Fort Mandan State Historic Site is temporarily closed for maintenance until further notice.
by Shane Molander, deputy state archivist
Providing the commodity price outlook for 1978, longtime KFYR farm director Al Gustin, now retired, was a familiar voice and face for farm news throughout the state.
The State Archives recently acquired a large collection of news video from KFYR-TV in Bismarck. The video is an addition to the Meyer Broadcasting collection (MSS 10983), which is 16-mm news film covering 1953 to 1975. The video content consists of actual footage and finished news clips that aired on KFYR’s daily television news program from 1976 to 1998. Reporters cover local and statewide topics including government, business, agriculture, sports, and human interest stories. Some news stories come from satellite stations in Minot (KMOT), Dickinson (KQCD), and Williston (KUMV). In addition to the daily news, there are several feature-length stories, including a 1976 documentary on the coal industry and a story covering a gathering of people atop the Patterson Building to witness the sunrise in celebration of Sun Day, a 1978 event promoting solar energy.
Common to the television broadcast industry of this era, the video format is three-quarter-inch U-matic, an analogue recording videocassette. The equipment used to play these tapes is becoming more difficult to find and maintain. Archives staff is currently digitizing each tape to a digital MP4 format and entering the “shot sheet” information from each tape into a database. This database can be sorted and is word searchable, making it easier to find an event that may have been on the news.
Television news is an important resource in preserving history. Like newspapers, television news gives us a glimpse into the happenings of the time with the bonus of having moving image to accompany the content of a story or event. To be able to go back and view and hear events as they happen is like stepping into a time capsule. This is an excellent collection, useful to the State Historical Society and to the public.
Learn more at history.nd.gov/archives.
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