More Educational TV?

A couple of Dallas educational institutions are primping lately like young men goin’ a courtin’, casting covetous eyes on TV Channel 2 in Denton. Both the Dallas County Community College District and KERA-TV discovered the channel had been allocated to educational programming 22 years ago, back when TV was black and white and anything but educational. The Denton channel lay fallow all these years.

Both the college district and KERA want the channel transferred to Dallas for use in higher education programming. And if the transfer is approved by the Federal Communications Commission, Dallas would become the only city in the nation with two educational channels among the 13 VHF channels on the dial. The college district has $3 million in hand and a Washington law firm working toward licensing, while KERA’s board hopes to raise money for the venture and later apply for the license.



North Texas State University and Texas Women’s University would like to operate the channel out of Denton, but at the moment, neither university has the money needed to make a formal move. No matter who operates the station, presumably it will be accessible to area colleges and/or KERA for college-level programming.

Advising both the district and KERA is Dallasite A. Earl Cullum, a consulting engineer. Cullum is friends with both college ChancellorBill Priest and KERA chairmanRalph Rogers. His involvement todate has been kept quiet, but ifboth the district and KERA applyfor the license, it seems likely Cul-lum will drop out rather than choosesides.