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O. Leonard Press (November 10, 1921 – July 31, 2019), also known simply as Len Press, was a radio and television broadcaster, producer, and college professor. He is best known for envisioning a state network of educational television stations in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Press is mainly known as the founder and creator of the Kentucky Educational Television (KET) network.[3]
O. Leonard Press | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 10, 1921[1] Lowell, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | July 31, 2019 Lexington, Kentucky, United States |
| Education | Boston University |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1952–1992 |
| Spouse |
Lilian Henken Press (m. 1951) |
| Children | Lowell Press[2] |
Before moving to Kentucky, Press had developed the National Press Club's weekly radio broadcast, which went on to run for about 50 years. He also produced radio and television advertising spots for his alma mater, Boston University, following his reception of his master's degree in communications.
Upon arriving as a professor at the University of Kentucky in 1952, Press also became the head of the university's radio broadcasting department, which has been operating WBKY radio (91.3 MHz, now WUKY), the oldest educational FM radio station in the United States, for much of its life on the air.[4] In addition to managing WBKY until 1963,[4]: 165 his first Kentucky-based production was a holiday-themed program called Christmas in the Mountains for Louisville's WHAS radio. Press also filmed Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball games for then-head coach Adolph Rupp during the mid- to late-1950s.[1]
While teaching at the university, Press, along with two of his colleagues, went into consideration of founding and starting an educational television station that would originate at the university. The motivation came from the fact that his production of an anthropology telecourse, one of the nation's first-ever telecourses, that aired on Boston's then-NBC affiliate WBZ-TV (now a CBS Owned-and-operated station) in the mid-1950s had positive reviews. That, and another telecourse, had positive reviews across the nation, including one that appeared in Variety magazine.
Creating the network
The attempt to start a university-based television station failed for Press, but he and his colleagues decided to envision and create something bigger; a multi-station statewide educational television network to serve the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, inspired by pre-existing statewide ETV networks in Alabama, Georgia and both Carolinas. His intention was for the network to air simultaneously through more than a dozen separate television stations throughout the state, including in areas that were not served over-the-air by any commercial television stations at the time.[5] The inspiration of creating the network was realized by Press when he visited areas of eastern Kentucky; for example, during that trip, he learned of the fact that the Cordia-based Lott's Creek Community School had no accreditation, nor did they ever receive state funds, from that school's founder and director Alice Stone.[6]
Press spent more than a decade traveling throughout the state of Kentucky to pitch his idea of a statewide network, starting with his address to the Rotary Club in Frankfort, which spawned a news story that was published in an early 1959 edition of The Courier-Journal in Louisville. Press then received support from officials from the University of Kentucky, and then a short meeting with then-Kentucky Governor Bert T. Combs turned into a proposal to start the ETV network in Kentucky. Press was then appointed as executive director of the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television when the proposal passed legislation by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1962. Three years later in 1965, Ashland Oil founder Paul G. Blazer personally acquired the first thirteen transmitter sites needed for the network, and donated them to the Authority. This resulted in including the state network being included in the state budget for the 1968 fiscal year. O. Leonard Press' dream of a statewide network had become reality on September 23, 1968, when the Kentucky Educational Television network, initially broadcast over ten UHF stations, signed on the air for the first time.[4]: 277 Louie B. Nunn, who won the 1967 governor's election, pressed the button to put the network on the air, and then dedicated the network that same day. Within the next thirteen years, four more stations, plus at least six low-power translators signed on to become part of the network. In the mid-1970s, former commercial independent station WDXR-TV (now WKPD) in Paducah, whose license was donated to the network to be converted into a KET satellite, and the sign-on of a new transmitter in Owensboro, made the network's programming available on 15 stations across the state. Press served as the network's executive director for a total of 23 years, spanning from the network's 1968 inception until his retirement on June 30, 1992.[7][8]
In 1992, KET's network center and production facility in Lexington was dedicated to Press by being named the O. Leonard Press Telecommunications Center.[4]: 280 That same year, Press was also interviewed and profiled in the series finale of KET's in-house produced interview program, Distinguished Kentuckian. On the occasion of the network's 50th anniversary in 2018, the Kentucky Historical Society placed an historical marker in front of the network facilities.[9]
During the 1990s and the early 2000s, Press served as a member of the Shakertown Roundtable advisory board at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill.[10]
Press married his wife, Lilian, as a graduate student at the Boston University College of Communications. They had a son, Lowell Press.[1]
Press died at the age of 97 on July 31, 2019, at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington.[11][12] His memorial service was held at the O. Leonard Press Telecommunications Center on September 20.[2]
Books
- Press, O. Leonard (2008). The KET Story: A Personal Account. Lexington, Kentucky: The Clark Group. ISBN 978-1-883589-89-9.
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