Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Virginia Public Telecommunications Board, Records, 1962-1997. Accession 36689, State Government Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from the Virginia Public Telecommunications Board on July 1, 1999.

Historical Information

The Virginia Public Telecommunications Board had its roots in the Virginia Advisory Council on Educational Television which was formed by the General Assembly in 1962. The Council developed educational television programs and assisted in planning the required physical plants for broadcasting. With the assistance of state grants matched by local funding, facilities were constructed in Norfolk (WHRO-TV), Richmond (WCVE-TV), Roanoke (WBRA-TV), and Harrisonburg (WVPT-TV). Following a study to assess the future of the Advisory Council, the General Assembly created the Virginia Public Telecommunications Council in 1972 to assist "counties, cities and towns, the various departments, agencies, and institutions of the State, the five nonprofit educational television corporations . . . and others engaged in nonprofit educational television services, in the construction, operation, and use of telecommunications facilities, and telecommunications services and programs." Part of the Council's purpose was to create a state master plan for public telecommunications and to create a state public telecommunications network. The Master Plan for Public Telecommunications was adopted in 1973-1974.

In 1980, the General Assembly, based on recommendations by the Telecommunications Study Commission, replaced the Virginia Public Telecommunications Council with an independent Department of Telecommunications and a Virginia Public Telecommunications Board. The Board's function was to assist "the various public telecommunications entities of the Commonwealth in the construction, establishment, operation, and use of public telecommunications facilities and services." In 1984, Governor Charles Robb recommended a reorganization of the state's high technology agencies to consolidate the service activities of three independent agencies: the Department of Computer Services, the Department of Management Analysis and Systems Development, and the Department of Telecommunications. The General Assembly created the Department of Information Technology to combine these agencies. The Virginia Public Telecommunications Board currently administers grants for educational instruction and public programming, oversees planning for public telecommunications services, and recommends policies pertaining to public telecommunications to the governor.

Scope and Content Information

Includes briefing books, catalogs, correspondence, master plans, memos, minutes, newsletters, questionnaires, photographs, and reports documenting the work of the Virginia Public Telecommunications Board and its predecessors. The minutes are comprehensive and date back to the Virginia Advisory Council on Educational Television formed in 1962 and continue up to 1997. Memos are present from 1973 to 1984. A copy of the state's Master Plan for Public Telecommunications, mentioned below, can also be found. There are catalogs published by the Virginia Advisory Council on Educational Television from 1964 to 1970 which list the educational television videotaped programs for in-school instruction. The photographs are mostly images used for these catalogs. The photographs are organized by station and include images from WCVE-TV, WHRO-TV, and WETA-TV. An oversized photograph album from the Blue Ridge ETV Association shows the WBRA-TV and WVSN-TV facilities. There are briefing books from 1985 which provide a good overview of the Board and public telecommunications in Virginia. Lastly, state agency questionnaires from 1973 were used by the agency to develop its master state plan for improved public telecommunications.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically.

Organized into two boxes, the second box is oversized.