(female announcer) Funding for this program is made possible by... The WKNO Partners in Excellence Fund, committed to presenting quality programming.

And also by members like you.

Thank you.

(male narrator) Kenya -- 1959.

Julian Bondurant was taking a well deserved vacation.

Thousands of miles away back in Memphis he could point with pride to what he'd been able to accomplish.

Six years earlier, a letter writing campaign solidified something that Bondurant already knew.

That the time was right for an educational television station in Memphis.

That was 1953.

And there was about to be a new kid in town.

♪♪♪ [laughing] No.

What you bet?

[train whistle] ♪♪♪ (male narrator) In 1951 the FCC allocated 252 video channels for non-commercial use in the U.S.

The only stipulation was that the programming be educational in nature.

Many applied, but on May 25, 1953, it would be a station in Houston, Texas that would garner the distinction of being the first to sign on.

(man) Ready scanner, ready booth... ♪♪♪ Audio and booth... The pioneer on America's educational television frontier.

This is KUHT, Channel 8, in Houston.

(narrator) Memphis business man, Julian Bondurant, had taken a trip to Houston to check on the progress of the fledgling station.

Bondurant had a dream of constructing an educational station in Memphis, and that trip to Texas would be the beginning of an association that would introduce Julian to KUHT engineer, Clem LaFont.

I don't know how Clem heard about the chief's job up here, but he applied for it and got it.

And asked me to come up as his assistant.

(narrator) When Bob Nollner worked at KUHT it had a state of the art studio, however, when he arrived in Memphis he walked into an annex of an old school building on Fourth and Jefferson.

I saw a couple of desks and several bare offices.

We had no equipment on hand, whatsoever.

(narrator) And they had just a few months to turn it into a television station.

(Nollner) Clem and I hit the streets, going out, asking for donations from people like Benswanger Glass, Denny's Concrete to pour the foundations for our tower.

(narrator) Bob and Clem couldn't believe it.

It was like their money was no good in this town, but not everybody was impressed.

♪♪♪ There was real progress being made on the tower over on Raleigh-LaGrange Road until one day there was a bit of a snag in the line.

The night our first section of tower came in, (Nollner) the truck driver called us and we gave him directions.

Well he wheeled in and there was a wire dangling off the back of one of the tower sections.

(narrator) Come to find out, somebody had been illegally tapping power from the line.

In all my wisdom, I called Light, Gas, and Water and said, "Hey, we've got a problem out here.

We've got a downed power line."

It was in fact an illegal power drop that a man had put up.

He wasn't too happy about that and he came down the road brandishing his shotgun.

(narrator) Shortly afterwards, the water pressure began to drop in the area.

(Nollner) He was mad at us from the get-go.

He was under the impression that we were using too much water.

(Nollner) And he said, "Well what are you filling up these big copper pipes with?"

He was referring to the transmission lines running up to the top of the tower.

They're three and an eighth inch rigid copper transmission lines.

He thought we were pumping water up there.

Hold a whole lot of water.

So he had his shotgun with him that time too.

♪♪♪ (narrator) Other than that one incident, they were impressed with the generosity of the area.

And we'd come back to the office at the end of the day and say, "Well, we did pretty good today.

We got five thousand bucks."

Well, we didn't get it.

Julian got it.

As you know, he was a successful businessman, and he had a history of civic involvement, including the fact that he was the president of the school board for some number of years and was involved in the whole educational aspect of the development of educational programs in Memphis.

(narrator) Julian Bondurant had spent the past several years seeding the ground and selling the dream of educational television to Memphis, in part using the force of his personality.

(Nollner) He was very persuasive and very, very gentleman.

Very southern gentleman.

He was a very down to earth person.

There was nothing put on about him at all.

He never saw a stranger.

He was always, "Hi, I'm Julian Bondurant."

Everybody always knew who Julian Bondurant was.

(narrator) The charter for the Memphis Community Television Foundation was granted by the state of Tennessee on May 28, 1953.

At first it was thought that the station had to go on the air in June or lose its license with the FCC.

But that was worked out and the next target date was November.

Then January 1, 1954.

As target dates came and went, some of the frustration was making its way into the newspaper.

(man reading in character) When, if ever, is Channel 10 going on the air?

All we hear is what they will have on the air and nothing about when they will have it.

(narrator) Even though Bondurant had an impeccable reputation, he knew some added credibility couldn't hurt, so he chose a general manager whose very presence would leave no doubt that the organization was under steady and able leadership.

No one symbolized that better than retired Vice Admiral, Harold M. Martin.

Martin was a graduate of Annapolis and during his senior year he scored the most points in the football game against Pittsburgh while Woodrow Wilson cheered him on in the stands.

He would keep the football in his office at WKNO.

He saw combat on a destroyer during World War I. Later, during World War II, he would command the San Jacinto.

The San Jack, as the crew called it, was a light aircraft carrier, which meant it was faster than the larger carriers.

Under Martin's command the ship and its crew would see some of the greatest battles of the Pacific Theatre.

These included Wake Island, Guam, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea, which became the Japanese Kamikazes' last desperate attempt to turn the war in their favor.

The Kamikazes were no match for Martin's VT-51 fighter squadron.

The squadron included a Lieutenant Junior Grade by the name of George H.W.

Bush.

Later, during one harrowing reconnaissance mission launched from the San Jack, Bush would have his plane shot out from under him during the closing days of the war.

Later, after acquiring the rank of Vice Admiral, he took command of the seventh fleet during the Korean War.

Admiral Martin, I guess he knew I had been in the Navy, so he welcomed me aboard when I first got to the station.

And I think once I had to do this, if you went to see him -- and usually the door was closed to his office -- and you could knock and instead of "come in" he would shout "Come!"

[laughing] (Nollner) I was in the process of buying my first house.

Well, I was 300 dollars short, so I went to the Admiral.

I went in and asked him if it would be possible to get an advance on my salary which I would pay back as soon as possible and he told me no.

(Nollner) But in the same breath he reached in his hip pocket, pulled out his wallet, pulled out three $100 bills and said, "Pay me back whenever you can."

So that's the kind of guy he was.

A very nice guy.

(narrator) If there had been any doubt that WKNO would fulfill its mission, it disappeared after Bondurant appointed Martin.

After a much needed Ford Foundation grant kicked in, other additions were made to the staff.

For programming, Bondurant hired Keith Nighbert who had gotten his experience working in television in South Dakota.

In turn, Nighbert hired Howard Holst to head up production.

This is Howard in 1954 playing the piano in a segment called "Musical Moments" at WOII in Ames, Iowa.

♪♪♪ Howard was very, very laid back.

Quite bright.

He knew music well, he knew show biz.

Howard had the knack.

He was a musician in his spare time -- whatever you want to call it -- but he could read music.

And he used to direct all the musical shows (Mintz) by the score.

♪♪♪ (narrator) With the staff set, a sign on date was scheduled for June 25, 1956.

But just to be on the safe side, engineering pulled off a secret debut.

Around the second week of June with an audience that consisted of Clem LaFont, an RCA salesman, and Bob Nollner at the transmitter site, WKNO presented its first program... An Indian head test pattern.

My uncle taught us a little trick about that.

You better put your transmitter on the air first to make sure it's going to work before you have a big ceremony about it.

(narrator) Nollner's uncle was Bill Davis, the chief engineer at KUHT.

When they hit the switch to go on the air nothing happened.

Davis, who was wearing his best cowboy boots for the occasion, sauntered into the transmitter room and gave that metal monstrosity a swift kick.

KUHT flickered to life and they haven't had trouble with the thing since.

He donated those cowboy boots to the university (Nollner) and they have them down there in some sort of a museum or something.

(narrator) The final piece of unfinished business came down to what they would call the new station.

The "Commercial Appeal" had a contest and two readers submitted the winning entries.

One was signed "Dyersburg Reader" and the other was submitted by a Mary F. Harmon who gave no address.

Finally on June 25, 1956, WKNO went on the air.

(Nollner) Everyone was quite apprehensive.

I was not at the transmitter -- I was at the studio.

And we went on the air with "Serenade."

(narrator) Which turned out to be one the station's most popular shows.

It consisted of a shot of an album cover and the sound of a record being played.

(Mintz) Good evening and welcome to "Serenade," Channel 10's hour-long program of recorded classical and semi-classical music brought to you each weekday evening at this time.

Tonight's featured presentation and on and on and on.

And I'd read it right off the back of the album cover what was going on.

(narrator) The debut went off without a hitch, thanks to the Indian head test pattern run through a few weeks before.

Bondurant had kept his promise to Memphis, and there were no boot prints on the transmitter.

(Nollner) After that, Julian Bondurant, at his own expense gave us a great party over at the Veteran of Foreign Wars.

(Nollner) Everybody felt real good.

We were relieved.

We'd given birth to our baby, so to speak.

(narrator) It didn't take long for the station to have a dramatic effect on the community.

Frank Laubach came to Memphis and was seeking a sponsor for his literacy program.

(narrator) Laubach wanted to try a new idea -- teaching people to read and write using the medium of television.

And he made a presentation to the National Council of Jewish Women Memphis Section and after the presentation we decided that we would be the sponsor and WKNO had agreed to air it.

(narrator) He enlisted the aid of Pauline Hord who had been a teacher in the Memphis City Schools since 1929.

She helped Laubach adapt the method to television.

We set up centers -- learning centers -- at different locations in the city.

(narrator) There were televisions at each of the centers and the results were immediate.

People would walk in as illiterates.

And after the first session, they could read and write about three words.

(narrator) The series garnered a national Sylvania Award.

"Life Magazine" was so impressed they did a cover story about it, and the motto of the program became a war cry against illiteracy in the Mid-South.

Each one, teach one.

(narrator) Dr.

Frank Laubach could teach people to read in any language.

In 1951 he traveled through the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan to Kabul where he taught Afghanis how to read and write.

In India, he sat down with Gandhi to formulate a plan to teach people to read and write in that country.

The doctor saw this as missionary work and was so revered by his pupils he became known as the Apostle of the Illiterates.

Each one, teach one has become the mainspring of our literacy program all over the world.

(Narrator) The doctor also believed that fighting ignorance was the best way of eliminating unnecessary conflict.

He had that theory tested when he was in the Philippines in 1931.

The government couldn't guarantee the doctor's safety in the southern island of the Phillipines, especially among the Merinau who were Muslims with a history of rebel violence.

Dr.

Laubach befriended the Merinau and became the first man to write down their language.

Then he published books teaching them childcare and farming.

This was during the height of the Depression and when dwindling cash made it difficult to continue the program, one of the chieftains announced that anyone who knew how to read and write was obligated to teach the next person.

The chieftain raised his sword, "Each one, teach one... Or die."

Dr.

Laubach immediately embraced the motto leaving off the "or die" part.

As for Pauline Hord, she like the doctor, would devote the rest of her life to literacy.

She would win the Thousand Points of Light Award from President George H.W.

Bush for her work teaching literacy in prisons.

Sing for me.

Do, please, do.

(narrator) It was a vocation that she would continue until her death in 2005 at the age of 98.

♪♪♪ "Safety Hit Parade" was a program about road safety aimed at teenagers.

When the station extended an invitation for Elvis to appear on the program, the prevailing thought was, "All he can do is say no."

But he didn't.

My husband called me and said, "You better come down here."

I said, "Why?"

He said, "We need a honey shot."

So I put on my dress and put my baby next door, got in a cab, and came down.

(narrator) Autograph seekers were already at the door and police had posted extra officers on the street.

Elvis was, as always, extremely polite and acted a little embarrassed about all of the attention.

At first, Elvis seemed more interested in the lady working the camera than the show itself.

There were some who wondered whether Elvis could take the subject of road safety seriously, but when it came time he told teenagers to watch their speed and drive carefully.

Everyone was happy except Noreen Holst, who was running late.

I didn't have enough money to pay for the cab, but I told the driver what I was going to do.

I was going to meet somebody named Elvis Presley.

So he took what little money I had and said, "Go on in."

I ended up owing him twenty-eight cents, I think.

I'm not sure, but something like that.

(narrator) Meanwhile Elvis donated a television to assist in the literacy program and then had his picture taken with Keith Nighbert and Howard Holst, who was probably wondering where Noreen was about now.

Shortly afterwards, Noreen arrived and something happened she didn't quite expect.

(Holst) He just kissed me on the cheek.

And I was very embarrassed.

(narrator) And that's when this picture was taken.

It's a keepsake that she has given to her grandchildren.

(Holst) I had copies made and gave them to the two sets of grandkids.

The littlest grandson -- his mother and dad hung the picture in the hallway just as you go upstairs.

And so when he goes upstairs, when his dad carries him up the stairs at night, he stops and kisses the pictures and says, "Night Elvis.

Night Grammy."

♪♪♪ (narrator) Nobody ever told the Junior League of Memphis that it was hard to build and run a TV station, so they jumped in there and did it anyway.

Through 1956 and 1957, the ladies of the Junior League manned cameras, pulled cables, and even became puppeteers - in other words, whatever was needed.

(male announcer) And produced by WKNO-TV in cooperation with the Junior League of Memphis.

(narrator) Working in such cramped quarters required a quick learning curve.

The League also helped start the station's commitment to children's programming by hiring Leo and Dora Velleman, who had already received national prominence for creating the figure of Fignewton Frog, which was already a mainstay at KETC in St.

Louis.

The Junior League provided the first large, local cash gift to WKNO when it was founded, and that gift of $5,000 in 1955 helped kick off a membership drive and a larger campaign for local gifts.

(Murrah) We also provided $16,000 in 1956 to pay for the salary of a children's program coordinator for two years.

And we provided 35 volunteers to help WKNO get started.

(narrator) At the time, WKNO was a small station, but it didn't act like one.

Early on engineering was able to pull off its first remote at the old Belleview Baptist Church in downtown Memphis where Dr.

Robert G. Lee delivered his famous sermon, "Payday Someday."

The preacher of the living God, and it cowers before Elijah.

And with a voice hoarse like a hunted animal he says, "Hath thou found me, o mine enemy?

Hast thou found me?"

(narrator) At the same time, WKNO's adult programming was receiving accolades.

In particular, a series called "Perspectives."

Many of those early "Perspective" programs were hosted by Dr.

Walter Smith.

Smith gave the programs a needed air of gravitas.

One of the most highly praised episodes of the series touched on the subject of Beale Street.

The result is a time capsule.

A view of Beale Street that has long disappeared.

The performances reflect a rough hewn sound that owe more to the 1920s and 30s.

For the performers, this was blues that was close to the bone.

♪♪♪ But if Beale Street could talk... [laughing] Yes, if Beale Street could talk... Many a married man would pick up his bed and walk.

Except one or two who never drink booze.

And the blind men on the corner singing the "Beale Street Blues."

Yes, I'd rather be here than anyplace I know.

Beale Street.

[laughing] No.

What you bet?

(narrator) Forty-eight years later, Martin Scorsese would use these performances in his acclaimed documentary series, "The Blues."

Tom Tichenor already had a reputation as a master puppeteer when he arrived at WKNO in 1957.

Tichenor was a veteran broadcaster, having already performed at WSM-TV in Nashville.

When Tom arrived at WKNO he found a creative partner in Howard Holst, who by then was looking for an outlet to compose music.

Howard and Tom immediately collaborated on a Christmas special called "A Special Place for Santa" produced and directed by Holst.

He also composed the music.

♪ On a lazy summer morn ♪ ♪the hot sun seems to warm ♪ ♪Stay in shade ♪ ♪Stay in shade♪ ♪ Of the nearest tree ♪ ♪ We concentrate on the pretty dolls ♪ ♪ because young misses most of all ♪ ♪love the pretty dolls so ♪ ♪ Let's make it ♪ ♪ a pretty doll Christmas ♪ The really special place we hope we will always live is in your hearts... Merry Christmas everyone!

♪ Here's a place ♪ ♪ A very special place ♪ ♪ A special place for Santa ♪ (narrator) After leaving WKNO, he would go to Broadway where his puppets would be featured in the musical "Carousel".

This is a picture of Tichenor with actor Jerry Orbach, who was also in the musical.

Tom had always lived with his grandmother in Nashville.

The night that "Carousel" opened on Broadway, he got a telegram.

"Hope the show is a flop" it read, "so you'll come home soon" signed Grandma.

"Carousel" was a runaway hit.

♪♪♪ (narrator) In 1958, Harold Martin would retire, and Ernest C. Ball, former superintendent of Memphis City Schools would take over as general manager.

Ball forged an alliance with Memphis City Schools and thus began an era where city school teachers were brought in for auditions to teach courses on television.

I wanted to get on TV, you know that ego trip.

I thought that would be the thing to do -- be a TV person.

So I did the audition and I got cold feet when they called me and told me that I had the job.

I said, "Oh no!

I don't know if I want to do this or not!"

I got on the camera.

I was terrified.

I didn't know how to look at the cameras.

(narrator) Betty Stimbert taught science, and her reaction mirrored 90% of what all Memphis City School teachers were thinking about television at that time.

I said, "Well that sounds kind of interesting, but that's not really for me I don't think.

I love the classroom."

(narrator) Turns out, her supervisor didn't give her a choice.

(Stimbert) She said, "Well you have to go.

You have to do it -- or else."

I didn't like the or else.

And so I did and it turned out.

(Stimbert) No, I'd never had any experience in public speaking, and I certainly had not had much science experience -- just fourth grade science.

That was it.

(narrator) To Betty's surprise they gave her her own program.

This TV stuff seemed pretty easy until she realized she was going to produce the entire thing herself.

After I got into it, I thought, "you know, this is not as easy as I thought it was going to be."

Because I wrote the scripts, (Stimbert) I typed the scripts, I went out and got my audio visual materials, I got animals, Petri dishes, I got people to come and talk (Stimbert) and then I had an optometrist come in and compare an eye to a camera, you know.

So that took a lot of time.

(narrator) As WKNO's commitment to local programming grew, it was clear that they had outgrown their old studios.

Howard Holst had taken the reigns as general manager after Ernest C. Ball retired.

Holst struck a deal with Memphis State to move to the old Field House on campus.

We took a month off the air -- pulled the station off the air for a month -- that's the only way we could do it.

(narrator) They went from a studio that was smaller than a living room to a cavernous basketball court -- all of which needed to be soundproofed.

Well, we didn't know what to do with it.

For awhile -- actually for a long while -- we just barely used some of it for sets.

(Nollner) But we didn't have to move sets in and out anymore.

We had plenty of room.

We left one of the basketball goals up.

We played a little basketball occasionally in the afternoons.

(narrator) At the time, it was the largest TV studio facility in the Mid-South.

You could stage a full scale musical and still have plenty of room left over.

The Memphis Symphony even performed in the studio and it never even put a crimp in Bob Nollner's afternoon basketball game.

I guess in August of '61 I came down to visit Jo's family -- and my wife was from Memphis and she had worked at WKNO.

And so she said, "Well, let's go out and see the new studio (Potter) on the campus at Memphis State."

And when we got there they were rehearsing and taping a segment from "Oklahoma" and Dixie Carter was the star of "Oklahoma" (Potter) from Front Street Theatre.

And Leonard Graves was Curly.

Leonard Graves used to be on Channel 13.

He did the voice-overs for "Victory at Sea."

Leonard Graves.

Oh my goodness!

Please let me have these pictures.

Let me have copies of these pictures.

That's "Okalahoma."

(Carter) That's "Babes in Arms."

Denetia McCormack had the lead and I played Subrette.

And I got to sing "Where or When."

♪It seems we stood and talked like this before♪ ♪We looked at each other in the same way then♪ ♪But I can't remember where or when♪ (Carter) Oh, gosh!

Weren't we young?

(narrator) The station had never wavered in its commitment to children's programming and when Holden Potter joined the station in 1962 as a producer/director, he would play an important role in creating one of the most popular children's programs ever to appear on Channel 10 -- "All Aboard with Mr.

Be."

The title character was played by actor Allen Hamilton.

By the sun of yore... Poncey... Let's play.

Isn't that beautiful?

It certainly is.

Let's play ball.

Oh gosh, the finer things in life.

They're so marvelous.

Well let's play ball.

I knew nothing about television and Holden knew a lot about television, and he turned a lot of these strange ideas into TV.

(narrator) Which guaranteed a strong creative partnership.

I said, "I have some ideas.

Here's what I think."

He would say, "Yeah.

I like that.

I want to do this if we do that."

And I'd say, "That sounds great."

(Potter) And from day one, it worked like that.

We had decided we wanted to use a train theme because it was nostalgic.

We were rebelling -- both of us were rebelling against the space age.

[rocket blasting off] (Potter) Everything was Telstar, everything was Sputnik, everything was chrome, steel, rockets, neon, flashing lights.

We didn't want that for our show.

One day he saw in the "Commercial Appeal" that the General-- the epic Civil War train -- was going to be in Brownsville, Tennessee.

(Mintz) We made arrangements with the railroad to go to Brownsville, Tennessee to ride the General.

(Hamilton) And I had a pasted on moustache that I fashioned out of crepe hair and a cap that I put on and I waved.

And that became our open and our close.

(Potter) And that tied all the images at the front together with the studio train.

♪♪♪ (Mintz) The only thing that was rough was moving that set, which took a hand crank.

(narrator) Other than that, doing the show was a blast.

We tried to bring as many children on the show as we could deal with at that hour of the day.

We went to Campus School, which was just right there.

When they would need children for a segment, it was easy for our father to get us out of school (Kevin Johnson) and bring us in.

(woman) I remember going to the studio and there was the train on that round track with the big bell on it.

I remember climbing up and down in the train and they'd let us sneak in and play.

(Kelly Johnson) The bird puppet -- I can't remember the bird's name -- but I loved that puppet.

(Kevin Johnson) I know the one segment that was filmed at Audubon Park -- it was the Tortoise and the Hare.

He was the tortoise and I was the hare.

(Kevin Johnson) And they said, "Don't worry about how fast you run."

And I thought, "But the hare's supposed to run real fast."

And they said, "We can take care of that.

"Just go ahead and jog at a normal pace and don't worry about it."

Well being eight years old I couldn't figure that out.

And then of course, after you see it, (Kevin Johnson) you see that they just sped up the film and then slowed it down for him being the tortoise.

I think one of the funniest ones we shot was Allen Bates at the baseball game.

♪♪♪ (Mintz) Allen was the team.

And we had Allen playing the game with Allen pitching the ball, running the bases, jumping up and down in the stands.

I think my favorite show of all time on Channel 10 was "All Aboard with Mr.

Be" (Dowdy) because Mr.

Be was such a very nice personality.

I liked Poncey de Lion.

He was my favorite character on "All Aboard."

(Donelson) He was cute and cuddly.

I remember that window he was always sitting in whenever Mr.

Be sat down in his rocking chair.

Put away my books.

That was my dream.

(Dowdy) I felt closer to him than I did to anyone on "Sesame Street" or any of the other national programs.

(narrator) Betty Stimbert and Joan Roth had become comfortable in the roles as TV teachers.

And while the station enjoyed much success with their classroom television, the teachers' practice of using animals as teaching tools had a rather spotty history.

For instance, the time that Betty Stimbert brought a cat, a bird, and a dog on a program.

And all of the sudden the bird started making noise.

Well the cat got interested.

The cat started making noise.

Then the dog started howling.

And then the cat jumped up on the table where the bird was.

And it was just like chaos for a while.

(narrator) Joan Roth got into bigger trouble when she invited a horse to the studio.

And by the time he got in he left a trail in the studio.

And this is live, but I don't think anybody saw the trail.

But... [laughing] But when the stallion got on the set -- and this isn't polite language -- but he got excited.

He was still excited.

And he... [laughing] And the...cameraman said, "Raise the camera!

Raise the camera!"

[laughing] And the cameraman was so stunned, he didn't respond.

So they had to drop cards over the picture.

(narrator) But it was Mr.

Be who would be the victim of a legendary animal mishap.

It was a sweet little spider monkey who never gave them a moment's worth of trouble.

At least not in rehearsal.

So he says, "Bye-bye boys and girls.

"It's time to go.

See you tomorrow."

Ding, ding.

And the monkey freaked -- because the bell was right at the same height as the monkey's head.

And he started crawling up Allen's face.

And they're turning the train and it takes a while to get it started.

And it's creaking... Getting going... The monkey's going up and Allen's trying to hang on to it.

And the monkey grabs the top of the engine window of the set piece and starts pulling himself up.

And Allen's pulling down on the monkey.

And the monkey said enough of that and pees all over Allen.

He was so scared.

And Allen keeps going and waving to the kids.

He's trying to keep up -- show must go on.

And the train's turning and the monkey gets up on top of the train and the next thing you know -- into the light grid.

I do remember him climbing up.

And was swinging from bar to bar.

From light bar to light bar in the grid.

[monkey screeching] (narrator) Around 1969 the station had some new challenges.

One that came up was how to promote a new show called "Sesame Street."

Jean Young, who was doing public relations at the time, felt that if you wanted the kids to watch, you had to reach the parents.

We did flyers that we got in the hands of a lot of people, but we got them in the hands of a lot of the liquor stores.

Got them in the hands of the liquor stores for the parents to know about "Sesame Street."

And so it was really kind of fun to get the responses from that.

All the liquor stores said, "Great.

We'd love to help you promote 'Sesame Street.'"

And so they did.

We got a lot of response from it.

(narrator) And while the station was having an effect on the community the widening war in Vietnam was about to bring changes to the WKNO family.

Pat Lane had been an engineer at WKNO since 1964.

It looked like he was about to be drafted.

So he told Bob Nollner about his decision to enlist.

He told me what he felt like he had to do.

And I agreed with him that it would be the right thing for him to do so he could go on in the service and do what he wanted to do in the service.

And I assured him -- I said, "Pat, when you come back your job is going to be here for you."

♪♪♪ (narrator) In 1959, WKNO got the first videotape machine in the Memphis TV market.

The trouble with videotape is there is a never ending supply of it, so it tends to act as an unblinking historical record, whether you want it to or not.

It doesn't get more seventies than this sensitivity training session where the host is extolling the virtues of getting closer to your banana.

(man) Try rubbing it on your face, your cheeks.

See what that feels like.

(narrator) Notice that Jo Potter is having a hard time keeping a straight face through this one.

(female announcer) So disco dancing is exhilarating, fun, social, a good way to keep in shape, and the "in" thing to do.

Nobody knows how long it will be around or what type of social dancing will replace it.

But one thing is certain -- the nightlife of Memphis has changed since disco dancing caught on.

(narrator) The times also shaped the way teachers at WKNO would approach their subject matter.

Earl Fuller was a different kind of science teacher.

Just a real character.

He rode a unicycle, he juggled, he did all kinds of crazy things and just loved everything.

There was a really sharp lady, Anna Cathryn Ball, and she had this idea for a science show.

He was a character so we made him a character.

♪♪♪ (Ball) And he rode is unicycle and we found an old barn that became his laboratory.

(Fuller) Anna Cathryn Ball knew I loved unicycling and that was sort of my gimmick.

What's your conclusion Kyle?

I think that my rock is quartz.

Very good.

I was a student at Memphis State Campus School.

Elementary School.

And I remember Anna Cathryn Ball was looking for a kid to do this science series.

(Kyle) That's a scratch.

(Davis) The Shylock Bones character -- he was that for real.

Very eccentric, off beat, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with him.

Because I was -- I mean I was a nerd.

(Davis) I remember saving up my money, raking leaves to buy some bicycle that I wanted.

I remember one episode of the show, I think the show ended with me climbing on the back of a Harley Davidson with him, riding off down the street.

And he was a riot.

Well, Kyle, that barn door is good for horse of course, but for this wheel, it's just not the right deal.

(narrator) There was still an emphasis on teaching art and music.

And one of the station's most successful shows was "The Playground" with Rosanna Quinn.

I think it started me on learning music and appreciating music.

And she had this really wonderful way of teaching rhythm and beats.

When you clap your hands -- it's like [clapping] ta, ti, to.

(Quinn) The entire set was designed with teaching tools.

The magic box.

And we'd bring out the rhythm instruments that we used on the show.

The drums and the sticks.

All of the rhythm instruments.

(narrator) Another favorite was an art instruction program called "Collage" with Mary Stewart.

I always showed them a process -- something they could do.

We always had some local film in there.

(Stewart) What they had be doing was running around, making all these rubbings, and then they showed it in fast motion.

So I'm just all over the place, just popping around.

They even had me rubbing license plates -- and I say they, this is the crew -- license plates and even the tire tread.

We just had a lot of fun with it.

(narrator) In 1971, WKNO began to broadcast in color.

They were also using three cameras and tackling more ambitious productions.

♪♪♪ (narrator) And just as WKNO looked like it was coming into its own, the station would get some sad news.

In September of 1976, Julian Bondurant, who fathered the dream of educational television in the Mid-South, died at the age of 71.

When he left the foundation as president, (Nollner) he sent me a nice letter thanking me for my work at WKNO, which I appreciated very much.

And not many people would do that, you know?

He was that kind of guy.

(narrator) There were other landmarks during the decade.

Aaron Copeland came to Memphis and agreed to be videotaped while conducting the Memphis State student orchestra.

The result is a unique historical document that provides some insights into the mind of one of America's greatest composers.

I got to ask him questions the whole weekend, but...I found two things.

If he didn't want to answer, he wouldn't.

And he had more long term memory than he did short term.

How would you like the 21st century music historian to look upon you?

Well, the thought that goes through my mind is I would like him to be able to say that when you listen to this man's music, you have some sense of what it was like to be alive in that particular century.

[applause] ♪♪♪ You know, he was in his -- I think, early eighties at that point.

♪♪♪ Don't hurry... ♪♪♪ Gentleman, horns... (Potter) That was a tremendous honor to spend so much time with him.

Well, which makes the "wah" sound better?

Do it that way, then.

(narrator) But one of the events that would rock Memphis and the world would occur on August 16, 1977.

(Potter) It was a time when the world was focusing on Memphis, just like with Dr.

King's death.

We didn't have the facilities to do it live.

(narrator) The station immediately began to work on a tribute.

Well, he's always been with me since I was a teenager.

When he first came, he came at a time when teenagers' lives needed something.

He changed everything for us.

He gave us a different kind of music and life to live for.

He helped me when I was in high school when a lot of times I didn't have enough lunch money, but I'd take it and I'd go spend it on his records.

We had a small restaurant there.

And millions of girls did this, I'm sure, in the fifties.

We just more or less matured with him.

I just don't know what else I can tell you except this is killing me.

We were able to get Marian Keisker MacInnes who discovered Elvis.

He said something to the effect, "Do you know anybody that wants a singer?"

I said, "Well, what kind of a singer are you?"

He said, "Well, I just sing everything."

"Who do you sing like?"

"I don't sing like nobody."

"Well do you sing country and western?"

"Yes."

"Well, who do you sing like?"

"I don't sing like nobody."

I know that it was the combination of my being there and my reacting to him.

And his being there and Sam's certain needs and recognition of the uniqueness of the man.

♪♪♪ (narrator) In 1979, the station moved from the old Field House which was being torn down to its present studios on the South Campus of the U of M, which is the old Kennedy Hospital Complex.

Although we appreciated the old Field House, we got the chance to come in and really do something we thought at the time was right because we had the facilities right here.

And this time we didn't do everything ourselves.

We had people -- we had an architect, we had electricians.

(narrator) Some couldn't help but remember how far the station had come since the days when it was in the old school house.

It was an old school building.

I mean, this was plush when you all got out here compared to that.

I mean, it was grand.

I thought, they're at least in pretty good buildings.

(narrator) And the station was quick to remember who had helped make it all possible.

On June 15, 1980, WKNO's new home was dedicated as the Julian B. Bondurant building.

The station was growing and so was Memphis, however, some predictions from the time seem a little funny now.

♪♪♪ (male announcer) Little or no economic impact to the Hickory Hill area -- that was the conclusion of a $29,000 report studying annexation conducted by MSU's Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

This city funded report concluded that annexation has no major impact on the growth of an area.

(narrator) Public affairs had always been important to the station and it was decided that "Memphis Journal" would become the station's flagship magazine program.

"Memphis Journal" was an hour once a week.

And then we had at that time we had four or five producers working on it.

Good evening.

I'm Cris Hardaway.

Welcome to this edition of "Memphis Journal."

You would have a lead story that maybe was a harder news piece.

In tonight's cover story, an analysis of the war on pornography.

And you followed it up with arts and entertaient or personality interviews or some kind of performance piece.

(male announcer) Ms.

Spruill's job demands that she differentiate between the moral and legal interpretations of obscenity.

(Hardaway) So we're dealing with a fine line here.

In other words, when Memphians Against Degeneracy picket an adult nightclub, they're dealing with a fine line situation there?

Well, they're doing their thing and we're doing our thing.

(narrator) The single thread that never changed through the decades was the station's dedication to Memphis basketball.

Back in the sixties, Bob Nollner outfitted a mobile truck to make things a little more convenient.

Our first mobile unit that we built (Nollner) we got from the state agency.

It was an old navy truck -- like a big old blue ice cream truck, or something.

(narrator) But what little convenience the truck provided was canceled out by the weight of the cameras.

It was four cameras and two of the cameras were hard cameras -- studio type cameras -- that weighed about what a small elephant would weigh.

(narrator) In spite of that WKNO provided Memphis basketball for well over three decades.

And surely we got to be first rate broadcast.

And actually when you think about it, our crew was probably the best basketball crew in Memphis because they had to be the way we worked.

Let's take a look at the final unofficial team stats for both ball clubs.

We show Southern Mississippi -- not a bad shooting night -- and a losing effort.

(male announcer) Obviously Memphis State with the advantage.

29-12 in that category.

[cheering] Welcome to the pyramid in downtown Memphis.

[cheering] ♪♪♪ (narrator) As WKNO continued to forge ahead through the eighties and then the nineties, it continued to set a high standard in programming.

♪♪♪ It created a new documentary franchise called "Memphis Memoirs."

(male narrator) Of course life wasn't all fun back then, but it seems like most of what we remember is the good stuff.

Which is the way it should be.

Otherwise we wouldn't want to go on to experience more stuff.

That's the reason for this show -- "Memphis Memoirs."

(man) "Memphis Memoirs" is not really about Memphis.

I mean the show titles are, the subjects are -- but the reason it works is because it's about nostalgia.

(woman) There's a Don Henley song, "The End of the Innocence" that people have heard -- it was a song in the eighties I think -- nineties -- and there's a line in it that refers to "that same small town in each of us."

And I think that's sort of what the "Memoirs" captures.

(male narrator) There were the little things that added color to Main Street.

The candid camera guy who snapped your picture... Or the aroma of fresh roasted peanuts.

(narrator) In fact, you've probably seen Jim Eikner on the air reminiscing along with the "Memoirs" programs -- especially during pledge events.

Eikner, who used to be an attorney for the music industry here in Memphis, was approached about hosting WKNO's very first pledge night.

I said, "What do I do?"

And he said, "Well you get on live television."

I said, "Well, that's okay."

And he said, "You ask for money."

"I do what?"

He said, "You ask for money."

"I don't sell Fuller Brushes or Tupperware or something?

I just ask for money?"

He said, "Right."

(narrator) So in May of 1973, a very nervous Jim Eikner made his debut.

(Eikner) Because I thought, "What if nobody calls?"

"What if nothing happens?

"What if I just fall on my face?

What do I say?"

Well, I hadn't been on the air more than 30 seconds I suppose when the first phone rang, much to my amazement and much to my relief.

(narrator) Since 1956 preschool education had never lessened in importance.

And the same was true when Michael LaBonia took over as general manager in 1990.

One thing that we had a real opportunity to do was to do children's programming because we had so many outstanding children's programs in the schedule.

At that time there was "Electric Company," and "Sesame Street," and "Mr.

Rogers" and all those shows.

So we thought we would build something around that.

(LaBonia) We got Chuck Scruggs who became Mr.

Chuck.

Hello, Mr.

Chuck!

(narrator) It started a conversation between Chuck and the children of the Mid-South that's been going on for 15 years.

♪ I can sing ♪ ♪ And you can sing ♪ ♪ And we can sing together ♪ (narrator) By the time he came to the station he already had a varied and accomplished career.

He became the first black general manager of WDIA.

He learned early on that the broadcast medium could be used for the greater good.

I had discovered that, "You know, this radio can have as much influence on change as a lawyer."

Cause all you've got to do is ask people to go somewhere and do something or to call you and say something and they do it.

You just ask them and they'll do it.

(narrator) It was due in part to his efforts in mobilizing the community that the Lorraine Motel was preserved and turned into a memorial for the late Martin Luther King, Jr.

They brought in their piggy banks -- children brought in piggy banks, people on welfare brought in their welfare checks.

(narrator) Not bad for a guy who used to get on the radio in Cincinnati and start his show something like this... (Scruggs) Buggs Scruggs, the man with the plugs... Back on the scene with my record machine... Can I get you?

Will you let me?

Then hang on... Let's roll!

[laughing] (narrator) And it's a real tribute to his ability as an educator and a human being that he's been able to get some national celebrities on the show.

I loved being on Mr.

Chuck and I wore one of my great big Joan Sutherland type gowns -- in fact it was designed by the lady who did Sutherland's gowns -- I call it my big aqua dress.

And we did the "ABC Song."

♪ A...B...C...D ♪ ♪ E...F...G... ♪ (man) One of my favorite moments is Mr.

Chuck sitting on his porch, the music is playing, the wide shot of the set is there... Mr.

Rogers walks by on the sidewalk and he says... Hello, Mr.

Chuck!

Hello, Mr.

Rogers!

Hope you have a good one!

You too!

Thanks!

Well, I've made it!

Mr.

Rogers is on the show.

My hero is on the show and I'm done.

(narrator) Under the leadership of president and CEO Michael LaBonia, the station had increased its local productions.

It acquired a state of the art production truck.

And in order to continue serving the needs of viewers in the Mid-South, some new stations went on the air -- WKNO-2 and WKNO-HD.

I think the real focus needs to be on the programs, because I don't think it makes any difference if the screen is sixty inches wide or 2x2 -- if there's something nobody has an interest in, they're certainly not going to select any of those platforms to watch.

(narrator) WKNO would have two celebrations in 2006.

In June, a 50th birthday party for the viewers who made it possible.

The event was also a perfect time to make an important announcement.

(LaBonia) The new building is going to be 35,000 square feet and it's going to be really nice.

It's going to be built out in the northeastern part of Memphis.

(narrator) In September of 2006 an employee reunion brought together every generation who had ever worked for the station since 1956.

(narrator) It isn't until you pull back that you can see the sweeping effect that all these people had on this one station.

From dreamers who transported us to the farthest corners of our imagination to those who brought the joy of learning directly to our living rooms.

These first fifty years have revealed a bond between a community and its station.

A story of promises made and promises kept.

Whether it was Julian Bondurant's promise of educational television or a chief engineer's promise to a returning veteran.

He was good to his word.

Well, Pat was a good man and you don't want to lose a good engineer.

Besides that, by that time he was a good friend too.

♪♪♪ (female announcer) Funding for this program was made possible by... The WKNO Partners in Excellence Fund, committed to presenting quality programming.

And also by members like you.

Thank you.