PBS Wisconsin leader Jon Miskowski announces retirement

Jon Miskowski, director of television for PBS Wisconsin, is retiring.

“Miskowski has been in treatment for cancer the past few years and has made the decision that he now needs to focus on his health while spending more time with his family,” the station said in a news release. Following Miskowski’s retirement, COO Kathy Bissen will serve as acting director.

“My forty years in public television, including my time as Director of PBS Wisconsin, has been a source of inspiring challenges and creative joy,” Miskowski said in a statement to Current. “I was lucky to have benefited from generous mentors throughout my career and to have finished my career in my dream job, made truly a dream by the work and dedication of the colleagues who I was fortunate enough to work with. I am now working on a more focused joy as I spend more time with my family.”

Wisconsin Public Media is a division of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. WPM, in partnership with the Educational Communications Board, provides statewide access to PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio.

“We know that this decision was a difficult one for Jon because his work in public television has been a core part of his life,” said WPM Executive Director Jordan Siegler and ECB Executive Director Marta Bechtol in a joint statement. “Wisconsin and PBS Wisconsin are better places because of his devotion and dedication across the past four decades.”

Miskowski joined the station in 1992 as development director and was named director of television in 2015. Before his time at PBS Wisconsin, Miskowski was membership director for WGBY-TV in Springfield, Mass.

“It’s hard to find an aspect of PBS Wisconsin’s growth and success that can’t be connected to an innovative idea or initiative that Jon has fostered,” Siegler and Bechtol said. “Through his leadership and staff development, statewide community focus, programmatic vision and development acumen, PBS Wisconsin has become a national leader in education, innovation and fundraising around mission-focused Wisconsin programs — continuing our long history as Wisconsin’s home for sharing the stories of all of Wisconsin’s people and places.”