System/Policy

University licensee trims Arizona Public Media by $2M over five years

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Arizona Public Media will lose $2 million in support from its university licensee over the next five years starting July 1. Over that time, the University of Arizona’s annual cash contribution to AZPM will fall 4 percent a year, from $2.6 million to $600,000. University leadership “is working with us to identify sources of new revenue,” General Manager Jack Gibson told Current. The university has weathered nearly $200 million in cuts since 2007 due to reduced state appropriations. Administrators “have turned up the heat wherever they could to recover working capital,” Gibson said.

System/Policy

Pacifica’s WBAI seeks new home for transmitter

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With its current location atop the Empire State Building threatened, Pacifica’s WBAI-FM in New York is looking to relocate its transmitter. In an FCC filing submitted Tuesday, Pacifica asked for permission to move its transmitter to the Condé Nast Building at 4 Times Square. Pacifica is also asking for a boost in power from 4,300 watts to 10,000 watts in order to maintain its current coverage area. In a June 19 report to Pacifica’s board, interim Executive Director Bernard Duncan said the Empire State Building’s management had returned two rent checks and that eviction from the location was imminent.

Programs/Content

With ‘Smartbinge,’ WNYC aims to raise national profile for digital content

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In an effort to position itself as a national brand in public radio, New York’s WNYC is launching an ad campaign likening its programs’ listeners to Netflix-style binge watchers. The Smartbinge campaign will consist of targeted digital ad buys and a landing page on WNYC.org to encourage listeners from around the country to listen to substantial amounts of WNYC programming. Other elements include Twitter hashtags, geotargeted Facebook ads, paid search results and sponsored blog posts. WNYC is spending around $200,000 on the campaign, working with creative and public-relations teams Cataldi Public Relations and Eyeballs. As WNYC increases digital offerings with streams and a mobile app, it has its sights set on an audience beyond New York.

Quick Takes

Friday roundup: Hollywood Squares gets W.Va. treatment; dogs invade WBUR

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• Peter Marshall, host of TV’s Hollywood Squares from 1966-81, is returning to his home state of West Virginia this week to tape four episodes of West Virginia Squares, reports the Charleston Daily Mail. The show will feature questions about state history and music, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting will produce and distribute to schools. Celebrities in this version are all from West Virginia, including Joyce DeWitt, who played Janet on Three’s Company. • Tom Ashbrook of NPR’s On Point and Here & Now co-hosts Jeremy Hobson and Robin Young of star in a short, old-timey movie from WBUR, “Silence is Golden.” The Boston station isn’t running a June on-air fundraiser, so it’s hoping listeners pledge online to help prove “the power of silent fundraising.”

Development

Expanded budget buoys plans for PBS’s revamped development division

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Betsy Gerdeman, who took over as senior vice president of PBS Development in February, is busy rebuilding that staff while focusing on three priorities for stations: planned giving, local corporate support and on-air fundraising. “I still have my station hat firmly on my head, and I hope I always will,” said Gerdeman, who has worked at KLRU and KLRN in San Antonio and WETA in Arlington, Va. “The success in this department comes from walking in the shoes of the stations we serve.”

PBS trimmed its fundraising staff in June 2010, eliminating four staffers who specialized in station fundraising. Director of Station Development Services Valerie Pletcher joined in November 2010 to focus on informational and training needs and best practices; she left in April 2014. But development is now on an upswing.