Recollections of a WGBH-FM Volunteer (1951-52)

From Russ Butler A small announcement in The Boston Globe caught my attention. It was 1951, and I was a 17-year old junior in a Boston high school and fascinated with radio broadcasting. The one column-inch notice read that a new FM radio station would begin broadcasting from studios in Symphony Hall. Next day, I…

Read More

Fundraising and payola (1960)

From Paul Noble [We made] a fund-raising spot, done with a Cambridge taxi, in December 1960, in the days before auctions and pledge weeks. It was taped in front of 84 Massachusetts Avenue, facing MIT. I know the…spot [was] part of a campaign we did after the first group with celebs a year earlier. My…

Read More

Discovering Discovery (1956)

From Don Hallock This 1956 film about the making of Mary Lela Grimes (Sherburne’s) kinescoped NET series on science for children was resurrected for the reunion. It is a show within a film, showcasing the 84 Massachusetts Avenue facility and many of our best remembered WGBH friends. A teleprompter mounted on the front of Frank…

Read More

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

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.

Read More

40 years with ‘GBH

This entry is part 1 of 12 in the series The Michael Ambrosino Collection

From Michael Ambrosino — 2000 My first visit to WGBH was in the fall of 1955, just after TV had gone on the air at 84 Mass Ave. in Cambridge. I was at work developing a TV master plan for the University of Connecticut at the time, and wanted a tour of one of the…

Read More