In 1971, the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the
Ford Foundation, who owned
PBS, established the National Public Affairs Broadcast Center to supply its news programming to
PBS. The company was headed by James Karayn, who ran the company. The company is based in
Washington, D.C., used the facilities of WETA-TV and took over production of two shows from WETA itself, namely
Washington Week in Review and
Thirty Minutes With... Later in 1971, the company was renamed to National Public Affairs Center for Television, and hired two men from
NBC News,
Robert MacNeil and
Sander Vanocur, who was hired to be employed by NPACT, to ran the operations. MacNeil became moderator of
Washington Week in Review. Next, MacNeil and Vanocur had anchored
A Public Affair, which was designed for the
1972 presidential election, for PBS. In 1972, the company was sold to
Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, who owns the station
WETA-TV. All separate operations of NPACT was merged with WETA, with news and public affairs productions continue to be produced under the NPACT name. Around the time, CPB and Ford decided to cut funding for National Public Affairs Center for Television after WETA acquired the company. In 1973, Vanocur left and succeeded as anchor by
Jim Lehrer. The company made its biggest success when two of the top-performing NPACT anchors
Robert MacNeil and
Jim Lehrer covered the gavel-to-gavel coverage of
the Watergate hearings on
PBS, which earned NPACT and the duo an Emmy Award and became a ratings success. The success led the formation of
The Robert MacNeil Report, which later evolved into today's
PBS News Hour, which still airs to the day. The company tried to emulate the success with
Washington Straight Talk in 1973 and
Washington Connection in 1974, but none of them lasted as long as the flagship
Washington Week in Review. In 1974, MacNeil left and replaced by another former NBC anchor
Paul Duke, who also became moderator of
Washington Week in Review. Therefore NPACT made another smash success, a follow-up of the Watergate covergate with coverage of Nixon's impeachment hearings, with
Paul Duke and
Jim Lehrer, which became another ratings hit on PBS, but nowhere on the level of the earlier Watergate coverage. In 1975, James Karayn resigned as president of National Public Affairs Center for Television, because of philosophical differences. Jim Lehrer later left NPACT to became Washington correspondent for
The Robert MacNeil Report. Around the time, NPACT decided to produce a national version of
Martin Agronsky's show
Evening Edition for
PBS as its daily offering, but it failed in the ratings. The company as a whole, was folded into
WETA-TV in early 1976, bringing all the productions under the WETA name. == Programs ==