Archives West Finding Aid

This collection comprises Murrow-related recordings of the 1973 dedication of the Murrow Communications Center, various Murrow symposia from the 1970s until 2002, and the 1994 Murrow Postage Stamp dedication ceremony. The collection consists of audio and video materials in a myriad of formats.

Reel-to-reel audio recordings preserve talks delivered at the 1973 Murrow Communications Center dedication including those by Murrow's widow Janet and the speakers at the first Murrow Symposium: CBS News commentator Eric Sevareid and Harry Ashmore, Pulitzer-Prize winning editorial writer on the 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, school desegregation and in 1973 President of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. The theme for the symposium was "Threats to the Public's Right to Know."

The next recording is a single audio cassette from the 1978 Murrow Symposium of the keynote address delivered by Richard Wald, then vice president of ABC News and former president of NBC News. That year featured Howard K. Smith of ABC News speaking about the First Amendment and broadcasting. Fifteen audio reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes preserve more of the 1979 symposium, which centered on the topic of "international rights and media news flow." Held before the Iranian hostage crisis began, the symposium featured Ted Koppel who by the end of the year anchored the nightly update on the crisis in the program that would become ABC News Nightline.

In 1980, the Murrow Symposium's theme was "Mass Media and the Political Process: Reshaping American Democracy." Seven audio cassettes record many of the talks given by regional media representatives and also a panel moderated by Richard Leonard of the Milwaukee Journal newspaper. The symposium in 1981 centered on the "information society" with PBS President Robben Fleming speaking on "The Future of Telecommunications." Three reel-to-reel audio tapes seem to preserve addresses from that symposium that were aired later as a KWSU special report.

The collection then jumps to the 1983 symposium, which marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of Murrow's birth with a program titled: "The Murrow Heritage: A Challenge for Tomorrow." Speakers included Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt, Diane Sawyer, and others but only Fred Friendly's "Socratic discussion" is preserved here on video tape. Friendly, the former president of CBS News, by that time was well known for his Socratic discussions on PBS that became the Fred Friendly Seminars.

The next recordings are video tapes from ABC News senior correspondent Bettina Gregory's 1988 Edward R. Murrow Symposium lecture entitled, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of TV News." Video recordings of FCC Chair Albert Sykes's address at the 1992 symposium and then Charles Kuralt's address in 1993 follow. At the 1996 symposium, WSU alumnus and ABC sports broadcaster Keith Jackson sat on a panel discussing inter-collegiate athletics which is preserved here on reel-to-reel video tape and cassettes.

The final symposia included are VHS recordings of Bernard Shaw's 2001 and Daniel Schorr's 2002 addresses as Murrow Award winners.

Concluding the collection, six video tapes documented the 1994 dedication at WSU of a postage stamp honoring Murrow and the media coverage of it.