Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Encyclopedia
The Vanderbilt Television News Archive, founded in August 1968, maintains a library of televised network news programs. Located in Nashville, Tennessee
, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive is a unit of the Vanderbilt University
Libraries.
Televised coverage of major news events preserved in the Archive's collection includes:
Individuals may request loans of broadcasts or selected items from the Archive’s collection for reference, study, classroom instruction, and research. Borrowers pay fees for the items loaned to cover the costs of providing this service. The requested items are loaned as DVDs or VHS tapes, which must be returned to the Archive by the end of the loan period.
Due to copyright considerations, access to streaming video is available only to a limited audience, and only for certain portions of the collection (currently CNN and NBC). Only individuals associated with subscribing colleges and universities can view streaming video content. Visitors to the Archive can view all content from the Archive's collection.
.
As the project grew, Simpson succeeded in finding private funding to sustain the Archive beyond its initial three-month trial period. Jim Pilkington was hired as the Archive’s first administrator, and a Ford Foundation
grant made possible the abstracting and indexing of each news broadcast for inclusion in the Archive’s former monthly publication, “Television News Index and Abstracts.”
Broadcasts prior to 1963 were recorded in black & white on Ampex 1-inch type A video tape recorders. Beginning in 1963, news programs were recorded in color on 3/4 inch U-matic
cassettes. Currently the broadcasts are recorded as mpeg2, and nearly all the programs recorded in other formats have been digitally converted to that format.
Not every newscast since 1948 is available in the Archive, however, due mostly to circumstances beyond the Archive's control. Until the 1980s or so, the recordings were made off-air from Nashville's network television affiliates. Because of this, some weekend newscasts from 1968 until that time were not broadcast on the local stations due to station programming practices. For example, NBC affiliate WSM-TV, now WSMV, did not show the Saturday evening NBC newscast until December 1978 because of the station's tradition of carrying syndicated
country music
shows in the 5:30 p.m. Central Time slot on that day of the week. NBC did not in fact begin a Saturday newscast until January 1969, and the Sunday bulletin started in August 1970; WSM did clear the Sunday broadcast, though. Also, CBS affiliate WLAC (WTVF
after 1975), from September 1971 until December 1978, did not carry the Saturday CBS Evening News
, in order to broadcast local news and Hee Haw
, a syndicated country music program that was produced at the WLAC/WTVF studios, between 5:30 and 7 p.m.
On the network level, between September 1971 and January 1976, CBS did not air a Sunday newscast because that hour was reserved for 60 Minutes
, between 5 and 6 p.m. Central. Except for a one-year experiment on Saturdays between July 1975 and June 1976, ABC (local affiliate WNGE, now WKRN) did not begin airing newscasts on Sunday evenings until January 1979 and Saturday evenings until January 1985. Other than those occurrences, most of the weekend pre-emptions were (and still are) due to coverage of sporting events such as college and professional football
and golf
, protected contractually from being interrupted before their endings (see "Heidi Game
" for explanation).
In a number of cases, because of the convergence of pre-emptions on all three (historic) local network affiliates, some dates on weekends, again mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, have no newscasts at all available in the Archive. Prior to the 1980s, affiliate pre-emption of weekend network newscasts was quite common in many other medium-to-small-sized U.S. media markets, not just Nashville.
On several occasions, malfunctions of either the television set or the Ampex recorder caused a tape to have serious video or audio problems. In some cases, no recording could be made, explaining some of the weeknight date gaps in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the oldest tapes in the collection, mainly between 1968 and 1973, suffered varying degrees of loss of picture quality due to natural deterioration before they were digitized in the 2000s.
With a few exceptions, the Archive does not include recordings of documentaries and magazine shows such as 60 Minutes
and Dateline NBC
, because they typically are not concerned with immediate issues and events. They are thus considered by the Archive not to fall under the category of newscasts.
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive is a unit of the Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
Libraries.
Collection
The Archive’s collection consists of more than 40,000 hours of video content, including:- The daily news broadcasts of ABC, CBSCBS Evening NewsCBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
and NBCNBC Nightly NewsNBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
from 1948 to the present - A daily one hour CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
news program beginning in 1995 - A daily one hour Fox NewsFox News ChannelFox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
program beginning in 1996 - The weeknight broadcasts of Nightline by ABC, beginning in 1981
- The networks’ televised coverage of live presidential speeches, press conferences, summit meetings, and other events
- The networks’ televised coverage of live presidential election-related events, including debates, political conventions and election night coverage
Televised coverage of major news events preserved in the Archive's collection includes:
- The Vietnam WarVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, 1968–1975 - President Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
’s 1972 trip to ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture... - The Watergate hearings preceding the resignation of President Richard Nixon
- The 1979-81 Iran hostage crisisIran hostage crisisThe Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...
- The 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald ReaganReagan assassination attemptThe Reagan assassination attempt occurred on Monday, March 30, 1981, just 69 days into the presidency of Ronald Reagan. While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr...
- The 1986 Iran-Contra Hearings
- The 1989 San Francisco earthquake
- The 1991 Persian Gulf WarGulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
- The 1991 Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill HearingsClarence Thomas Supreme Court nominationOn July 1, 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States to replace Thurgood Marshall, who had announced his retirement...
- The 1999 impeachment of President Bill ClintonImpeachment of Bill ClintonBill Clinton, President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice on December 19, 1998, but acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of...
- The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001
- The United States' military operations in AfghanistanWar in Afghanistan (2001–present)The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
from 2001 to the present - The 2003 Iraq War
- The ChallengerSpace Shuttle Challenger disasterThe Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
and ColumbiaSpace Shuttle ColumbiaSpace Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it completed 27 missions before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 near the end of its 28th, STS-107. All seven crew...
space shuttle disasters of 1986 and 2003
Internet database and public access
The Archive maintains an on-line database, http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu, of abstracts and catalog records for most of the programs in its collection, which can be browsed or searched by subject, date and network.Individuals may request loans of broadcasts or selected items from the Archive’s collection for reference, study, classroom instruction, and research. Borrowers pay fees for the items loaned to cover the costs of providing this service. The requested items are loaned as DVDs or VHS tapes, which must be returned to the Archive by the end of the loan period.
Due to copyright considerations, access to streaming video is available only to a limited audience, and only for certain portions of the collection (currently CNN and NBC). Only individuals associated with subscribing colleges and universities can view streaming video content. Visitors to the Archive can view all content from the Archive's collection.
History
The Vanderbilt Television News Archive was founded by Paul Simpson, a Nashville businessman, who in 1968 recognized a need to preserve the daily news broadcasts of the three major television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. Simpson approached Vanderbilt University with his idea, and worked with members of the Vanderbilt administration to establish a pilot project at Vanderbilt's library. Recording began on August 5, 1968 to coincide with that year's Republican National Convention1968 Republican National Convention
The 1968 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Dade County, Florida, from August 5 to August 8, 1968....
.
As the project grew, Simpson succeeded in finding private funding to sustain the Archive beyond its initial three-month trial period. Jim Pilkington was hired as the Archive’s first administrator, and a Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
grant made possible the abstracting and indexing of each news broadcast for inclusion in the Archive’s former monthly publication, “Television News Index and Abstracts.”
Collection characteristics
All Archive recordings have a network/time/date line added near the top of the picture to facilitate retrieval of specific news items.Broadcasts prior to 1963 were recorded in black & white on Ampex 1-inch type A video tape recorders. Beginning in 1963, news programs were recorded in color on 3/4 inch U-matic
U-matic
U-matic is an analog recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opposed to the various Reel-to-Reel or open-reel formats of the...
cassettes. Currently the broadcasts are recorded as mpeg2, and nearly all the programs recorded in other formats have been digitally converted to that format.
Not every newscast since 1948 is available in the Archive, however, due mostly to circumstances beyond the Archive's control. Until the 1980s or so, the recordings were made off-air from Nashville's network television affiliates. Because of this, some weekend newscasts from 1968 until that time were not broadcast on the local stations due to station programming practices. For example, NBC affiliate WSM-TV, now WSMV, did not show the Saturday evening NBC newscast until December 1978 because of the station's tradition of carrying syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
shows in the 5:30 p.m. Central Time slot on that day of the week. NBC did not in fact begin a Saturday newscast until January 1969, and the Sunday bulletin started in August 1970; WSM did clear the Sunday broadcast, though. Also, CBS affiliate WLAC (WTVF
WTVF
WTVF is the CBS-affiliated television station for Middle Tennessee that is licensed to Nashville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 5 from a transmitter north of downtown along I-24. Owned by Landmark Media Enterprises, the station has studios on James Robertson Parkway...
after 1975), from September 1971 until December 1978, did not carry the Saturday CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
, in order to broadcast local news and Hee Haw
Hee Haw
Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being...
, a syndicated country music program that was produced at the WLAC/WTVF studios, between 5:30 and 7 p.m.
On the network level, between September 1971 and January 1976, CBS did not air a Sunday newscast because that hour was reserved for 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, between 5 and 6 p.m. Central. Except for a one-year experiment on Saturdays between July 1975 and June 1976, ABC (local affiliate WNGE, now WKRN) did not begin airing newscasts on Sunday evenings until January 1979 and Saturday evenings until January 1985. Other than those occurrences, most of the weekend pre-emptions were (and still are) due to coverage of sporting events such as college and professional football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, protected contractually from being interrupted before their endings (see "Heidi Game
Heidi Game
The Heidi Game or Heidi Bowl was an American football game played on November 17, 1968. The home team, the Oakland Raiders, defeated the New York Jets, 43–32. The game is remembered for its exciting finish, as Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final minute to overcome a 32–29 New York lead...
" for explanation).
In a number of cases, because of the convergence of pre-emptions on all three (historic) local network affiliates, some dates on weekends, again mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, have no newscasts at all available in the Archive. Prior to the 1980s, affiliate pre-emption of weekend network newscasts was quite common in many other medium-to-small-sized U.S. media markets, not just Nashville.
On several occasions, malfunctions of either the television set or the Ampex recorder caused a tape to have serious video or audio problems. In some cases, no recording could be made, explaining some of the weeknight date gaps in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the oldest tapes in the collection, mainly between 1968 and 1973, suffered varying degrees of loss of picture quality due to natural deterioration before they were digitized in the 2000s.
With a few exceptions, the Archive does not include recordings of documentaries and magazine shows such as 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
and Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
, because they typically are not concerned with immediate issues and events. They are thus considered by the Archive not to fall under the category of newscasts.