Seventy years ago, on Nov. 1, 1954, Nebraska Public Media’s first television station flickered on the air with black and white images.
With borrowed cameras, microphones and other television equipment, a fledgling crew produced three hours of live morning television each weekday, in a studio space shared with commercial station KOLN in Lincoln. The station offered a vision for a new kind of entertainment that would inform and educate Nebraskans.
“I am honored to carry forward a legacy of service and innovation that has connected our communities for 70 years. Together, we will continue to inspire, inform and engage audiences across the great state of Nebraska and beyond,” said Nebraska Public Media General Manager/CEO Stacey Decker, who began work this month as just the fourth general manager in the network’s history.
In 1956, a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation funded the renovation of a studio in the basement of the Temple Building at 12th and R streets on the University of Nebraska' City Campus. From there, the station, then called KUON to reflect its license with the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, produced dozens of local programs, including “Yesterday in Nebraska,” “House and Home,” “Your Unicameral” and “Backyard Farmer.”
KUON also produced hundreds of classroom instructional television programs and local sports programming beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Jack McBride was the first employee and first general manager of the network. For 43 years, he pioneered television, cable, satellite and interactive technologies, developing the nation’s seventh public television station into a multimedia production center. He secured funding from the Nebraska Legislature for a statewide educational television network in 1963 and a state-of-the-art technology facility in 1969.
In the 1970s, the network’s program production hit its stride, including the production of “Anyone for Tennyson?” The poetry series premiered on 110 PBS stations and continued for three television seasons with Broadway and Hollywood stars such as Valerie Harper, William Shatner, Henry Fonda, LaVar Burton and Jack Lemmon. In 1972, “Backyard Farmer” was the network’s first local series to be broadcast in color.
Nebraska Public Media was first to broadcast Nebraska volleyball to a statewide audience on Oct. 25, 1980, and in 1983, the children’s television program “Reading Rainbow,” co-produced by the network-based Great Plains National and Buffalo’s WNED, premiered nationally on PBS, cementing the Nebraska network’s commitment to early learning.
In 1988, the Nebraska Legislature appropriated funds to build a statewide public radio service. Public radio station KUCV was gifted to Nebraska Public Media by Union College and its studios and staff were relocated from the college to the network facilities. With successful grassroots fundraising efforts across the state, just three years later, the nine-station public radio network was dedicated. The arts and humanities radio series “Live From The Mill Statewide” began broadcasts from downtown Lincoln in 1997.
During the 1990s, local television and sports production reached new heights and in 1999, the legislature approved $43.9 million to fund the federally-mandated digital conversion of the network’s radio and television transmitters.
In the 2000s, more changes in technology created ways for the network to connect with audiences that its founders never imagined, including a growing presence on social media, streaming and digital platforms such as YouTube. The local sports series “Big Red Wrap-Up” was the network’s first to be broadcast on social media with a Facebook Live event in 2018.
Recognizing opportunities in emerging technology, the network established Nebraska Public Media Labs in 2016 to explore the next generation of public media.
Throughout its history, Nebraska Public Media has steadily increased its commitment to local news with series such as “Statewide,” which first aired on television in 1993 and “Nebraska Nightly” which began in 1991 on radio. Today, the “Speaking of Nebraska” news series explores issues that are important to Nebraskans and a growing team of award-winning local reporters is covering news across the state.
To increase capacity for in-depth and investigative reporting, Nebraska Public Media has been a leader in collaborative journalism, including participation in Harvest Public Media and The Midwest Newsroom. These partnerships with public media stations in the Midwest and NPR leverage resources and fill the need for independent journalism.
During the 2020 pandemic, Nebraska Public Media produced a series of 10 live town hall meetings with state leaders such as then Gov. Pete Ricketts, physicians from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and representatives from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and the Nebraska Department of Education. The network also launched an At-Home Learning Service on the WORLD television channel.
In 2024, the alternative news publications “The Reader” and “El Perico” digital properties became services of Nebraska Public Media when Publisher John Heaston gifted them to the network. Also this year, Nebraska Public Media was awarded a national Ready To Learn grant to expand work with multilingual families in underserved areas, helping prepare young children for success in school.
