As Jeff Notes in his most recent story, LVPM cuts its losses to $4.6 million in FY 2025, so that's a positive sign. But the amount of cash showered on its four top dogs (Tim Fallon - $299,000; Yoni Greenbaum - $264,785; Andrea Cummis - $224,094; and Arthur Troccoli - $212,459) in 2024 is staggering. In that year, LVPM lost $7.2 million.
Those four are now gone, and the new CEO and President is Hassana Birdsong. Her background is in marketing and sales when what LVPM really needs is a strong comptroller.
In addition to spending like drunken sailors, I'd maintain that PBS39 and WLVR have both failed miserably in providing informative broadcasts about local issues and local government. Programs like "1A", "Here and Now" or even "All Things Considered" are never local and are rarely even topical. WHYY in Philly actually has the NJ governor call in periodically to answer questions from the public. It devotes an hour each day to in-depth discussion of local issues. There is precious little of that from WLVR.
I would agree that LehighValleyNews.com has become an invaluable resource for local news. It provides much better coverage of local government than you can find in our dailies. But overall, public media outlets really make no effort to connect with the community.
Jeff notes that LVPM has lost about $1 million annually in federal support. I'd much rather see that money used to shore up or social security system or ensure that kids can get their school lunches.
8 comments:
All federal money should be cut from this liberal propaganda fiasco
Outrageous!!!
100% correct
I certainly don’t want to see WLVT, etc. lose all of its funding, but when you see four people collectively pulling a million dollars in salary (more if you add benefits), there seems to be something wrong with the model. I’m not at all happy with what the federal government is doing, but salaries such as this may be part of the reason why DOGE exists.
We already had an NPR station in the Lehigh Valley -- WDIY. It never made sense to add another one. WDIY does a lot of local programming and runs within its budget.
Mostly agree with 12:44. I'm OK with the recent cuts in funding to PBS. In its early days, PBS provided a much needed service, filled a void in local programming. That need and void no longer exist.
Great article, Jeff. Interesting list of Board of Directors. Now I understand reason for the “fail”.
Another uncovered boondoggle comes to the light!
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