After the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Shutdown, UMD Keeps its History Alive

Whether you were soothed as a kid by “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” jammed to Patti LaBelle and Stevie Wonder guest-starring on “Soul!” or start every commute with “Morning Edition,” the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has likely touched your life.

But last summer, the nonprofit that supported programs like these for six decades lost its funding, and the CPB was shuttered. To make sure the details of its long history wouldn’t also be lost, the University of Maryland—which already serves as a repository of CPB materials up until 2005—stepped in. 

Experts from Special Collections and University Archives at University Libraries advised CPB staff on what to prioritize as they raced against the clock, saving two decades of materials in just six months. In February, 40 banker boxes and hard drives were delivered to Hornbake Library, containing a vast array of materials including educational pamphlets for schools, digitized radio and TV content, and internal emails, legislative activity and reports sent to the U.S. Department of Education. 

“We’ve had so many media scholars and people involved in the founding of CPB tell us they’re glad we’re saving everything,” said Laura Schnitker, curator of mass media and culture. “Public broadcasting remains valuable. There’s a chance people will want to look back on how CPB operated, avoid some pitfalls and replicate what they did well, to rebuild and start again.” 

Created in 1967, the CPB marked a shift in American broadcasting, she said, because “the government was investing in programming designed for the benefit of the people, not commercial programming designed to keep sponsors happy.” 

That opened the door for educational shows like “Sesame Street” as well as content by and for marginalized communities that didn’t previously have opportunities to be on television or radio. 

While the Libraries staff starts to sort through the newest collection, take a look through existing CPB-related highlights at UMD:

Scripts, promotional photos, viewer mail and digitized videos from the quintessential kids’ show are part of UMD’s archive of Children’s Television Workshop records. “Prior to 1970, children’s programming was slapstick cartoons that were entertaining but not meant to teach them anything,” said Schnitker. With the advent of characters like Big Bird and Elmo, as well as other CTW programming like “The Electric Company” and “3-2-1 Contact,” she said, “kids of all backgrounds finally had access to a platform where they could learn to read, speak a different language or manage difficult situations in their lives.”

The first live call-in radio show created by African Americans to focus on African American issues featured discussions of civil rights and international politics, as well as guest appearances by Black leaders in the arts, politics and sports. It’s part of the Radio Program Fund collection, which has audio cassettes of more than 50 shows that expanded representation, covering everything from Native American traditions to jazz recordings to documentaries about blue-collar workers. Listen to digitized episodes (search “PowerPoint”). 

The National Public Radio (NPR) staple started at WAMU, a public radio station owned by American University in Washington, D.C. UMD’s holdings include recordings as well as photographs of the staff, memos and transcripts. Longtime co-host and founding mother of NPR, the late Susan Stamberg, also donated her papers to UMD.

Before the “Real Housewives” or “The Kardashians” or “Survivor,” cameras followed the Loud family in Santa Barbara, California, for seven months to create the world’s first reality show, a documentary that drew more than 10 million viewers a week in 1973. Items at UMD include press releases and photographs.

With more than 800 episodes spanning 43 seasons, the documentary series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston has covered everything from the criminal justice system to the NFL’s concussion crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. UMD has U-Matic and VHS tapes from the 1970s to 1990s, which are viewable in the Special Collections Reading Room.