WGBH Archives

Thanks, Keith.

Today is (probably) the 50th anniversary of the coining of the term "hypertext." It's certainly the date it first appeared in a publication, when Ted Nelson addressed the 20th National Association for Computing Machinery conference. His paper, Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate defined hypertext as “a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper..."

In May 1974, WGBH's public affairs debate series The Advocates presented the question of marriage equality on PBS stations nationwide, and as usual asked viewers to respond with their votes.

In response to the question "Should marriage between homosexuals be permitted?" THE ADVOCATES received over 6,400 votes. Of those viewers who responded 32% said yes, that same sex couples should have the same legal benefits as heterosexual couples, and a majority, 68% said no, that marriage is an important societal institution which should not be altered to fit new definitions, and it would be inappropriate to permit homosexual couples to have the privileges that heterosexual couples have.

Participants include Advocate Frank Kameny, and witness Elaine Noble who would later be the first openly gay person elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Those making use of WGBH programs are usually the advanced students.

Design mock-ups for promotion of the first Channel 2 TV Auction, held May 31–June 4, 1966.

The WGBH Auction is celebrating 50 years of "offerings for every taste and every pocket-book," and bidding is now open. Sorry, no friendly ocelot kittens this time.

WGBH-TV Channel 2 began broadcasting 60 years ago this week from Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts.

"We are hopeful it [WGBH-TV] is going to provide a kind of program that people will be interested in and will want to see and listen to, and that it will continue the age-old battle of trying to provide fitting materials for human minds that will help them grow in subtlety and penetration, and give their holders both the information, and by indirection, the moral fibre we all feel participating members of a democratic society need to have."