PBS 39 Financial Follies: What Did the Board Know, and When Did It Know It? Buzzwords and Balderdash

— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs

Back in the Watergate era, the big question was “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”

It turned out that Richard Nixon knew a lot. He resigned on Aug. 9, 1974.

The PBS 39 Financial Follies are not quite on the Watergate level. It’s the story of how what is now known as Lehigh Valley Public Media (LVPM) blew through millions of public dollars — spending was more than double revenue — in fiscal 2023.

LVPM needs an operations audit and right quick, before it has a chance to burn more public money on more ill-conceived ventures backed by buzzwords such as “engagement opportunity.”

So what did the LVPM board know, and when did it know it? Was the board of directors independent of management? Is the board now running day-to-day operations? Was management qualified to oversee the potential conflicts involving transactions with businesses linked to board members?

Boards are there to provide oversight, not daily management. The LVPM board did not do the first, so it has embarked on the second.

Did the board do its job? No. Somebody should have stepped in as the deficit grew, after PBS 39 decided to become a government-sponsored news outlet.

Fiscal 2023: $6.49 million in revenue, $15.15 million in expenses, for an $8.66 million deficit. Public money burned, and now LVPM wants more of your tax dollars. That is an outrage, committed quietly and bloodlessly, but still an outrage.

Meanwhile this outfit sits on an $80 million endowment. That too is public money.

How about a 10% finder’s fee to me? Alright, 5%. That’s my final offer.

Anyway, that kind of disaster doesn’t happen overnight.

Somebody should have realized this same management team created a television news program that PBS 39 hailed as a great success until it quietly disappeared. Money down the drain.

Was the board independent of former Chief Executive and President Tim Fallon, the $308,084 Man? That’s what he was paid during what I will call “The Year of Spending Recklessly.”

Were big decisions made at public meetings in Bethlehem, or over a conceded putt on the fourth green? Was management challenged sufficiently? Who was really in charge, if anybody?

Really, and I repeat: What in heck is going on at this place?

Fallon is now CEO Emeritus and seeking more state and federal dollars. That shows the board’s contempt for the public. That’s my opinion but hardly a reach.

Burn money, ask for more money, burn more money, while sitting on an endowment that could generate $5 million per year.

Demand an audit now from the federal Inspector General for public broadcasting.

If anybody on this board cared, they’d have requested one already, and perhaps they have.

I will be calling the Inspector General daily and continue to send requests for an audit.

Inspector General for public broadcasting:

https://cpboig.oversight.gov/report-fraud-contact-us

Board of directors:

https://www.wlvt.org/about/board-of-directors/

PBS 39:

https://www.wlvt.org/contact-us/