WGBH history

The station recorded its most notable achievements as a producer of programming for public broadcasting, and in 1962 WGBH unearthed what would become a fixture on television sets for decades to follow.

In 1965 the Carnegie Foundation established its Commission on Education Television to conduct a study of ETV and make recommendations for future action.

In 1966, WGBH worked with renowned cookbook… author and Cambridge restaurateur Joyce Chen to develop a series on Chinese cooking.

The year the Public Broadcasting Act was passed, Channel 44 debuted, first airing in September 1967.

1969: The Public Broadcasting Service is formed.

In 1971, WGBH licensee Channel 57, broadcasting from Springfield, Massachusetts, became part of the station's fold, the same year WGBH created its Caption Center, which introduced captioned television programs for deaf and hearing-impaired viewers.

Founded in 1978 as the Immigrant City Archives, the mission of the Lawrence History Center is to collect, preserve, share, and animate the history and heritage of Lawrence and its people.

1985: WGBH broadcasts the first transatlantic digital radio broadcast.

In 1986, WGBH and an affiliate of the ABC network, WCVB-TV, became the first stations to close-caption their newscasts on a regular basis on the local station level.

In 1990, WGBH's Descriptive Video Service (DVS) was introduced nationwide, giving blind and visually impaired viewers supplementary narration to television programs.

In 2004, WGBH added several new channels to its roster, unveiling WGBH World, WGBH Create, and 'GBH Kids.