Early in the development of radio, many groups and individuals realized the value of broadcasting for educational and non-commercial purposes. But commercial interests dominated radio and not until 1940 did the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reserve FM frequencies for education. When television allocations were set in 1952, Indianapolis received two educational channels, 20 and 69.
However, radio and television in Indianapolis were used for education long before there were local stations established for this purpose. As early as 1938, Indiana University produced programs for AM station featuring various departments of the university (although the first program was a delayed broadcast of an IU basketball game). For more than 10 years, the university presented programs on state history as well as world issues. In the early 1940s, , , and WIRE, in cooperation with Indianapolis Public Schools, presented programs directly to elementary schools and later to high school students.
In the early days of television, broadcast programs produced through Butler University, while (later Channel 4) developed a relationship with Indiana University. Channel 6 also took part in a project with magazine, “Life Goes to School,“ a ten-part series that took a closer look inside some of the Indianapolis public schools.
Purdue University became involved with educational TV in Indianapolis in 1961 through the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI). MPATI was based at Purdue and provided instructional programs to schools in six states by using transmitters on two DC-6 airplanes that circled over Montpelier, Indiana. The program, plagued by high costs, ended in 1968.
(IPS) started its own radio station, , in 1954. Originally housed at , the station moved to the IPS Center for Instructional Radio and Television southeast of downtown in 1969. The station helped train students and also carried specialty programs, including classical music from the Fine Arts Society of Indianapolis. WIAN also became a National Public Radio affiliate in 1971. In 1985 IPS determined that WIAN was too expensive to operate and decided to sell the station. Although offered $1 million for the facility, IPS transferred WIAN to public television station Channel 20, and the call letters were changed to WFYI-FM.
, Channel 20, the city’s first noncommercial TV station, overcame numerous obstacles to begin broadcasting in October, 1970. In the late 1960s, , president of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) spearheaded efforts to put the station on the air. Attempts to tie Channel 20 to new transmitter locations for Channel 4, and then Channel 8, actually delayed the station because the FCC rejected both tower moves. After a group of women led by raised almost $300,000 in the summer of 1970, went on the air from a studio at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (now ) with the tower furnished by Channel 6.
The city’s oldest university-owned radio station, , started in 1962. The station operated in conjunction with the school’s communications department and was home to the Fine Arts Society’s classical programming since 1983.
The city’s first educational station was also its first FM station. (FM 91.9, then 104.5), licensed to the (which later became part of Butler University), began a limited schedule in September 1949. WAJC provided training to students in the Department of Radio and Television and added programming from National Public Radio in 1982. The station was also the local outlet for Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. After putting a television station on the air, Butler shifted the emphasis of its department and in 1993 sold WAJC to Susquehanna Broadcasting, owner of .
Butler had been interested in television since the late 1950s and considered applying for the Channel 20 license in 1961. However, the university waited until the 1980s to file for the city’s second educational channel, 69. WTBU began operating in June 1992.
In the 1960s and 1970s, four of the suburban school districts in Marion County started their own radio stations and added classes in broadcasting. The oldest of these is Ben Davis High School’s WBDG (FM 90.9), which went on the air in 1965. Warren Central’s WEDM (FM 91.1), operating from the Walker Career Center, followed five years later. In 1975 Washington Township’s WJEL (FM 89.3) started from the J. Everett Light Career Center at North Central High School. The Warren and Washington township programs were vocational, while Ben Davis maintained an academic program. Students from the respective schools staffed the stations, with juniors and seniors usually in charge. Faculty members oversaw the operations. In addition to school news, all the stations broadcasted their school’s basketball and football games. Franklin Township’s WRET (FM 91.5) began in 1978. Carmel High School in Hamilton County also had a broadcast department which oversaw a 400-watt, 24 hour per day student-run radio station (WHJE, FM 91.3, established August 16, 1963) and a television station airing local public information programs on the Carmel cable television system.
By the 1990s, IPS no longer operated a radio station but still offered vocational training in television. Some production was done at the Center for Instructional Television, while opened its own facility in the fall of 1993. In addition, other instructional programs were offered through a closed circuit network linking all IPS schools. IPS also made use of the cable educational access channels available on both the Comcast and American Cablevision systems. A federally funded program, “Homework Hotline,” featured teachers dealing with homework problems in all subjects.
*Note: This entry is from the original print edition of the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis (1994). We are currently seeking an individual with knowledge of this topic to update this entry.
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