page_title: South Carolina Educational Television
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: South Carolina Educational Television / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of the first SCETV broadcast from Dreher High School in 1958
context_page_description: South Carolina Educational Television is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service member television stations serving the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is owned and operated by the South Carolina Educational Television Commission, an agency of the state government which holds the licenses for all of the PBS member stations licensed in the state. The broadcast signals of the eleven television stations cover almost all of the state, as well as parts of North Carolina and Georgia.
  The network's primary operations are located on George Rogers Boulevard in Columbia, across from Williams-Brice Stadium on the campus of the University of South Carolina; SCETV operates satellite studios in Spartanburg, Sumter and Rock Hill.
context_section_description: The state network began in 1957, after the South Carolina General Assembly authorized a study in the use of instructional television in the state's public schools. A studio was opened in the library of Dreher High School in Columbia. The first telecourses (a French course taught by Madame Lucille Turney-High and a geometry course taught by Cornelia Turnbull) aired on September 8, 1958 via closed circuit television. By action of the South Carolina General Assembly, The South Carolina ETV Commission was created as a state agency and began operations on July 1, 1960, and by 1962 it extended closed-circuit, classroom television service to all 46 South Carolina counties.
  In 1963, the Commission launched the first open-circuit (broadcast) educational station in South Carolina, WNTV in Greenville. One year later, WITV in Charleston signed on. Two years later, WRLK-TV in Columbia, made its debut. The network grew to eleven television transmitters covering all of the state. After years of receiving NET and PBS programs on tape delay, it entered PBS' satellite network in 1978. In 2000, SCETV broadcast the first digital television program in the state. Since 2003, the state network identifies on-air as simply "ETV."
  The Commission entered public radio in 1972, when WEPR in Clemson signed on the air (WEPR later moved its city of license to Greenville). The state radio network eventually expanded to eight stations and was called the South Carolina Educational Radio Network (SCERN) until 2003, when it was renamed ETV Radio. While "ETV" generally refers to television, SCETV viewed "ETV" as a general brand name for both its radio and television properties. In 2015, however, the radio network rebranded as South Carolina Public Radio.
  R. Lynn Kalmbach was selected as the network's project director in 1958 and led it until his death in 1965. Henry J. Cauthen became ETV's president and general manager and served in numerous leadership roles developing American public broadcasting, including chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Cauthen retired in 1997. Paul Amos took the helm as ETV's third president in 1998 until his death in 2000. Maurice "Moss" Bresnahan joined ETV as president and CEO from 2001 to 2008. David Crouch served as interim president in 2009. Linda O'Bryon served as president from 2010 to 2017. Anthony Padgett is the current president and CEO.
caption: SCETV's first telecast in 1958, from Dreher High School.
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