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ETV Kicks Off Year-Long Celebration of Its First 50 Years
Beginning September 1, 2009

For Immediate Release
August 13, 2009

Columbia, SC… When you think of ETV, does your mind quickly fill with memories of watching "Sesame Street," "Mister Roger's Neighborhood," "This Old House" or "NOVA"? Or perhaps you're reminded of those NPR driveway moments, when the story was so riveting, you sat in your car listening, even after you've reached home. Either way, for the last 50 years you've come to depend on ETV as your source for educational programming that both teaches and inspires—in short television and radio at its best.

But did you know that ETV began as an "experiment in education" that was broadcast solely into schools for almost the first decade of its existence? In fact, in 1958--years before PBS or NPR even existed--teachers with bee-hive hair-dos taught split infinitives, French verb conjugations and Pythagorean theorems to students in five Midlands schools from ETV's first small studio at Columbia's Dreher High School.

Deemed an overwhelming success, the General Assembly turned their experiment into a new state agency, the South Carolina Educational Television Commission, in 1960. And with that, ETV was born.

By 1963, while the hair-dos might have changed, the teachers' live broadcasts were being watched in every SC county, including 155 public high schools, 36 elementary schools, most state colleges, university extension centers and even 10 hospitals. Over the next five decades, ETV stayed on the cutting edge of broadcast and educational technology, continually expanding its audience, as well as the services it provides.

Today the statewide network has three distinct television channels and two radio formats offering a wide variety of award-wining programming to over one million households in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina. Yet remaining true to its roots, ETV still offers thousands of hours of classroom instruction and has expanded its services to schools including hundreds of hands-on technology workshops for teachers, as well as creating or extending resources such as OnePlaceSC and StreamlineSC to improve education. Additionally, ETV also provides satellite uplinks, videoconferencing, and training for everyone from university students to law enforcement officers to emergency first responders.

To celebrate all of these many accomplishments, ETV will kick off its 50th anniversary with a year of special activities and events, including everything from live events and station tours, to special programming, a redesigned Web presence—even a new look for our SCENE members magazine.

It all begins September 1, and will include:

• Special presentations of ETV Classics, programs that marked either pivotal moments or profiled key players in our state's history, or were landmark productions that helped establish ETV as one of the premiere public broadcasters in the nation.
  
  ETV Classics can be seen Sundays at 3 p.m. on ETV-HD, and in September will include the first episode of the award-winning series "Journey to Planet Earth" hosted by Matt Damon, and "Hugo: Storm of the Century," commemorating the 20th anniversary of what was at the time the most costly hurricane ever recorded.

• In between many programs, viewers can learn trivia from ETV's history, or hear from current and retired employees, as well as other VIPs who reveal some of their fondest memories from their years at ETV.

• A redesigned homepage that will not only simplify navigation across the site, but will also provide a more streamlined look. It will also feature a new video player that will make it easier to find out what's on right now and watch select programs from the PBS archives.

• A special interactive 50th Anniversary Web page featuring archival photos, a timeline of ETV's history, and even a place where visitors can share their stories about what ETV has meant to them.

Then, on September 13 from 3-7 p.m., ETV Sumter, one of the network's four regional stations, will host a family day event. The public is invited to come out, tour the station, and the set of Making It Grow!, as well as get a chance to meet-n-greet with some of their favorite ETV personalities, including:

• Mark Quinn, host of "The Big Picture"
• P. A. Bennett, host of "Connections"
• Beryl Dakers, host of many of ETV's arts and culture programs
• The "Your Day" team including horticulturist Bob Polomski and "The Bug Guys," Eric Benson and Cam Lay
• Patrick McMillan, host of "Expeditions"
• "Team Making It Grow!" including Rowland Alston, Amanda McNulty, and "Webby" Debbie Hayes

Show your love for Rowland by wearing your favorite plaid shirt that day. And fans of the eclectic "gardening hats" McNulty wears each week on the program are encouraged to wear their own flower or vegetable-adorned creations.

Children will also enjoy seeing some of their favorite fuzzy characters from the ETV Kids television lineup, including Smart Cat, the ETV Kids mascot, and Clifford the Big Red Dog and Raggs, stars of their own popular shows.

South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.

In its early days, classroom instruction was broadcast live from ETV into schools across the state. Photo courtesy of ETV.

Classroom instruction included everything from French to Algebra--even Driver's Education. Photo courtesy of ETV.

Adult education was also an early focus of ETV's distance education. Photo courtesy of ETV.

One of the early studio control rooms at ETV's Millwood Studios. Photo courtesy of ETV.