Tickle Me, Elmo! PBS 39 Reported Loss of $8.67 Million for Fiscal Year Ended June 2023, While Paying Top Four Executives $965,000 Total

Lehigh Valley Public Telecommunications, which runs Channel 39, public radio and a public news outlet, lost $8.66 million in the fiscal year ended June 2023, according to its IRS Form 990 (provided by ProPublica, see link below).

The non-profit group (taking that term to extremes, perhaps?) now goes by Lehigh Valley Public Media. By any name, the fiscal year was a big one, with total revenue of $6.49 million (down from $12.1 million in the prior year) and expenses of $15.15 million.

Revenue less expenses came out to negative $8.66 million. Revenue from contributions and grants fell about $5.6 million versus the previous year.

Meanwhile, the organization paid its top four officers $965,000 total.

Top dollar of $308,084 went to Timothy Fallon, who was then chief executive and president. He is now CEO Emeritus. The other three officers are not on the organization’s staff list as of now.

The chief financial officer made $206,023; the chief content officer pulled in just under a quarter-million dollars at $249,860, and the chief technology officer received $201,398 in total compensation.

Meanwhile, this year is off to a bad start, with revenue falling short and the potential for more cuts in expenses, but there is a plan: make people aware of goals and go after more public money.

Lehigh Valley Public Media is governed by a board of directors, but there is an Inspector General for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting who can check on things. I’ve asked the Inspector General to do so, and received a formulaic response in return.

I will try again. We will see.

If I were a member of the board, I might be asking some tough questions. Maybe not though, if they let me have my picture taken with Elmo.

By the way, here’s the stated mission of Lehigh Valley Public Media, according to its 990, which is the public tax return for the non-profit outfit:

“We educate, inspire, and entertain, while stimulating and disseminating the exchange of ideas.”

Link to Lehigh Valley Public Media website:

https://www.wlvt.org/

Link to 2023 Form 990 from ProPublica: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/231642883/202431369349304868/full