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Anyone Recall Educational TV Beamed By Airplane

C

Cincinnati Kid

Does anyone recall an attempt to provide educational TV programs to viewers in the Midwest by telecasting them from an airplane? This would have been sometime in the mid-to-late-1960's. The idea was to have video tapes of programs beamed from an airplane flying in a pattern above central Indiana over two UHF channels. Because the plane was flying at thousands of feet, it was reasoned that the signal would carry for hundreds of miles. It was noted there were a number of colleges with-in that coverage area who could make use of that service. Back then, when I read of this being attempted, I tried watching the channels here (sorry, I don't recall what the channel numbers were) and did receive a faint picture with sound that would fade in and out. Does anyone remember this?
 
I was in a Catholic grade school in southern ohio in the 1960's and watched those programs during school. The local cable system picked up the signals channel 72 and 76 and put them on their system during the day. I learned spanish and science from that system. I still remember that test pattern with the Indian chief
 
Channel 72 (experimental station callsign KS2XGA)

and

Channel 76 (KS2XGD)

Both licensed to Montpelier, IN (northeast of Hartford City and Muncie in east central Indiana) where the DC-6 aircraft flew and transmitted over.

Very low quality picture due to the aircraft switching its flying patterns often as my memory serves me...72 & 76 used to show slides depicting the direction the aircraft is flying so schools can adjust their antennas.

I still remember "Exploring with Science" and "Space Age Science" with John Burns as instructor. He made science entertaining and fun....almost like Don Herbert as Mr. Wizard. On the other hand,Arthur Eastman's "Franklin to Frost" was incredibly boorish...but hey, I was only a sixth grader then....all this plus canned Muzak,the Indian head test pattern and the slides that showed the dual station legal ID.

MPATI's transmitters went dark after the end of the 1966-67 school year. Afterward,WOET Channel 16 in Dayton (now WPTD) and WMUB-TV in Oxford, OH (now WPTO) re-ran most of MPATI's programs during the early 1970s under the SOITA (Southwestern Ohio Instructional Television Assn.) banner.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPATI

http://www.soita.esu.k12.oh.us/mpati/
 
The plane was based at Purdue airport and flew lazy 8s all day long. We watched at school and I could watch at home. Science Corner I and II were my favs.
 
jimmyherd said:
I was in a Catholic grade school in southern ohio in the 1960's and watched those programs during school. The local cable system picked up the signals channel 72 and 76 and put them on their system during the day. I learned spanish and science from that system. I still remember that test pattern with the Indian chief
Click to expand...
That would be the Indian Head TP, an icon on TV in the 50s-60s.

-crainbebo
 
My favorite by the TJB was their version of The Ventures' surf rock classic "Walk, Don't Run."

Thanks gr8 for the link.
 
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