't you guys come together and form a consortium?"

- The next development was that the Berk family of Akron, which had been operating WAKR AM radio stations for the last previous 30 years and had a television station on Channel 49, an ultra-high frequency station which operated with an ABC affiliation, had a local newscast that was very fundamental.

I mean, today, you would find better production values in 9th-grade and 10th-grade television classes, but Channel 49 decided that they wanted to go big into television, and so they donated the channel, Channel 49, and about a quarter of a million dollars in transmission equipment to the University of Akron, and at that point, Dr. Auburn I think felt like he had kind of the upper hand to create a new educational television station.

(gentle music) - But Kent State already offers television production courses, and they have their own studio with students able to crew productions.

- Kent State, on the other hand, had all of the academic side of television broadcasting.

The University of Akron had no academics related to broadcasting, to journalism, and here was Kent State with a well-developed radio station, a well-developed journalism program.

- [Narrator] Ohio State's Senator Harry Meshel sees the University of Akron and Kent State vying for an educational television station.

Meshel represents the Youngstown area, and he has his own plans regarding an educational television station.

- Enter Harry Meshel from Youngstown, Ohio, who controlled many of the purse strings in Columbus, and he had Youngstown and Mahoning and Trumbull counties as part of his sphere of interest, and he said, "Nah, if you're gonna do anything in Akron and Kent, you're gonna include Youngstown as well."

- [Narrator] While the three universities try to resolve their differences, demand for educational television increases as more programming is made available.

On November 21st, 1966, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" debuts on Pittsburgh's WQED, premiering nationally on February 19th, 1968.

For grownups, WETA's "Washington Week In Review" begins airing nationally in 1969.

Funding for these and other programs remains a constant challenge.

(gentle music) May 1st, 1969.

Fred Rogers travels from his neighborhood to Washington, D.C. to appear before a senate appropriation committee.

Mr. Rogers successfully appeals for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's first appropriation.

Moved by Roger's plea, Senator John Pastore declares, "Looks like you just earned $20 million."

- I think it's wonderful.

Looks like you just earned the $20 million.

(audience chuckles) (audience applauds) (lively music) ♪ Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away ♪ ♪ On my way - [Narrator] Also in 1969, "Sesame Street" sets public broadcasting on a path to become an integral part of American culture.

♪ Sesame Street ♪ Come and play, everything's a ♪ (peaceful music) - [Narrator] By fall, 1971, the three universities agree to form Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio.

WNEO TV goes live on May 30th, 1973, licensed to the City of Alliance, Channel 45.

WNEO begins broadcasting programs offered by PBS National, including "Sesame Street," "Electric Company," and "Masterpiece Theater."

Large two-inch video reels are delivered to the control room and tower in Alliance.

These bulky reels are passed from one station to the next throughout Ohio.

- PBS stations that, say, the PBS station in Cleveland would send us tapes, and we would either, like I said, it could be an episode of "Sesame Street."

It could be an episode of "Lawrence Welk" back then too.

It could have been, you know, all kinds of things or whatever, And we'd either keep it to our stock, and then send the tape out, because that was before PBS had their satellite system.

- If you worked in master control or in the tape room or tele-scene room, you got some arms.

'cause those tapes, they weighed a ton.

A 90-minute two-inch show, the reel was about that big around and that thick full of tape, and if you dropped it on your foot, it'd break your foot.

I had many a broken toe from dropping a reel on my foot.

- Come on.

Come on.

- [Narrator] But the signal from the tower in Alliance is too weak for satisfactory viewing in Akron.

- The original proposal was for a tower twice as high and with twice the output power that Channel 45 eventually signed on with, and somewhere along the line, the application for all of that and the tower height got lost.

- [Narrator] The solution, Channel 49, with its own tower operating.

This tower is donated to the University of Akron in 1968 by WAKR.

- And then that's when the brain trust of the station I think came into play and they said, "Wait a second.

There's this unused frequency.

We can still cover an area that isn't being covered."

And that's what they did, and they were able to get the old equipment, fire that old transmitter up, which was questionable 'cause it hadn't been on the air for years, but it worked.

- [Narrator] Channel 49, call sign WEAO TV, begins broadcasting in September of 1975, 21 years after University President Dr. Norman Auburn first proposed an educational television channel in Akron.

(idyllic music) As work to address transmission difficulties continues, the educational outreach program is well underway.

Representatives from Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio offer workshops instructing teachers how to best use programming from Channels 49 and 45.

- And they probably didn't have a television or they might've had one.

So if there was no television, I had to carry one of those big TVs, no flat screens, big TVs, and then get to the school, get it all set up, and if it was a fancy school where they already had a TV, hook the two TVs together, and then give a probably half an hour presentation.

So basically showing them different kinds of programs that might fit into their curriculum and how you might incorporate it into your curriculum.

- [Narrator] By 1976, Channels 45 and 49 are ready to produce local programming, the first real test of the university's cooperation.

Each university will hire producers and directors and use student crews.

One challenge is to find qualified individuals to produce the programs.

- My sense was that everything was so new and exciting.

It was going to be, if you had a good idea, maybe we could try it, you know?

So that's exactly the idea that I brought to him, that I was willing to go anywhere around Portage County, which was specifically the region that I was supposed to work with.

The University of Akron was dealing with things in Summit County, and, of course, Youngstown State was dealing with things surrounding them.

So I had this big county and I thought this could be really fun.

- I think the reason they were interested in me was because I had had experience at a PBS station, and when I came here, nobody else on the staff had.

We had two other producer directors, the one I was replacing who was leaving, and the other guy had not had much experience at a station, and I think that might have been what appealed about me to them.

- I think it was a double-edged sword.

You came in, and, basically, the mandate was do anything you can think of for no money, and you could go out.

I mean, basically, labor was going to be the only real cost.

We had sets in the studio that couldn't have costed more than $50.

I mean, literally, they looked like they'd just been painted on cardboard and put up, and we thought that was kind of exciting.

You know, we were kind of really raw.

- The stations carried the same schedule, and so when I, in Akron, would produce a program, some of the issues were purely local, but we would be conscious if we could to try and at least generalize it.

- I think the reason that it was good initially to send the stations to the university was, first of all, they had studios, which would've been impossible in 1975 to have the money to have built that initial studio.

So each of us had at each of these universities some form of TV production as a major.

So you had young people who were doing it for credit.

So, when we did a live television show, the cameras and the ground and the crew, all students.

- So I got to work not only on the campus station, but we were very fortunate at Kent to be affiliated with Channels 45 and 49, and we got to do some shows for the station.

You know, it was shared with Youngstown State and the University of Akron, but I got to work with the tele-productions department, and that was kind of the on-campus production group, who were affiliated and doing the shows through the studio, and I really got my start then kind of running camera, running audio.

- And these students, they'd come in the studio, and, you know, the mayor would be there, congressmen, and it was really cool for them.

- I really wanted to be a producer director.

That's what I aspired to.

Someone was looking around for jobs at other places and a job came up.

One of our producer directors left to go to another place.

I applied.

I was very fortunate enough to get the job.

And so that kind of launched me into that career of that transition of student to kind of behind-the-scenes master control operator to now a junior PD.

You know, 22 years old, bright-eyed and scared.

- I don't necessarily remember that there was a master plan from the station to fill up the time, and it was given, Youngstown should do this, Akron should do this, Kent should do.

We really had a lot of leeway in what we could produce.

- One time I went to a PBS at a local producer's conference, and, in fact, the PBS producers, Sandy and I, you know, went out there together, and we would sit and talk with people, like, after all the meetings, and you're having coffee or beer or whatever, and they would just, you know, they would shake their heads.

They'd go, "How did this thing work?"

But it actually kind of worked.

- [Narrator] A 45 and 49 pledge drive exemplifies this cooperation.

These drives are critical to secure funds for the stations and are held at all three universities.

The simple formula of the time is to air a popular program and go live during fundraising breaks.

- Whenever we did live programming, it was absolutely a theater of the absurd.

It was crazy.

- Okay, people, we are live in 15.

Standby.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three... - Hello, everyone!

Join me in a large round of applause for Lawrence Welk and his orchestra.

(group applauds) Yeah!

Yes.

Thank you.

Well, if you liked that program and all our many other programs, I encourage you to pick up your phone now and call to become a member.

That way, Channels 45 and 49 can continue to bring you great programs like "Lawrence Welk" and "Masterpiece Theater," and our new program, "Nova."

And, also, let's not forget about the children's programs like "Sesame Street" and "Mister Roger's Neighborhood."

- What is she looking at?

- So I'm not hearing those phones calling.

I'm not hearing those phones ring, so pick up your phone now and- - But it was a lot of fun, because anything could happen when you were there, and did.

You know, somebody would trip over a camera cord out there that had never moved cameras before, and, you know, or like they said, sometimes, they'd tell you to stretch and it wasn't like 30 seconds.

- And we have no notes.

You know, we're not reading off a teleprompter, and they go.

He wasn't talking about stretching one minute.

He was talking 5 to 10 minutes.

Then it was 10 to 20 minutes.

- Speaking of "Nova," that new show that I was just mentioning before, how about that program last week about the bird calls?

I mean, where can you learn such interesting tidbits about different bird calls except for Channels 45 and 49?

For example, I learned that mockingbirds mock other birds and that's why they're called mockingbird, and they can also mock- - Oh my God.

- We just went until, you know, we looked like we would drop over.

So, there was a really wild, wild west feeling.

- So it was just, you kind of had to roll with the punches, you know, with what happened, but it was easy with some of the people that we worked with on air all the time because they knew that, and didn't value, like, necessarily their importance on the break or their importance.

We all realized we were there for a greater cause, to keep PBS on air and have the money to do that.

- Thank you for calling Channels 45 and 49.

We really appreciate you supporting PBS.

(peaceful music) - [Narrator] By the close of the 1970s, 45 & 49 is hitting its stride.

Two operating towers reach over two million people, the largest PBS market in Ohio.

The educational outreach program serves nearly half a million school children.

The Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio is the only public broadcasting organization in the country structured as an independent nonprofit entity associated with three universities.

The complexities of this relationship are challenging, but the mission remains the same.

Provide programming of value and serve the educational needs of the community.

In 1979, Torey Southwick takes on the challenging job of general manager for Channels 45 and 49, and immediately learns fundraising for the station is hampered by the very structure of NETO's board of directors.

By 1987, the station is involved in a legal dispute with Cleveland PBS affiliate WVIZ, who aims to force the Akron audience to tune to them for some of the most popular programming.

Undeterred, Southwick pushes for a new headquarters facility, better equipped to handle the business of 45 & 49.

Southwick ends his tenure to retire from the industry in 1990.

In an interview, Southwick concludes, "I've often said that being the general manager at Channels 45 and 49 is like managing the bad news bears.

You're the underdog station.

You're not expected to win.

Well, we have been winning all these years."

Bill Glaeser follows Southwick as general manager, bringing considerable public broadcasting experience with him to take control of Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio.

Glaeser is pleased with the new facilities under construction.

- I come on the scene, and the building that we were sitting in was about a third of the way up.

My predecessor had put together the funding and had started the construction.

The building was about a third up, and so I inherited that, and I think they did a marvelous job of this building and allowing for some room to grow.

- [Narrator] The amount of federal money a PBS station receives through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is based on how much is raised locally.

Federal money is not the largest source of funds for Channels 45 and 49, but it is an important part.

In 1995, Congress proposes eliminating all funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

- A speaker in New Cambridge said today the Corporation for Public Broadcasting should be asked a number of questions.

- I suggest to you that, yes, public broadcasting, just like all of the other programs in the federal discretionary budget, should be on the table.

- There have been a lot of things that need to be privatized, and this is a classic example.

- I think one of the things during my tenure here that was the most frightening and then the most exhilarating was when the Congress attempted to zero out federal funding for public broadcasting.

I mean, take it down to zero in a year.

So it was a real threat, and we huddled here in this building and we said, "We just can't take this.

We've gotta fight."

We did an advertising campaign in the local media, and it was quiet for a while, and then we started getting calls.

I started getting calls from our three congressional representatives and our senators, two senators from D.C., and their liaison people said, "What is going on?

We are getting flooded with mail from you, from your area, about these funding cuts."

And I explained what was happening.

- [Narrator] Congress's plan is thwarted by the efforts of public broadcasting viewers.

- And that's when I realized the power that this organization had, that it really touched people's lives, and it touched them in a really good way, and they realized they potentially could lose something very critical, and, again, the federal funding, a small piece, but it's all the stations working together that makes possible the national program service.

If that whole infrastructure went down, we would be left with nothing, nothing.

So we had to fight, and we did.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] In the mid-1990s, the Ohio legislature appropriates funds for computers in every classroom in the state via a program called SchoolNet.

The question then becomes how to train teachers to use these computers.

- Public broadcasting stepped forward and said, "We'll train them," and each of the organizations received some additional money to do that training, and I'm really proud of the thousands of educators that came through this building and learned how to use that technology to take it back to the classroom.

- [Narrator] But such significant contributions to the community are often overshadowed by the continuing administrative challenges inherent in the structure and composition of NETO's board of directors.

- When I was first appointed to the board of NETO in 1998, as a representative of the president of the University of Akron, I saw that lesson in spades.

We almost never could get all three presidents at a time to a meeting, and when the presidents were at a meeting, sometimes they were scoring points against one another as opposed to being there for the business of this independent 501(c)(3) organization.

- [Narrator] Under these difficult circumstances, Trina Cutter becomes general manager of NETO in 2002.

With previous experience at four PBS stations, Cutter immediately recognizes the problem with the organizational arrangement of NETO's board of directors.

Board members' first loyalty is to their respective universities, a reality that Cutter understands.

- I definitely understand that public television was not a top priority for Kent State or the University of Akron or Youngstown State University because they are into their own organization and rightly so.

I certainly understood why they didn't have time or we were low on the radar screen, or even maybe not even on the radar screen.

- As she came to understand the disinterest, not lack of interest, but disinterest of the presidents in governing NETO, she began talking about ways to involve them differently.

and one very solid achievement was to get the presidents to agree to enlarge the board.

- I really studied the bylaws and I noticed that there was a part in the bylaws that said that the three universities were one-third each responsible for the operating expenses of the station, And that had never happened.

The universities never paid the station any money.

In fact, it was quite the opposite.

We were paying the universities to, you know, do productions and we were paying the universities to buy production equipment.

So I used that to leverage it to be able to go into the bylaws and change 'em, change the bylaws to say that we're going to expand the corporate structure.

we're gonna expand the community members on the board so that it is in the inverse.

We have three community members per consortium area, three community volunteers, which would make nine, And then we have the university president and their employee in each of the consortium areas, and that's six.

So, six university employees, nine community members, and so when there's a vote, you know, theoretically, the vote is more tilted towards community interests.

- [Narrator] With the new structure, board membership and the station work in conjunction to provide a wide range of services to the surrounding community and to implement more community-oriented activities.

- And we all just come together and focus on the business of the public television station.

There are a number of different challenges, but we all are focused on making certain that the company is sound, that it is operating successfully, and that the programming is targeted to the community and that we have the community's support.

- [Narrator] The first major challenge the station faces under the new board structure is the mandatory transition from the analog to the digital format for both channels.

- We were scared, but Trina helped us find the money to do it, which came from both federal and state sources, and she found the people who knew what it was about, and she helped bring the board members along as partners in making this transition.

- [Narrator] PBS Western Reserve embraces the digital revolution.

Analog tapes, decks, editing machines, and controllers make way for computers and data servers.

- It is one big server for us, one big file storage server, and all of the day's programming is on that server and everything that's going to play out that's been pre-recorded is all on that server, and a playlist lines it up by the time it's gonna air, and it plays those files one right after another, whether it's actual program files or underwriting spots or viewer spots or whatever it is that's gonna air.

It all plays from a file except for if it's a live program like "News Night" or "PBS NewsHour," or then those all still are coming across satellite, but the next phase of the PBS distribution system is actually going to deliver the live programming across fiber.

So everything's going from satellite-based to terrestrial-based.

- [Narrator] One of the most significant opportunities generated by the digital format is the ability to stream programming anytime, anywhere.

- On this phone, on this device, I can pull it out of my pocket and I can watch a show made in Great Britain.

that happens to be one of my favorites that happened to be on last night, but I'd like to watch it now.

- [Narrator] The digital world also allows PBS Western Reserve to establish a more interactive relationship with its 4.5 million viewers.

- The new digital economy and the digital way of working with things is that you are interactive, that you have to give people, you know, a platform to speak, and you have to have more of a give and take relationship, and you have to, you know, instead of broadcasting, you know, one to many, now you have to have this two-way interaction of one to many and many to one, you know, back and forth.

- It's a challenge to keep on top of the technology curve and to figure out, for our mission and our audience, how far along that curve we wanna stay.

- You know, it's fantastic, some of the things that, you know, we'll be able to do, and we will be the last bastion of a locally owned, locally operated communication system or media company that is responsive to the community.

- Wanna color on that?

(group indistinctly murmurs) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Active as ever, the educational outreach program remains the unsung hero of the station.

- And that part of the business has just grown, and, before, it was pretty much funded by the state of Ohio, and now it's funded with grant money and the state of Ohio, of course.

- We've been very fortunate the last three, four, five years to receive grants that allow us to support our family childcare providers in this whole concept of Ohio Ready To Learn, which is training that benefits our family childcare providers directly by allowing them to them to get this step up to quality training.

- And there's other, you know, components to it that create a lot of value for the teachers in the schools, and it's just, as we say, you know, the world's largest classroom.

- We're also working with production right now to develop video resources that'll assist with the new computer science standards and all of these new standards that come down through the Ohio Department of Education.

Unfortunately, sometimes, there's no support resources that occur.

There's no support professional development that occurs, and, you know, we always try to be ahead of that game as an educational technology agency to make sure our districts are getting that training to implement what the state is working with them on.

- We are currently working with the Ohio Department of Education and BEMC, producing six programs on computer education, computer programming, coding and such.

Not for high schools or junior high, but, now, the Ohio Department of Education has moved that into elementary school.

So we are producing six videos to help the teachers learn how to bring this into the classroom and how to teach it, because, right now, this is brand new stuff.

There are not many schools that are teaching that.

- Because of the funding that we got this past year from the Fred Rogers Foundation and the collaboration with PNC Bank, we actually collaborated with that a while, Silly Science Sunday, and we had an area where, Daniel Tiger, kids could meet Daniel Tiger.

They met Sid the Science Kid We gave them Daniel Tiger books, and the connection that we made with the community that I really enjoyed was that the emphasis of Silly Science Sunday was thanking our area employers, because what was happening in Youngstown was there was a recent announcement of the Lordstown assembly plant closing down, the GM assembly plant closing down.

So the idea behind Silly Science Sunday is, how do we thank our employers for employing our residents?

And so we had a series of thank-you posters that the kids, so the children would come through, meet Daniel Tiger, and then they would color these thank-you posters that represented the construction industry, represented the banking industry, represented education and university, thanking them for employing valley residents, and then what I did when it was all done is I wrapped those posters up and mailed them.

So I mailed a poster to Youngstown State University.

I mailed a poster to local construction companies, and explaining to them these posters were colored by the local residents' children, thanking them, and please display prominently.

The other one that hit me the most was we thanked the military community, 'cause we have a base, the military base in Vienna, and sent that to them.

They were so thrilled with that poster.

I mean, I have multiple pictures of the commander and the second-in-command displaying that poster and putting it up in a very prominent location when they received that.

(solemn music) - [Narrator] As COVID-19 grips the entire world, daily life enters uncharted waters, but PBS Western Reserve pivots and collaborates with PBS stations across the state to offer at-home learning, a dedicated block of PBS programming geared towards children who are now learning from home.

Professional development for teachers goes online to support remote teaching and learning.

Resources are developed for elementary teachers wrestling with how to reach elementary students remotely.

A special series is created called "The Arts and COVID-19," which examines the creative ways artists and arts organizations stay relevant during the pandemic.

Once the pressures of the pandemic lessen, a new webinar series is released, which focuses on creative ways local school districts dealt with the pandemic learning gap.

Even Ohio's governor recognizes the importance of Ohio's PBS stations during this time.

- For a long time, we actually had the governor, the Governor DeWine would come on TV, and that was through the public broadcasting stations in the state of Ohio.

So he was the real major source of information for a lot of people.

- [Narrator] With a long tradition of adapting to unexpected and challenging circumstances, PBS Western Reserve adjusts to the restrictive nature imposed by the pandemic to play a critical role in the community.

- I was really proud of what we did and I was really proud that we experienced kind of like a resurgence of value from the community in broadcast television.

It was pretty incredible that, you know, everybody was at home, and it was like, boy, now that we're home, let's watch PBS Western Reserve.

So we kind of benefited from that.

- [Narrator] The station emerges from the pandemic to continue programming and the outreach programs while operating under its 50-year relationship with the University of Akron, Youngstown State University and Kent State University, but in the fall of 2022, the direction of PBS Western Reserve takes a dramatic turn.

- Then what happened is we had a board member who came on board who had also been a trustee for Kent State University and also has a law degree, and has been, you know, the CEO of a not-for-profit corporation and served on other not-for-profit boards.

So he started asking me questions, and when he started asking me and I started answering them, and then he got as perplexed as I might've been, you know, back in the day, and felt, you know, that maybe now's the time to make the change.

- [Narrator] This development is monumental.

The governance of WNEO and WEAO converts from a university consortium to community membership organization effective June 30th, 2023.

On October 12th, 2022, Cutter reads a letter confirming this long-awaited change.

- So my honest reaction when I first read the letter is I cried, 'cause I just, I think, you know, if I examine it, it really came from two places.

One is I immediately thought of that song, "I can't make you love me if you don't," and the other thing was I felt relief.

I felt relief for stopping the insanity.

- [Narrator] Since its beginnings in the 1970s, Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio has struggled but endured under a truly unique one of a kind arrangement involving three universities.

- It's really hard to wrap my head around this, but what I used to say is that it's like we have three fathers but no daddy, so we pretty much were on our own, and yet if it weren't for those three fathers, we never would've existed.

Help me out here.

So, anyway, this is a cool idea.

- [Narrator] For more than two decades, Cutter has managed Western Reserve PBS while working behind the scenes, trying to simplify the oversight of the station's operations.

Now that this change is finally happening, she is excited about the future, but, ironically, Trina Cutter plans to retire from public broadcasting just as the corporate restructuring is achieved.

Cutter can depart with confidence in the future of PBS Western Reserve.

History has shown the station's persistence, marching through the decades, overcoming any obstacles to continue serving the community, with all credit due to the individuals involved, people who believe in what they do and believe that public broadcasting is a valuable part of American culture.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - It was fabulous.

I was so proud of being a public television producer.

I was so excited about learning how to put this together.

I felt very, very important in a very small world of northeast Ohio, but I kept thinking maybe something I'm doing is changing a life.

Maybe somebody will watch it and be excited about it.

Maybe they'll come in the studio and they'll ask.

I had no idea.

It was just thrilling.

- I always have been proud to work for PBS, 'cause I always thought they stood for something.

- But you've gotta believe in this thing wholeheartedly, because when times get tough, you gotta keep going.

You can't just say, "Oh."

You gotta go.

You gotta make it happen.

- I always felt like we were doing something good.

It was like being a pioneer.

It was fun and you were able to, I felt like I was able to contribute to how schools operated and how children learned.

- There are a lot of choices out there now, certainly for television viewing, not even to mention all the other entertainment choices, but public broadcasting needs to be one of them.

- Our mission is deliver programming that you can't find anywhere else, programming that enriches and changes people's lives.

- We know people are watching, and whether that's national programming or local programming, we do know people are watching it, so we are relevant.

We're important to the community.

We're the only voice out there for some people.

- Stations have come and gone.

Others have changed greatly what they've done, but NETO has persisted.

- You wanna have an organization like this that you can belong to, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the next, you know, generation and the next leadership handles the station and where it takes it.

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