Museum of Television and Radio
The Museum of Television & Radio was founded by William S. Paley in 1975 to collect, preserve,
and interpret television and radio programming and to make these programs available to the public.
The Museum has an international collection of over 100,000 programs covering more than seventy-five years of television and radio
history including news, public affairs programs and documentaries, performing arts programs,children's programming, sports, comedy and
variety shows, and commercial advertising.
The collection, chosen for its artistic, cultural, and historical significance, is catalogued in a computerized library that is easily accessible to
the public.
Each year the Museum, using radio and television programs from the collection, organizes major screening
and listening series, festivals,seminars, and education classes that focus
on topics of social, historical, popular, or artistic interest. Museum festivals, which include the William S. Paley
Television Festival, Television Documentary Festival, Radio Festival, and International Children’s Television Festival,
annually celebrate these distinctive fields and recognize new achievement. Seminars feature in-person discussions
with writers, producers, directors, actors, journalists, and others involved with landmark programming.
The Museum’s collection grows through contributions from the commercial networks, studios,
the Public Broadcasting Service, cable services, local radio and television stations, advertising agencies, Internet sites, individuals, producers,
and networks from other countries. No program in the collection may be loaned or reproduced, either in whole or in part.
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