Oregon Public Broadcasting to Give $2 Million in Funds For Archive Project

Money to noncommercial TV and radio stations to restore and digitize content

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/14/2009 4:19:15 PM

Oregon Public Broadcasting will hand out $2 million in funds to 22 noncommercial TV and radio stations for phase two of its project to restore, digitize and archive content from the station vaults.

Phase one, which was conducted this summer, consisted of stations searching through hundreds of hours of footage, focuses on the Civil Rights Movement and World War II.

Footage from 22 stations was identified as warranting the funds, which come from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

That footage included documentaries on busing and school desegregation, the gay rights movement, the Ku Klux Klan in California, and more. In some cases, the stations say they can't be sure what is on some of the footage until it has been restored.

The American Archives is a pilot program whose goal is to make thousands of hours of broadcasts available for students, teachers and the public in general.