In 1955, the Broadcasting Foundation of America was established through a Ford Foundation grant to the NETRC. Its first executive director was Eleanor McKinney. Its purpose was to acquaint the American radio audience with cultural achievements of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America by making available program recordings on tape from nearly fifty countries. The program fare included festival music, folk music, press reviews, human interest reports, documentaries of cities et al., science, arts, and book reports.

From its inception, NET had sought quality foreign programs. It was not until 1960, however, that a formal International Division was established. Its first Director was Basil Thornton, who had replaced Eleanor McKinney as director of the BFA. He continued as Secretary, performing his BFA duties simultaneously with his NET duties. In fact, however, since NET merged BFA with their international division from the moment of the latter's inception, BFA received the short end of the stick, causing no little consternation on the part of BFA trustee Norman Davis. Most of Thornton's attention was focused on the television end of the spectrum, not necessarily by choice (although Thornton believed quite strongly that his radio crew were so well trained they could function without his supervision.), since he joined NET at a time of rapid growth and increasing pressures for greater quantities of quality programs. The purpose and function of the newly created international division was outlined as two-fold: 1. To obtain substantial amounts of NET program material from foreign broadcasting sources by: a.) scouting for acceptable programs from foreign sources and b.) fostering co-production and barter arrangements with foreign broadcasters and better production and research facilities for NET crews working abroad; and 2. To coordinate things between U.S. commercial broadcasting and foreign broadcasting organizations.

The records of the International Division consist of a subject file arranged in three sections: one for BFA, one entitled “General” and a third for countries. Internally, each section is arranged alphabetically with the folder contents being generally in reverse chronological order. An occasional exception can be found in the Country file where NET had material grouped by topic (e.g. Marcel Prouse series in France) and the topical order was retained. The files cover the period 1959-1968 and consist of over 75 per cent correspondence and less than 25 per cent scripts and reports. Most of the correspondence is that of Basil Thornton while Anne S. Pomex, BFA Associate Director and Leanette Wald, NET Special Projects Assistant, also generated a noticeable amount. Most correspondence is concerned with television rather than radio and generally deals with arrangements for productions with U.S. or foreign crews and agencies and exchange or sale of series and programs between NET and other national broadcasting groups.

There is very little information regarding NET radio operations. Neither are there files on the establishment of contracts or alliances with foreign broadcasting organizations, such as European Broadcasting Union, Asian Broadcasting Union, and Norddeutscher Rundfunk. On the latter, a few files are included, but nothing substantive such as negotiatory material or final signed agreements.

Information on BFA as a developing organization is in Box one, folders 2, 8, 11-14. Norman Davis' correspondence with Thornton, (Box 1, Folder 2) is especially noteworthy, as Davis was an incessant critic of the BFA-NET merger, fearing that BFA's radio interests would be submerged by NET's emphasis on television.

Please note that the files for New Guinea concern the film From Stone Age to Atom Age, a film shot on location in New Guinea by producer-director Roger Blais, who was employed by NET especially for the program. Thornton's International Division supervised Blais' efforts. Though strictly speaking, this is not a full production file, it is arranged as nearly as possible according to production order. This film was not produced under the auspices of NET's Intertel production unit, as one might naturally expect.