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History of WETA

Enjoy this step through time charting WETA's history from its founding in the 1950s as an educational television station, the addition of a public radio station, and evolution into a major national producer for PBS.

 

Looking back at the history of WETA, it's clear that the Senate Watergate Committee hearings in 1973 were a watershed moment for the station and for public broadcasting.

The following video, taped in the WETA studios during breaks in the August 2009 broadcast of Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews, features Jim Lehrer of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Sharon Rockefeller, President and CEO of WETA, sharing a fascinating look back at the early days of WETA and what it was like to be in Washington in the midst of the Watergate storm.

 

Jim Lehrer, Sharon Percy Rockefeller and Paul Anthony share their memories of the David Frost's 1977 interview with President Richard Nixon.

Frost-Nixon Remembrances

Jim Lehrer and Sharon Percy Rockefeller share their remembrances of David Frost's 1977 interview with former President Richard Nixon and the impact that the Watergate hearings had on public broadcasting in America.

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