Sunrise Semester

Last updated
Sunrise Semester
GenreEducational
Telecourse
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons25
No. of episodes800+
Production
Production locations New York City;
New York University
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time30 minutes
Production company CBS
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseSeptember 9, 1957 (1957-09-09) –
October 1, 1982 (1982-10-01)

Sunrise Semester is an American educational television series that aired on WCBS-TV from September 1957 to October 1982 and was at first syndicated by CBS Television Film Sales. [1] It was produced in conjunction with the College of Arts and Science at New York University (when the program started, the Washington Square and University College of Arts and Science). During June, July and August, the program was known as Summer Semester. It was one of the first examples of distance learning, telecourses, or MOOCs (massive open online courses). Lecturers presented NYU credit courses in studio on a wide range of academic subjects, and these broadcast courses were offered for credit to anyone who paid the course fees. The program earned five Emmy Awards during its lifetime.

Contents

The program was so named because it was broadcast in the early morning, in New York at 6:30 a.m.

History and production

Sunrise Semester was developed by Warren A. Kraetzer, director of the Office of Radio/Television at New York University, and Sam Cook Digges, general manager of WCBS-TV, [2] and started on WCBS before becoming a syndicated program. Thomas Brophy, assistant director under Kraetzer, was the administrator of the program until his retirement in 1973, when he was succeeded by Pat Myers. [3] New York University planned the courses and provided faculty; beginning in 1963, CBS taped and distributed it to network affiliates. [4] [5] The first course was Comparative Literature 10: From Stendhal to Hemingway, taught by Floyd Zulli, Jr., an Assistant Professor of Romance Languages. [3] [6] Neil Postman taught a course, Communication, The Invisible Environment, in the Fall of 1976. [7]

After a preview broadcast at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 7, 1957, [8] the program premiered on Monday, September 23, 1957 at 6:30 a.m. in New York [9] and aired at varying early times between 5:30 and 7:30 a.m. elsewhere. [10] It consisted of two courses per semester on alternating days from Monday through Saturday, each broadcast half an hour long (90–95 hours a year). [11] [12] Initially these were broadcast live, requiring a 4:30 a.m. makeup call for the lecturer. [13] [14] After adoption by the CBS network, the three lectures for each course were taped in a single weekly session, between 11:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. The setting was an unadorned lecture room, with a chalkboard and a projector. There was no editing and no provision for retakes; [6] Myers said she advised professors who made "a horrendous goof" to "faint". [11] Payments to the instructors were too low to permit rebroadcasting or the sale of tapes under union regulations: initially instructors received $25 per broadcast. [15] NYU students at first paid a $75 fee to receive undergraduate credit for one of the courses; by 1974 this had risen to $250. Other institutions were free to use the program for their own credit courses, without payment to NYU. [16] Beginning in 1971, NYU also allowed high-school students to take the course for credit before enrolling in the university. [17] A primary source of funding was a grant from the Sperry and Hutchinson Foundation. [18]

During the summer, the program was titled Summer Semester and courses were non-credit; [10] from 1962 Rutgers University produced summer courses. [12]

In a December 1958 article, John Crosby reported that most viewers of Sunrise Semester were women between 16 and 60. [19] In the early years, NYU held a social event at which registered students could meet their instructor. [17] There were plans in the early 1980s to improve the production values of the program, but CBS canceled it in 1982 to make way for early-morning news. [10] [6] At that time, according to the network, only 42 affiliates carried the program. [20]

Awards and reception

Sunrise Semester won five Emmy Awards in its first two years. [6] [21]

Zulli's first course, viewable only in New York, had 74,000 viewers in the first week, 120,000 by the end of the semester. [6] 150 students enrolled for credit, and bookstores sold out of Stendhal 's The Red and the Black . [22] Jack Gould in The New York Times called it "a refreshing and civilized hit" and praised the instructor's "[lack of] condescension" and "carefully controlled ...theatrical[ity]". [23] In the mid-1970s, 85 CBS stations were carrying the broadcast, and NYU believed there were up to a million viewers. [24] Variety called Zulli's course "the first unquestioned hit show of the 1957 television season". [6] CBS did not permit advertising during the program, but the slots before and after it were popular with advertisers. [2]

Sunrise Semester has been described as "a kind of primitive form of a ... MOOC"; in 1962 The New York Times ran a featured article on a housewife who had completed a bachelor's degree at NYU including 54 out of 128 credits from Sunrise Semester courses. [12] Sunrise Semester was cited in a 2021 article in the Smithsonian magazine as setting the stage for widespread distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Early Show</i> American breakfast television program

The Early Show is an American morning television show that aired on CBS from November 1, 1999 to January 7, 2012, and the ninth attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1954. The program aired Monday through Friday from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m., although a number of affiliates either pre-empted or tape-delayed the Saturday edition. The program originally broadcast from the General Motors Building in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Postman</span> American media theorist and cultural critic (1931–2003)

Neil Postman was an American author, educator, media theorist and cultural critic, who eschewed digital technology, including personal computers, mobile devices, and cruise control in cars, and was critical of uses of technology, such as personal computers in school. He is best known for twenty books regarding technology and education, including Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), Conscientious Objections (1988), Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992), The Disappearance of Childhood (1982) and The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995).

Charles Osgood Wood III, known professionally as Charles Osgood, is an American radio and television commentator, writer and musician. Osgood is best known both for being the host of CBS News Sunday Morning, a role he held for over 22 years from April 10, 1994, until September 25, 2016, as well as The Osgood File, a series of daily radio commentaries he hosted from 1971 until December 29, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WNYW</span> Fox flagship station in New York City

WNYW is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship WWOR-TV. Both stations share studios at the Fox Television Center on East 67th Street in Manhattan's Lenox Hill neighborhood, while WNYW's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.

WCBS-TV is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station WLNY-TV. Both stations share studios within the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, while WCBS-TV's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WLNY-TV</span> Independent TV station in Riverhead, New York

WLNY-TV is an independent television station licensed to Riverhead, New York, United States, serving the New York City television market. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS flagship WCBS-TV. Both stations share studios within the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, while WLNY-TV's transmitter is located in Ridge, New York.

KYW-TV is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG. Both stations share studios on Hamilton Street north of Center City, Philadelphia, while KYW-TV's transmitter is located in the city's Roxborough section.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCBS (AM)</span> All-news radio station in New York City

WCBS is a radio station licensed to New York, New York and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. WCBS's studios are located in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of lower Manhattan and its transmitter is located on High Island in the Bronx. Its 50,000-watt clear channel signal can be heard at night throughout much of the eastern United States and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCBS-FM</span> Classic hits radio station in New York City

WCBS-FM is a radio station offering a classic hits format licensed to New York City and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Manhattan, and its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

<i>Today in New York</i> Local television morning show on WNBC in New York City

Today in New York is a local morning news and entertainment television program airing on WNBC, an NBC owned-and-operated television station in New York City. The program is broadcast each weekday morning from 4:00 to 7 a.m. Eastern Time, immediately preceding NBC's Today. Weekend editions of the program also air on Saturdays in two one-hour blocks from 6 to 7 a.m. and 9 to 10 a.m.; and on Sundays in one two-hour block from 5:30 to 8:00 a.m. and one one-hour block from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m..

<i>Early Today</i> American TV series or program

Early Today is an American early morning television news program that is broadcast on NBC on weekday mornings. The program features general national and international news stories, financial and entertainment news, off-beat stories, national weather forecasts and sports highlights. As of 2022, it is anchored by Frances Rivera and Phillip Mena.

CBS This Morning (CTM) is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. It aired live from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in the Eastern Time Zone. On weekdays, it aired on a tape-delay in the Central and Mountain Time Zones; stations in the Pacific, Alaska and Hawaii Time Zones received an updated feed with a specialized opening and updated live reports. Stations outside the Eastern Time Zone carried the Saturday broadcast at varied times. It was the tenth distinct morning news-features program format that CBS has aired since 1954, having replaced The Early Show on January 9, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CBS Broadcast Center</span> Television studios in Manhattan, New York

The CBS Broadcast Center is a television and radio production facility located on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is CBS's main East Coast production hub, similar to CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles as the West Coast hub. The Broadcast Center is one of three production facilities in Manhattan utilized by Paramount Global. The other two are the Ed Sullivan Theater, which hosts The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, along with the Times Square studios for CBS Mornings, located in the company's headquarters at One Astor Plaza.

CBS News and Stations is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of American television stations along with CBS News. As of January 2021, the division owns 28 stations: 14 are the core stations of the CBS television network, eight are aligned with The CW television network of which Paramount is a minority owner, five independent stations, and one primary-channel affiliate of the digital subchannel network Start TV. It also maintains a half-interest in Start TV, which is co-owned with Weigel Broadcasting.

Irwin Elliot Shalek, better known as Win Elliot, was an American television and radio sportscaster and game show host. He was best known for his long tenures as a play-by-play broadcaster of NHL New York Rangers and NBA New York Knicks games and host of Sports Central USA on the CBS Radio Network.

William Augustus Leonard was an American journalist and television executive who served as President of CBS News from 1979 to 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massive open online course</span> Education service on the web

A massive open online course or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive courses with user forums or social media discussions to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs), as well as immediate feedback to quick quizzes and assignments. MOOCs are a widely researched development in distance education, first introduced in 2008, that emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012, a year called the "Year of the MOOC".

Joan Murray was the first African-American woman to report the news on a major network show. She was employed by CBS in 1965 after writing a letter to CBS-TV requesting they hire her as a news broadcaster.

Continental Classroom is a U.S. educational television program that was broadcast on the NBC network five days a week in the early morning from 1958 to 1963, covering physics, chemistry, mathematics, and American government. It was targeted at teachers and college students and many institutions offered college credit for courses of which the broadcasts were the main component. The physics course was the first course in the subject available for credit nationwide and the government course was the first nationally broadcast TV course in social studies; the mathematics course has been called the first MOOC in statistics.

The Columbia Lectures in International Studies, also known as the Columbia Seminars in International Studies or as just the Columbia Seminars, was an educational television series of the early 1960s. It consisted of a series of half-hour broadcasts delivered by the faculty of Columbia University and prepared in cooperation with the university's School of International Affairs and Regional Institutes, with professors from other parts of the university also sometimes taking part. The series was produced by a commercial station, WNEW-TV Channel 5 in New York, and aired in early morning time slots on that station and others owned by Metromedia.

References

  1. ↑ "WBC Buys 'Sunrise Semester'" (PDF). Broadcasting Telecasting. April 14, 1958. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Fowler, Glenn (September 8, 1990). "Sam C. Digges, 74, Originator of CBS 'Sunrise Semester'". The New York Times .
  3. 1 2 Carlisle, Robert D. B. (1974). College Credit Through TV: Old Idea, New Dimensions. Lincoln, Nebraska: Great Plains National Instructional Television Library. pp. 53–54. OCLC   1661809.
  4. ↑ Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 415. ISBN   978-0823083152 . Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  5. ↑ "Life Guide: Educational TV". Life : 13. October 18, 1963.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shapiro, Deborah (September 15, 2015). "Archivist's Angle: The Sunrise and Sunset of 'Sunrise Semester'". NYU Alumni Connect.
  7. ↑ "Sunrise Semester begins 13th Season". Lakeland Ledger . September 19, 1976.
  8. ↑ "Television Programs: Saturday, September 7". The New York Times. September 1, 1957. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Television Programs: Monday, September 23". The New York Times. September 22, 1957. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 Hyatt, Wesley (1997). "Sunrise Semester". The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television . New York: Billboard. p.  415. ISBN   9780823083152.
  11. 1 2 Carlisle, p. 55.
  12. 1 2 3 Riddle, Randy (June 4, 2013). "MOOC Pre-History". Blog: Technology and Learning. Inside Higher Ed.
  13. ↑ Carlisle, p. 54.
  14. ↑ deLorenzi, John (November 17, 1957). "The Double-Domes Invade TV". Reading Eagle .
  15. ↑ Carlisle, pp. 53, 55.
  16. ↑ Carlisle, pp. 55–56.
  17. 1 2 McDonald, Shannon (May 13, 2014). "Sunrise Semester: Distance Learning before the Internet". The Back Table. New York University Libraries.
  18. ↑ Carlisle, p. 56.
  19. ↑ Crosby, John (December 5, 1958). "Television and Radio". Sarasota Herald-Tribune . p. 16.
  20. ↑ Hechinger, Fred M. (July 27, 1982). "About Education". The New York Times.
  21. ↑ According to Carlisle, p. 56, four.
  22. ↑ Carlisle, pp. 54–55.
  23. ↑ The New York Times, September 24, 1957, cited in Loss, Christopher P. (2012), Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the 20th Century, Politics and society in twentieth-century America, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University, p. 151, ISBN   9780691148274 , and in Carlisle, p. 54.
  24. ↑ Carlisle, p. 57.
  25. ↑ Wu, Tara (January 28, 2021). "The 1950s TV Show That Set the Stage for Today's Distance Learning". Smithsonian Magazine.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.