The Vision

When the network’s original station WUNC-TV – Channel 4 in Chapel Hill – signed on the air January 8, 1955 as North Carolina’s first “educational station” and the tenth in the nation, no one could foresee the statewide public television network it would become. The pioneers who were instrumental in getting the station off the ground had to overcome more than a few obstacles just to turn the dream of “educational TV” into a reality in North Carolina.

That opening night featured a sports telecast of the freshman and varsity basketball games between North Carolina and Wake Forest. To get a camera in, the production crew had to cut a hole in the second story of Woolen gymnasium. (For the record, Carolina won 95 to 78.)

UNC alumnus Kay Kiser

Behind the historic effort to make that broadcast possible were three visionaries – William C. “Billy” Carmichael, Jr., University Vice President for Finance; Kay Kyser, a dedicated Carolina alumnus, and famous band leader; and William Friday, then assistant to the Consolidated University President, Gordon Gray. These men realized the potential of this new medium to reach beyond the boundaries of academic campuses with education for all ages, and when the Federal Communications Commission offered eight channels in North Carolina for non-commercial broadcasters in 1952, they recognized the opportunity before them.

President Gray convened a conference of deans and directors from Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Greensboro more>>