Mark Erstling, exec who guided public media’s digital transition, dies at 76

This obituary has been adapted from an obituary provided by the deceased’s family.

Mark Erstling, a former CPB executive who guided national policy and planning for public media, died June 20. He was 76.

In 2025 he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune condition, according to an obituary provided by his family.

Erstling devoted his entire career to public media, starting when he was a student at WUFT in Gainesville, Fla. After working in content-focused roles at stations in Florida and Massachusetts, he moved into station management at WPSU, a dual-service university licensee in University Park, Pa.

As GM, Erstling led efforts to expand WPSU’s radio service to thousands of listeners in northern and central Pennsylvania.

In the late 1990s, Erstling was among GMs who developed plans to form a new organization, the National Forum for Public Television Executives, to give station leaders a new way to influence national policy, according to Current’s reporting at the time. The idea failed to attract enough support from station managers when it was put up for a vote in November 1997. 

Erstling moved into national policymaking with America’s Public Television Stations, where he helped secure federal funding for the American Archive for Public Broadcasting and worked on digital transition initiatives, including deployment of the Digital Emergency Alert System for the Department of Homeland Security. Erstling became APTS EVP and COO in 2001 and served as acting president during a leadership transition.

In 2008 Erstling joined CPB as SVP of system development and media strategy, a pivotal role for shaping the public media system as it exists today. He guided the build-out of CPB-funded joint master control facilities and coaxed stations in overlap markets, including Los Angeles and New England, to explore collaborations and mergers. After the American Archive of Public Broadcasting lost its federal funding in 2012, Erstling oversaw its transition to management by GBH and the Library of Congress.

In 2013, Erstling left his SVP job to focus on the policy implications of the FCC’s 2017 auction of television spectrum. He continued to work for CPB, overseeing a Booz & Co. study on how the auctions could affect universal access to public TV stations and the case for public media’s federal funding.

Erstling was born in Miami Beach, Fla., on June 4, 1950, to Julius Erstling and Zelda Blum. He attended the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, home to WUFT, Gainesville. In 2004, the college named him to its Hall of Fame as an Alumnus of Distinction.

In addition to his parents, Erstling was preceded in death in 1984 by his spouse Lucille Hertzoff. He met his wife Jean Boyd while they were both working at WGBY in Springfield, Mass. The couple, who retired to Southern California in 2013 to be closer to family, recently celebrated 40 years of marriage.

In addition to his wife, survivors include daughter Samantha (Brent) Giles of Westminster, Calif.; son Matthew (Lauren) Erstling of Seattle, Wash.; four grandsons; siblings Judy (David) Sherling of Douglas, Ga.; Deborah Erstling of Albany, Ga; and brother-in-law Ron Taylor of Elora, Ontario, Canada.

Funeral arrangements were private. For those who wish to make a memorial gift, Erstling’s family encourages donations to the public broadcaster of your choice or to a local food bank.