Catalog, Digitize and Publish
Maine TV NEWS
Archival television collections, especially those from local or regional stations, represent a mostly unexplored resource covering the last 70 years. WABI was the first TV station in Maine, going on the air in Bangor in January 1953. By the end of 1954 four more stations were broadcasting, covering the most populated areas of the state. Although not recognized at the
time, these stations were building an unparalleled historical resource: a detailed chronicle of life
in Maine. This material provides a compelling and vivid record of everyday occurrences,
momentous events, and the evolution of our culture over the last three generations. By 1956,
with the addition of station WAGM in the far northern town of Presque Isle, the whole state was
contributing to this resource. Finally, in 1961, a public television station, WCBB, was launched,
followed by the Maine Public Broadcasting Network which shortly grew to be statewide. Public
television added a new dimension to the resource by producing programs, which allowed more
space for reflection, research, and in-depth consideration of issues and trends. Together, this
material can reveal a tremendous amount about the times we have lived through and are living
in.
Maine Television Collections Project: Catalog, Digitize and Publish the Television Collections of All Maine Stations, 1953-2008
Our prized $341,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities was abruptly terminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) April 2, 2025, shortly after midnight.
We believe the project had merit and it will be a shame if we cannot complete it. It was the largest grant the NEH gave to an organization in Maine that year. The purpose of the grant was to catalog, digitize and publish the material NHF has collected from 8 Maine television collections over the last 35 years. This project, when completed, will publish 7,822 videotapes and 306,800 feet of 16mm film from 1953 to 2008. National issues are documented in our TV collections, but so are matters of community and local interest. Local television news stories are invaluable documents of American life during the second half of the 20th century, a time of profound change.
Much has already been done and we will continue work on this project as long as we can.
Maine Television Collections Project (The early days)
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission funded conservation work on 1.5 million feet of 16mm television film and 2,260 videotapes. The Maine Television Collections Project was launched in the summer of 2000 with the hiring of Russ Van Arsdale, a former Maine broadcast journalist, as a project technician. Dwight Swanson, Andrea McCarty, and Liz Coffey assessed the condition of the films and made repairs so they could be transferred to preservation masters and reference videotapes.
“We have a lot of reels where they used masking tape and Scotch tape…” reported Dwight Swanson. Another challenge: what to do with some 300 tapes recorded on 2-inch videotape, an obsolete format. Most of the tapes contain 30- to 60-minute programs produced by Maine Public Broadcasting, among them features on Acadian music, Maine Indian tribes, and back-to-the-land pioneers Helen and Scott Nearing, had not been seen since the 1970s. “There are no 2-inch machines needed to view them in Maine,” Swanson said. The archivists did find one of the mammoth 2-inch quad machines at Vermont Educational Television.
NHF’s effort paralleled a national initiative organized by the Association of Moving Image Archivists and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The initiative, Preserving Local Television, aimed to implement a strategy for preserving and providing access to the American local television heritage.
WABI (Bangor)
650,000’ of 16mm film from 1953 to 1974
500 videotapes (1”, 3/4”, Beta) from 1988 to 1997
WCSH (Portland)
180,600’ 16mm film
339 videotapes (2”, 1”, 3/4”, VHS) from 1956 to 1989
WLBZ (Bangor)
606,700’ 16mm film
766 videotapes (2”, 3/4”, Betacam SP, VHS) from 1970 to 1993
Maine Public Broadcasting (Lewiston)
86,070’ 16mm film
1029 videotapes (2”, 1”, 3/4”) from 1964 to 1995
WGME / WGAN (Portland)
250,000’ 16mm film from 1955 to 1973
WAGM (Presque Isle)
105,000’ 16mm film from 1970 to 1992
WVII (Bangor)
126 videotapes (3/4”) from 1985 to 1996
