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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 77.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 40,000 items) |
| Abstract | Charles Harvey Crutchfield was born in Hope, Ark., on 27 July 1912, grew up in Spartanburg, S.C., and matriculated at Wofford College for one year, 1929-1930. He began his career in broadcasting in 1929 as a radio announcer and worked at a number of radio stations before joining the staff of WBT in Charlotte, N.C., in 1933. Crutchfield held several positions at the station and at its parent company, retiring as president of the Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company in 1977. Crutchfield had a decades-long friendship with the Reverend Billy Graham and was chiefly responsible for launching Graham's television presence. Following his retirement, Crutchfield founded his own consulting company, Media Communications, Inc., which was devoted to broadcasting issues, and was active with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the North Carolina Agency for Public Telecommunications, as well as in the larger broadcasting community and in professional and civic organizations. The collection traces the broadcasting career of Charles Harvey Crutchfield, beginning in the 1940s when he was program director and then general manager of radio station WBT and continuing until his retirement as president of the Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company in 1977. The files consist primarily of correspondence, memoranda, clippings, and other materials relating to the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company in its various incarnations. Of particular interest are files addressing current events in the broadcasting community and Crutchfield's response, in the various capacities he held, to them. Topics covered include union organization efforts, Senate hearings regarding representation of affiliate stations in the national spot sales field, the expansion and growth of the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, and the development of Community Antenna Television. Crutchfield's ardent anti-communist stance is reflected throughout these materials. Crutchfield corresponded regularly with Reverend Billy Graham and, later, with CBS News president Richard Salant and Frank Stanton, president of CBS Inc.; routine correspondence with national and local political figures is also included. There are also files, comprised chiefly of correspondence, reports, and clippings, that document Crutchfield's work with his consulting firm, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the North Carolina Agency for Public Telecommunications, and professional and civic organizations. Audiocassettes primarily contain interviews with Charles Crutchfield and WBT programs prepared in honor of various anniversaries celebrated by the station. A number of video tapes are recordings of obituaries of and tributes to Crutchfield. Films include "Weep for the Innocent" and footage of fired employees picketing WBT in the late 1940s. |
| Creator | Crutchfield, Charles Harvey, 1912-1998. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical
Information
Charles Harvey Crutchfield was born in Hope, Ark., on 27 July 1912, grew up in Spartanburg, S.C., and matriculated at Wofford College for one year, 1929-1930. He began his career in broadcasting in 1929 as an announcer with Spartanburg's first radio station and worked at a number of radio stations before joining the staff of WBT in Charlotte, N.C., in 1933. When Crutchfield joined the staff of WBT, it was owned by the Columbia Broadcasting System; this station was sold to Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, which expanded its interests in the broadcasting field, purchasing radio station WBTW of Florence, S.C., and television station WBTV, the first such station in the Carolinas, and creating a subsidiary company, Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company. This company is now known as Jefferson-Pilot Communications Company, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jefferson-Pilot Corporation. Crutchfield became program director of the station in 1935 and in 1945, following the sale of WBT to Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, became general manager of the station. Crutchfield had a decades-long friendship with the Reverend Billy Graham and was chiefly responsible for launching Graham's television presence. In 1965, Crutchfield became president of Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company and remained in this position until his retirement in 1977. Following his retirement from the Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company, Crutchfield founded his own consulting company, Media Communications, Inc., which was devoted to broadcasting issues. Crutchfield was nominated to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, and remained active with the CPB for several years. He also served as the chair of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Agency for Public Telecommunications (APT), which was started by Governor James B. Hunt Jr. in 1980.
Crutchfield was active in numerous professional and civic organizations, including a United States State Department appointment to assist in setting up the Greek radio network in 1951, serving as a representative of the United States broadcasting industry in a special mission to Russia in 1956, and visiting Radio Free Europe operations in Munich, Germany, in 1962. He was elected president of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce in 1971, received an honorary doctorate from Appalachian State University in 1973, and received the North Carolina Distinguished Citizen Award in 1977. Throughout his life, Crutchfield was an adamant anti-communist.
In 1931, Crutchfield married Jacqueline Williams of Miami, Fla., and they had two children, Richard and Leslie. He died in 1998.
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Scope and Content
These files trace the broadcasting career of Charles Harvey Crutchfield, beginning in the 1940s when he was program director and then general manager of radio station WBT, Charlotte, N.C., and continuing until his retirement as president of the Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company in 1977. The files consist primarily of correspondence, memoranda, clippings, and other materials relating to the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company in its various incarnations. Of particular interest are clusters of files addressing current events in the broadcasting community and Crutchfield's response, in the various capacities he held, to them. Topics covered include union organization efforts, Senate hearings regarding representation of affiliate stations in the national spot sales field, the expansion and growth of the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, and the development of Community Antenna Television. Crutchfield's ardent anti-communist stance is reflected throughout these materials. Crutchfield corresponded regularly with Reverend Billy Graham and, later, with CBS News president Richard Salant and Frank Stanton, president of CBS Inc.; routine correspondence from political figures Senator Sam J. Ervin, Governor Terry Sanford, J. Edgar Hoover, Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, and H. Ross Perot is also included. There are also files, comprised chiefly of correspondence, reports, and clippings, that document Crutchfield's work with Media Communications, Inc., the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the North Carolina Agency for Public Telecommunications, and professional and civic organizations.
Audiocassettes primarily contain interviews with Charles Crutchfield and WBT programs prepared in honor of various anniversaries celebrated by the station. A number of video tapes are recordings of obituaries of and tributes to Charles Crutchfield. Films include "Weep for the Innocent" and footage of fired employees picketing WBT in the late 1940s.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Professional Papers, 1942-2000.
Arrangement: chronological, and alphabetically within year.
Note that in certain cases, files are arranged by subject rather than strictly chronologically.
These files trace the broadcasting career of Charles Crutchfield, beginning in the 1940s when he was program director and then general manager of radio station WBT, Charlotte, N.C., and continuing until his retirement as president of the Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company in 1977. The files consist primarily of correspondence, memoranda, clippings, and other materials relating to the administration of and topical subjects relating to the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company in its various incarnations. Of particular interest are clusters of files addressing current events in the broadcasting community and the response of Crutchfield, in the capacities he held, to them. Topics covered include union organization efforts, Senate hearings regarding representation of affiliate stations in the national spot sales field, the expansion and growth of the Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, and the development of Community Antenna Television. Crutchfield corresponded regularly with Reverend Billy Graham and, later, with CBS News President Richard Salant and Frank Stanton, President of CBS Inc.; routine correspondence, such as courtesy notes, from political figures Sam Ervin, Terry Sanford, J. Edgar Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and H. Ross Perot, are included. Crutchfield's ardent anti-communist stance is reflected throughout these materials.
Note that, with few exceptions, original folder titles have been retained.
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Series 2. Post-Retirement Activities, 1978-1998.
Arrangement: chronological
Following his retirement from the Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting Company (now Jefferson-Pilot Communications Company), Crutchfield founded his own consulting company, Media Communications, Inc., which was devoted to broadcasting issues. Crutchfield was nominated to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in 1976 by President Gerald Ford and remained active with the CPB for several years. He also served as the chair of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Agency for Public Telecommunications (APT), which was started by Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. in 1980. The files in this series are comprised chiefly of correspondence, reports, and clippings.
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Series 3. Audio-visual Materials, 1983-1999 and undated.
Arrangement: by format.
Audiocassettes primarily contain interviews with Charles Crutchfield and WBT programs prepared in honor of various anniversaries celebrated by the station. A number of video tapes are recordings of obituaries of and tributes to Charles Crutchfield. Films include "Weep for the Innocent," for which accompanying materials may be found in Series 1, Box 59 and Box 62, and footage of fired employees picketing WBT in the late 1940s (see Series 1, Box 3). These materials are, for the most part, undated, except where noted otherwise.
Note that original titles have, for the most part, been retained.
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Items Separated
Processed by: Jodi Berkowitz, March 2006
Encoded by: Jodi Berkowitz, March 2006
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