Chronology

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1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

2. About 1953 to January 1955
   Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Kay Kyser helps raise the money to put WUNC-TV on the air

   Kay Kyser toured the state with William C. Friday and Billy Carmichael Jr. to raise money for UNC's educational television station, which went on the air from Chapel Hill in January 1955.

3. 1953
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Robert F. Schenkkan becomes director of the university's educational television venture

   After the FCC granted the Consolidated University of North Carolina an educational television license, Schenkkan became director of the new venture, which went on the air as WUNC-TV from the Communication Center in Chapel Hill on January 8, 1955.

4. January 8, 1955
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill WUNC-TV begins broadcasting

   WUNC-TV began broadcasting from Chapel Hill on January 8, 1955.

5. May 1961
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Sandy McClamroch is elected mayor of Chapel Hill without opposition

   McClamroch ran unopposed for mayor in the May 1961 town election. Before the vote he took questions from residents at a public meeting at the Negro Community Center sponsored by the Chapel Hill Fellowship for School Integration and the Civic Club, and on a WUNC radio panel, saying he wanted to improve the town's public relations and would discuss merging Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

6. Recent decades · 1976–2026

7. April 3, 1976
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill WUNC-FM returns to the air as an NPR affiliate

   UNC's radio station WUNC, which had begun FM broadcasting in 1952 and had been silenced by equipment problems in the early 1970s, returned to the air from Chapel Hill on April 3, 1976, as a National Public Radio affiliate.

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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 1, 2026.