Fred Barzyk’s Video Archive

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From Fred Barzyk For the last decade, I have been gathering my shows and transferring them to digital format. These videos will be released as a highlight reel of my archive to be housed at WGBH and Marquette University. This highlight reel is directed toward researchers in the year 2100. It is my attempt to…

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Why has WGBH had such an impact? Five views

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Fred Barzyk: “I have asked several long time producers at WGBH to take a crack at the question of ‘Why does WGBH, a local public TV station in Boston, have such an impressive impact on media, culture and innovation?’ What follows are several responses to the question.”

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A stranger in a strange land

Fred Barzyk (2007)

From Fred Barzyk: Bill insisted I try to get into the scholarship program. You studied for your graduate degree at Boston University and worked three days a week at the Educational Television station. Free tuition and you got $600 to live a year in Boston!

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We’re in the “understanding business”

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The chance invitation to work here at WGBH placed me in an environment that was a perfect fit for my temperament and aspirations as a professional and as just a plain person. Once here, I recognized, gradually, why it felt so right as a place to work and associate.

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In a World All Its Own (1955)

Studio A, 84 Massachusetts Avenue

From John Nadeau — 3/2007 When we did simulcasts on radio and TV, my station break announcement sounded like this: “This is the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council…WGBH-FM at 89.7 megacycles and WGBH-TV, channel 2, in Boston.” I joined the staff of WGBH-FM-TV in 1955. The two stations identified themselves as “noncommercial and educational” because…

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Stories and photos From Studio A (1955)

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Images From John (Rocky) Coe Bob Larsen in Studio A Control Room (with Judy Larsen in the background) — August 1955 Story by Michael Greenebaum Performance — String group — Nov. 1955 The photo of the chamber orchestra … is of the first televised concert of Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra, conducted by me. For all…

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The original dream factory — Mass Ave. Studio A (1950s)

Studio A, 84 Massachusetts Avenue

For years, the original Studio A at 84 Massachusetts Avenue was a truly magical place. So many careers were launched, or at least nurtured, its environment. It’s magic blossomed from the drive to produce programming that one could feel pride in, with the ongoing and exhilarating drive to overcome obstacles, with the almost mythic experience of being forced by necessity to achieve the impossible through sheer persistence and ingenuity.

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A Viable Alternative to the “Vast Wasteland”

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From Larry Creshkoff — 2000 In his piece, One Way to Run a Railroad, Ray Wilding-White observes that WGBH “…was made a reality with hairpins and bailing-wire by the heroic efforts of a bunch of dedicated, overworked and underpaid young maniacs who hardly knew a microphone from a zebra when they started on radio and…

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One Way to Run a Railroad (1946-59)

84 Massachusetts Avenue

From Ray Wilding-White: The station was made reality by a bunch of dedicated, overworked and underpaid young maniacs who hardly knew a microphone from a zebra when they started on radio. I know. I was there.

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