Pittsburgh public radio stations WYEP and WESA announced Monday that their boards of directors will merge to form a single nonprofit organization.
Nothing about the stations’ operations or programming will change. Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation, WYEP’s licensee, bought WDUQ-FM from Duquesne University four years ago and changed it to all-news WESA.
At the time, a decision was made to hold off on a merger until the debt from the purchase was paid down, according to the organization. WESA was instead established under Essential Public Media Inc., a wholly-owned nonprofit subsidiary of WYEP.
The $3.1 million debt incurred for the sale has been paid down to $1.5 million, according to Elizabeth Baisley, WESA/WYEP director of marketing.
The new board of 16 members will form at the beginning of 2016 and will include two new members in addition to all of each board’s current members. Board president Greg Joseph will remain as president of the new board through the remainder of his term, Baisley said.
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