WMUL (WPBY) folks weren’t in it for the big bucks

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Mr. Jones
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WMUL (WPBY) folks weren’t in it for the big bucks

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http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/bri ... -big-bucks
By DAVID E. MALLOY
The Herald-Dispatch
dmalloy@herald-dispatch.com
HUNTINGTON — Dave Bond and Carol Broadtrick didn’t get into public television in West Virginia to make the big bucks.
Several dozen people were on hand Saturday afternoon at the Huntington Museum of Radio and Technology to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the on-air debut of WMUL and WPBY television, Channel 33.
“It was a lot of fun getting started,” said Bond, the station’s production and operations manager from 1968-82. “It was casual. We started out in Nitro, W.Va. It was a year or so before we moved to Smith Hall” on the campus of Marshall University.
The station was there during the Marshall University plane crash in 1970 that killed 75 members of the teams, coaches and fans. While Sesame Street was a big draw for the station, it was the taped broadcast of Marshall Thundering Herd basketball and later Marshall football games that helped bring the station to the conscience of Tri-State television viewers, according to Broadtrick, the station’s initial program director.
“There were times the games were still going when we started the tape delay broadcast,” Broadtrick said. “We had enough tape to start the broadcast and then they would bring the rest over from Fairfield Stadium.”
After the Thundering Herd started winning those football games, the public broadcasting station lost out on televising the games to the commercial stations, she said.
When the station first started airing programming, it would come on air at 4 p.m. and broadcast through 11 p.m., Broadtrick said. Over the years, the programming was extended and included locally-produced shows including “Let’s Grow Our Garden.”
“We did a lot of good, local things,” she said.
Programs were aired for students in Kanawha, Putnam, Cabell and Wayne counties, she said. “It was a tool for the teachers,” she said. “They used it for a long time.”
“We also developed a Saturday morning schedule in the mid-1970s,” Broadtrick said. “We bought old British comedies and put them on the air from 8 to 11 a.m. It took off. People loved it. We’re still doing it today.
The station’s first camera was a black and white, Bond said.
“We didn’t get color cameras for several years later,” he said. “We got a grant to get two of them. They cost $60,000 apiece.”
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