[5] At the time of Free to Choose Network's founding, Chitester was the general manager of two public broadcasters in Erie, Pennsylvania: the PBS channel WQLN-TV and the NPR station WQLN-FM.

The origins of the foundation lay in PBS's broadcast of The Age of Uncertainty (1975), a 13-part BBC series produced by Canadian-American liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith.

[6] As a result, Chitester raised the necessary funding and executive produced a 10-part PBS series entitled Free to Choose, which first aired in early 1980.

It was in the context of producing the series that Chitester first organized Amagin, Inc., which ultimately became Free to Choose Network.

[citation needed] The organization has produced a number of programs for public TV including: a biography of Milton Friedman, entitled The Power of Choice – The Ultimate Resource (named after the 1981 book The Ultimate Resource by Julian Lincoln Simon) – Turmoil and Triumph a biography of George Shultz – The Power of the Poor, hosted by Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto – India Awakes, hosted by Swedish scholar Johan Norberg – The Real Adam Smith, hosted by Johan Norberg, "A More Or Less Perfect Union" hosted by United States district court judge, Douglas H. Ginsburg, and most recently, "Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World," hosted by Norberg.