Established in 1981, the TV Archive preserves 6000 hours of newsfilm, documentaries and other TV footage produced in the Bay Area and Northern California from the Twentieth Century. We are a part of the J. Paul Leonard Library's Department of Special Collections and oversee material owned by local TV stations KPIX-TV, KRON-TV, KQED and KTVU. The Bay Area TV Archive’s digitization projects are supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.

The Television Archivist

Alex Cherian has been our resident Television Archivist since emigrating to the US in 2007. He maintains regular contact with Helene Whitson, who established the archive in 1981 and can draw on 40 years of experience of working with our varied TV collections. Alex first began using archival media to teach Shakespearean Tragedy at Newcastle University (UK) in 1998 and has dedicated his career to preserving regional moving image collections and providing access to them.