By:  Coleman                                           H.R. No. 648
       73R8946 KMP-D
                                  R E S O L U T I O N
    1-1        WHEREAS, Houston public television station KUHT will
    1-2  commemorate its 40th anniversary on May 25, 1993, and this
    1-3  momentous event will mark a significant milestone in the history of
    1-4  American broadcasting; and
    1-5        WHEREAS, The world's first educational television station,
    1-6  KUHT signed on the air at 5 p.m. on May 25, 1953, introducing the
    1-7  citizens of Houston to the limitless potential of the television
    1-8  medium to educate, inform, and instruct viewers and to stimulate
    1-9  discussion of important local, regional, and national issues; and
   1-10        WHEREAS, Under the auspices of the University of Houston,
   1-11  today the station's sole licensee, KUHT quickly became a local
   1-12  institution; live telecasts of college courses over its airwaves
   1-13  enabled students to earn credit at night and, at the same time,
   1-14  alleviated overcrowding in university classrooms; and
   1-15        WHEREAS, Live programming in the early days was both
   1-16  innovative and popular and included newscasts, talk magazine shows,
   1-17  and live presentations of student sports, music, and drama events;
   1-18  the broadcasts of local school board meetings were especially
   1-19  successful, attaining more than 100,000 viewers and fostering
   1-20  unprecedented participation in local educational and political
   1-21  issues; and
   1-22        WHEREAS, American public television's strong legacy of
   1-23  documentary filmmaking can be traced to the early efforts of KUHT,
   1-24  which by 1954 was winning nationwide acclaim for its films on Texas
    2-1  history, traditions, and institutions; and
    2-2        WHEREAS, During the 1960s, the station boosted its signal
    2-3  range to become a major force in the Houston-Galveston media market
    2-4  and acquired advanced broadcasting technology; moreover, the
    2-5  visionary producers at KUHT pioneered many of the formats that
    2-6  today dominate public and cable television airwaves, including the
    2-7  medical news update, the "live town hall meeting," and the local
    2-8  political forum; and
    2-9        WHEREAS, This innovative station again took the lead when, in
   2-10  1969, the newly created Corporation for Public Broadcasting began
   2-11  to distribute both programming and funding to local public
   2-12  television stations throughout the United States; the high cost of
   2-13  airing these new national programs prompted KUHT to establish the
   2-14  Association for Community Television, a board of Houstonians who
   2-15  organized tele-auctions, membership drives, and other fund-raising
   2-16  activities; and
   2-17        WHEREAS, By 1978 the station was reaching nearly 300,000
   2-18  households and ranked 14th in the nation among 270 public
   2-19  television stations, and during the next decade it instituted a
   2-20  wide range of programs and broadcast services for its expanding
   2-21  viewership; KUHT produced more local cultural and public affairs
   2-22  programs and documentaries than ever before, expanded its signal
   2-23  range with a new 2,000-foot tower, introduced descriptive video
   2-24  services for the visually impaired, and was the first Houston
   2-25  station to broadcast in high fidelity stereo; and
   2-26        WHEREAS, Poised to enter another 40 years of community
   2-27  partnership, KUHT has embarked on a campaign to raise $12 million
    3-1  for a new state-of-the-art broadcast facility; the station is
    3-2  already looking forward to the needs of Southeast Texas during the
    3-3  21st century and plans to introduce new educational and information
    3-4  services that use fiber optics, telephone lines, cable outlets, and
    3-5  high-definition technology; and
    3-6        WHEREAS, A pioneer in the broadcasting field for four
    3-7  decades, KUHT has fulfilled the promise of public television by
    3-8  entertaining, enlightening, and informing its viewers, and its many
    3-9  exceptional accomplishments are indeed worthy of special
   3-10  legislative recognition; now, therefore, be it
   3-11        RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 73rd Texas
   3-12  Legislature hereby congratulate Houston public television station
   3-13  KUHT on the occasion of its 40th anniversary and commend its
   3-14  employees and volunteers for their outstanding contributions to the
   3-15  community of Houston and the State of Texas; and, be it further
   3-16        RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
   3-17  prepared for the staff of television station KUHT as an expression
   3-18  of highest esteem by the Texas House of Representatives.