For most local television news footage from the late 1940s to the 1970s it is already too late to do anything…

Extant collections scattered around the nation in public archives are in a kind of holding pattern.


While they may not be destroyed, it is far from certain by any means that they will be preserved.

Report of the Librarian of Congress. October, 1997

Overview

Efforts to establish a national plan for television preservation began in 1976 with the passage of the American Radio and TV Archives Act, which charged the Library of Congress to establish and maintain an American Television and Radio Archives (ATRA). The ATRA’s efforts, however, focused largely on network-produced content vs. local broadcasting material. 

Over the next forty years,
local television archivists, affiliate representatives, and educators repeatedly reported on the destruction of regional American broadcasting, reaching out to networks and affiliates alike to prioritize preservation and/or donation of their historical content. As a result, many collections were literally saved from the dumpster, but advocacy and outreach intending to create substantive change failed.

Timeline

1975: American Radio and TV Archives Act

1984-1987: National Center for Film and Video Preservation

1987: Local TV Preservation Conference (Sponsored by National Historic Records and Publications Commission)

1997: Report of the Librarian of Congress on Television and Video Preservation

2001-2004: Association of Moving Image Archivists Local Television Task Force

2007 – present: American Archive of Public Broadcasting

2016 – present:  Association of Moving Image Archivists Local Television Task Force


Contemporary Challenges

The Association of Moving Image Archivist’s Local Television Task force estimates that:

  •  67% of local television collections held at cultural heritage institutions remain undiscoverable online.  

  • 70% of these collections are not even partially viewable online

  • Nearly 97% of these repositories lack holistic inventories or basic data on the film and video in their care, as materials were often donated in ad hoc or outright damaged condition