Category: Video | WGBH Alumni

John Kerr had three wonderful children, and worked happily for decades as the main fundraiser for WGBH, Boston’s public television & radio station. Then things shifted.

The esteemed Gold Circle recognizes veteran professionals who for 50 years or more have made significant contributions to their professional community, the television industry, and to individuals training for careers in the TV field.

Fred Barzyk recalls an embarrassing moment from this first year of being a director at WGBH, in 1960.

Fred Barzyk: How shall I remember him? I guess with a smile on my face as his witty comments on art and artists swirled around me… followed by his gentle smile and soft laugh.

Ambrosino had already begun assembling “the one group of guys who could pull off such a last-minute live broadcast: producer Russ Morash, director David Atwood, along with (crew) Al Potter and Greg Harney.”

Backstage at the Boston Garden, the mood is somber. Just 24 hours ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and though James Brown is booked that night for a show, nobody really wants to go onstage and play.

Jon Kerr traded in his job as a TV producer for the brimmed hat of a Yellowstone National Park Ranger. Now he spends his time managing the delicate balance between human visitors and animal residents.

A collection of “less remembered shows” and people who appeared on, or worked for, WGBH, remembered by Fred Barzyk, Michael Ambrosino, Boyd Estus, Doug Smith, and Bruce Bordett