Primary Sources

TV Programs Online

Library of Congress Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division holds vast numbers of films. Most are not available online, but copies can sometimes be purchased. Many of these films are available through American Memory and the Prelinger Archives of "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films in the Internet Archive (select Search Moving Images). If the film you want is not evident on the LC website, enquire directly as the collection is not fully cataloged.

Museum of Broadcast Communications offers the Encyclopedia of Television which includes articles on television programs, personalities and other topics witrh references.

Internet Archive includes films, radio audio clips, news clips, educational films, advertisements, industry films, etc.

For news programs see Broadcasting/Newsreels in News Sources.

American Archive of Public Broadcasting offers American public radio and television content dating back to the 1950s.

AdViews: A Digital Archive of Vintage Television Commercials (1950s-1980s). Note that Sub-Collections breaks the collection down by individual company.

Television News Archive (Vanderbilt University) (1968-) is the guide to the network television news programs collection at Vanderbilt University. Since August 5, 1968, the Archive has recorded, abstracted, and indexed national television newscasts. Individuals can search the abstracts by keyword to find information and/or request videotape loans. Online video is available for CNN news broadcasts from October 1995 to the present.

WGBH OpenVault contains programs that aired on WGBH and full interviews from those programs that were used for clips in the programs themselves, as well as interviews about the programs. Covers many different topics.

Document Collections

Public Broadcasting PolicyBase (1945-2012): Key documents about the history, purpose, policy and structure of public broadcasting in the US.

Scripts

Published radio, television, and film scripts : a bibliography, by G. Howard Poteet. Troy, N.Y. : Whitston Pub. Co., 1975, 245 p.
HOLLIS Record

American Radio Archives collection

Printed catalog:
Television series and specials scripts, 1946-1992 : a catalog of the American Radio Archives collection, by Jeanette M. Berard and Klaudia Englund. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2009, 536 p.
HOLLIS Record

Index to the Annenberg Television Script Archive, ed. by Sharon Black and Elizabeth Sue Moersh. Phoenix, Ariz. : Oryx Press, 1990-
HOLLIS Record
--v. 1. 1976-1977

Periodicals

AmericanRadioHistory.com: The Online Radio & TV Library offers an enormous collection of radio/TV magazines.

ProQuest - Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive

Ratings, Statistics

AmericanRadioHistory.com: The Online Radio & TV Library offers ratings (Arbitron and other statistics).

Archival Collections

Special Collections in Mass Media & Culture (University of Maryland)

Reruns on file: a guide to electronic media archives, by Donald G. Godfrey. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992, 322 p.
Widener  |  RR 2975.10
HOLLIS Record

Secondary Sources, Background and Context

Secondary Sources

Library Guide: Film Periodicals

Reference Sources: Directories, Yearbooks, Statistics

AmericanRadioHistory.com: The Online Radio & TV Library offers station logs and schedules and other material.

Broadcasting Yearbook (1935-2010) includes listings of all stations, suppliers, FCC rules, group ownership, stations sales and other industry statistics.

International television almanac. New York : Quigley Pub. Co., 1956-1986. 31 v.
HOLLIS Record
HathiTrust Temporary access (1957-1982)
--Statistics, no of TV homes, awards, list of programs, and other information.

Continued by:
International television & video almanac. New York : Quigley Pub. Co., 1987-
HOLLIS Recor

Reference Sources: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Chronologies,

Television History - The First 75 Years has TV Guide schedules, year by year.

The encyclopedia of American television: broadcast programming post World War II to 2000, by Ron Lackmann. NY: Facts on File, 2003, 528 p.
Gutman Education | Ref. | PN1992.18 .L33 2003
Widener | WID-LC | PN1992.18 .L33 2003

Encyclopedia of television, ed. by Horace Newcomb. 2nd ed. NY: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004. 4 v.
Gutman Education | Ref. | PN1994.18 .M874 2004
Lamont | REFERENCE | PN1992.18 .E53 2004
Widener | RR 2981.27

Encyclopedia of television shows, 1925 through 2007, by Vincent Terrace. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009. 4 v.
Widener | WID-LC | PN1992.3.U5 T463 2009

Encyclopedia of television subjects, themes and settings, by Vincent Terrace. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2007, 427 p.
Widener | WID-LC | PN1992.18 .T38 2007

Bibliographies of Books and Articles

Television program master index: access to critical and historical information on 1,927 shows in 925 books, dissertations, and journal articles. 2nd ed. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 2003.
Widener Harvard Depository PN1992.9 .D56 2003