The NEA itself maintained a lively interest in promoting the use of television in the schools and representing education’s interests in competition with commercial television interests at the national level. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s it maintained an Educational Television (ETV) Consultant and a support staff. Harold Wigren joined the NEA Division of Audio-Visual Instructional Services in 1958 on a part-time basis. He was on leave from his position as AV director of the Houston TX public schools. He had been active in legislative work with the Texas legislature while president of the DAVI Texas state affiliate.

Wigren would stay with the NEA until his retirement, providing national leadership on numerous issues related to television and education. He promoted meetings among leading thinkers to discuss ways of improving the applications of technology to learning, with these encounters often leading to non-periodic publications (for example, Interaction in Learning: Implications for Television, 1960). He often played the role of “honeybee” consultant, visiting various centers of activity, sharing with them what he had learned at his visits to other places. With his diplomatic skills, he was able to forge coalitions among education groups, to provide a unified “education” position on issues related to television station license reservations, educational services on cable TV, professional rights and responsibilities of television teachers, copyright, and other issues.

For one year during this period, Lee Campion, a future DAVI president, replaced Wigren as ETV Consultant. During his tenure Campion co-edited a monograph, And TV Too!, in 1961, the first major guide to television utilization in the classroom.

Since DAVI shared offices and staff with the NEA’s audio-visual division (including the EVT consultant), there was a great deal of synergy between the two groups. However, it was the NEA side of the equation that took the lead on the national level regarding educational television.