Happy Birthday WQED TV…Born April 1, 1954

On April 1, 2014 - TV History

Happy Birthday WQED TV…Born April 1, 1954

WQED was the first community-sponsored television station in the United States as well as the fifth public television station. They were the first station to telecast classes to elementary school classrooms when Pittsburgh launched the Metropolitan School Service in 1955. WQED has been the flagship station for ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ and ‘Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?’. Below is a nice shot from the 1960s of a WQED RCA TK60 with a Zoomar outboard lens created for the TK60 and Marconi Mark IV, which both had turret mounted auto iris hubs in the center of the turret making the side mount necessary.

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5 Comments

  1. Dave Jones April 2, 2014

    @Leon Zetekoff – Took a tour of the FAU studios back then. My first and only sighting of TK60! Ran into a favorite Jr. HS teacher, last name Phillips. Did you know him?

  2. Alan Gardner April 1, 2014

    very cool

  3. Grant Fletcher April 1, 2014

    I’ve worked many shows out of WQED Studio A, the home of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

  4. Leon Zetekoff April 1, 2014

    We had TK60s at FAU in Boca Raton in the mid 70s

  5. Maureen Carney April 1, 2014

    A shot of a WQED camera crew getting ready for the first night, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The caption is hard to read so I have retyped it here:

    DEBUT – Mrs. Dorothy Merchant and Frank Napier, pictured at the left, posed with a rabbit that will appear on Animal Alphabet over WQED, the educational TV station going on the air for the first time at 8 tonight on channel 13. In the photo at the right, Cameramen Frank Stuckman and Walter Rechenberg and Program Director Edward Wegener (left to right) talk over camera angles as all hands at the new station get ready for the first show. The inaugural show will be aired tonight, but regular broadcasting will not start until Monday. Animal Alphabet will start next Tuesday.