Boston Beacon

How does a man write a bestselling historical novel fit for a movie version? Before a Boston TV camera last week five nimble minds tossed ideas back and forth for such a book glorifying President Chester Alan Arthur, whose plain life left plenty of room for fictional embroidery. The object: to demonstrate "brainstorming" (TIME, Feb. 18), a technique of group creativity that joins a lot of brains into assault on a single problem or concept. The brainstormers--two professors, an inventor, a hospital director and Cartoonist Al Capp--also laid down some amusing spoofs, e.g., a Chinese friend comforts Arthur in a miserable boyhood moment, thus laying the groundwork for his presidential veto of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The brainstorming session took place on Laboratory, an experimental program on Boston's young (22 months) WGBH-TV, the only nonprofit educational station in the Northeast.* By insisting on distinction, and paying the occasional penalty of seeming dull, WGBH-TV has not only built up a loyal audience, but also finds ways to draw Bostonians away from the more frenetic fare of the commercial networks. It accomplishes this on a $400,000 annual budget, roughly the cost of one network spectacular. Of that amount, one fourth comes from the $3,000,000 endowment of its proud, richly endowed parent, the Lowell Institute, another fourth from local universities, museums, musical organizations. The other $200,000 comes from private contributions.

Three R's. Telecasting from an old roller-skating rink, WGBH-TV takes full advantage of its freedom from sponsors and their demands. Its leisurely, professorial pace and erratic showmanship would send Madison Avenue professionals out for triple martinis. Scheduled shows often run overtime. Between programs, instead of the hard sell there is often soft classical music.

Because of its location in the temple of the Brahmins, WGBH is top-heavy with free talent. Recent shows included lectures by Pastor Martin Niemoeller, Novelist Edwin (The Last Hurrah) O'Connor, Author-Ethnologist Oliver La Farge and Ambassador James B. Conant. British Labor Boss Hugh Gaitskell's three Harvard lectures on foreign policy were carried in full. Drama Critic Walter Kerr discussed contemporary theater with Playwright Arthur Miller. Harvard Law Professor Zechariah Chafee Jr. completed a 16-part series on the Constitution and human rights only a week before his death (TIME, Feb. 18).

Says WGBH's mild-mannered General Manager Parker Wheatley: "We are doing what commercial TV does not do. We don't insult people's intelligence and we don't scream at them. We try to govern ourselves by our three Rs: respect for the viewer, respect for the performer, and respect for the material itself."

Wheatley's boss, and topmost Brahmin around WGBH, is Ralph ("Mr. Boston") Lowell, the institute's sole trustee and perhaps the only banker who owns a show-business achievement award from Variety. Now that his operation is functioning smoothly, Benefactor Lowell finds it possible to report that through WBGH the Lowells now speak not only to the Cabots but to some thousands of Bostonians a day as well.

* WGBH is one of 18 educational TV stations in the U.S. that operate on very high-frequency channels that can be picked up on ordinary receivers. There are five others that operate on ultra high-frequency channels for which most TV sets need a special adapter.

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