For the past 30 years, Bruce DuMont has been on a mission to save classic television and radio programs from oblivion. At a Chicago network affiliate in the early 1980s, DuMont noticed how disorganized the tape vault was, and that inspired him to launch a campaign to create a museum. After all this time, the Museum of Broadcast Communicaitons is about to move into a permanent home. We toured the building in December, when it was about sixty percent completed. You really had to use your imagination to erase the plywood and scaffolding and imagine the finished product. But DuMont was as excited as a new father, describing all of the planned features. You can see drawings of the building here. The museum has thousands of hours of television and radio programs in its archives, and they’re dedicated to providing access to those. Even as the museum has lacked a physical space to display exhibits, it has posted many items to its website. Click here to search the archives yourself.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications also houses the National Radio Hall of Fame. You can find a list of inductees here.