UTTV (Closed-Circuit Broadcast of Classes)

In fall 1964 closed-circuit television classes were first offered. UT rented coaxial cable from AT&T and installed production studios in a renovated house at 1730 Rose Avenue. The system could only broadcast one course at a time, and all courses were broadcast live and not taped. Jokes on campus related to “Tube U” abounded. Dr. William Cole’s sociology class was dubbed “The Billy Cole Social Hour,” and Dr. Howard Pollio’s psychology lectures were known as “The Probable Problems of Professor Pollio’s Pigs (guinea, that is).”

In its first year of operation, the program reached 1,200 students. In fall 1965 a streamlined system with a “talk back” phone system reached 3,800 students. The Physics Department simultaneously operated its own closed-circuit classes through facilities in the physics building. In 1967 the first laboratory to be equipped was Hesler 205, and the number of equipped rooms rose to 80. Knoxville College also used UT closed-circuit TV tapes in zoology, botany, mathematics, and economics.

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  • Title UTTV (Closed-Circuit Broadcast of Classes)
  • Author
  • Keywords UTTV (Closed-Circuit Broadcast of Classes)
  • Website Name Volopedia
  • Publisher University of Tennessee Libraries
  • URL
  • Access Date July 26, 2025
  • Original Published Date
  • Date of Last Update October 16, 2018