TCF Timeline

  • Fall 1940 Department of Radio Arts established in College of Arts and Sciences; offered first courses. Chairman was John Carlile (former production chief of CBS radio)
  • 1941 Department began operating a radio station, the Bama Radio Network
  • 1943 Carlile departed for active military duty. Department continued during war under acting chairs.
  • 1945 Upon return, Carlile offered former job as chair, but didn’t accept because the Department had been split from the Extension division’s radio production activities. Leo Martin hired.
  • 1945-51 Martin built the department, changed name, in 1947, to Department of Radio
  • 1947 Department’s radio station changed name to WABP
  • 1950 M.A. Program started; Department name changed to Department of Radio and Television Arts
  • 1951 Martin left for Boston U. Ken Harwood, Department’s first PhD faculty member, appointed as chair.
  • 1952 Department name shortened to Department of Radio and Television
  • 1954 Harwood appointed chair at USC. Ted Nelson became acting head
  • 1956 Don Dixon hired as chair of Radio-Television Department
  • 1963 W. Knox Hagood became chair
  • 1966 Name changed to Broadcast and Film Communication (BFC) to reflect inclusion of film studies
  • 1973 BCF and Department of Journalism combined to form the School of Communication
  • 1974 Department of Advertising and Public Relations formed in the School
  • 1980 Speech Communication joined the School
  • 1982 James Brown appointed chair of BFC; Hagood returns to teaching
  • 1987 Jennings Bryant joined faculty as holder of Ronald Reagan Endowed Chair in Broadcasting and first director of the College’s Institute for Communication Research.
  • 1988 The School of Communication was renamed the College of Communication
  • 1988-89 Ray Carroll served as interim chair
  • 1991 TCF’s home building was renamed Reese Phifer Hall–having originally been built in 1930 as the Alabama Union (the student union building)
  • 1989 Loy Singleton appointed chair; BFC became the Telecommunication and Film Department (TCF)
  • 1990-91 TCF’s 50th anniversary celebrated
  • 1996 Sandra Braman hired as TCF’s first Reese Phifer Professor
  • 1997 The School of Library and Information Studies merged with the College, which then changed its name to the College of Communication and Information Sciences
  • 2006 Loy Singleton became Dean of the College
  • 2006 Gary Copeland appointed chair
  • 2011 Glenda Williams appointed chair
  • 2011 Andrew Billings appointed Reagan Chair
For more on the early years of the Department, see A History of the Department of Radio and Television of the University of Alabama (1955).
For more on the history of the College, please see The College of Communication & Information Sciences: A History (1999).