May 15, 2025
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The Board of Directors of Lehigh Valley Public Media — which runs Channel 39, WLVR FM 91.3 and a digital news outlet — will meet Monday, and they might have a lot to say.
Among the potential topics:
— Threats to cut federal funding for public television and public radio.
— The search for a permanent chief executive. LVPM has an interim CEO, but is searching for somebody to fill the vacancy created more than a year ago.
— Status of the organization’s $75 million endowment. It varies with the market. LVPM has about twice as much money to invest as Cedar Crest College does, and assuming a 6% return — not unreasonable over the long term — it could earn $4.5 million annually, or about $86,500 per week.
Consider that: $86,500 per week. Or $12,350 per day, about $500 per hour.
— The fate of WLVR FM 91.3, Lehigh University’s radio station that for some reason, LVPM took over in 2019. Lehigh still owns the station, LVPM runs it.
The Lehigh Valley Public Media Board of Directors will meet at 1 p.m. in person at the Univest Public Media Center, just east of the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, off Second Street in South Bethlehem.
I have about had my fill of meetings, but I may get to this one. If it’s a nice day, I can make the four-mile walk. The meetings only go about an hour, which isn’t bad.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 
They actually have five channels on cable, the original PBS 39, Create and France 24 news, plus PBS 39 Extra and World Channel that they acquired in the Philadelphia market a while back. These channels are under the PBS umbrella and most of the programs are distributed by APT (American Public Television). The Create Channel is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the programming is mostly “how to” from cooking, travel, home improvement, woodworking, and other crafts. France 24 is a news channel in English covering headline news and focus areas form Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe, it is a great alternative to domestic news channels because it has a broader perspective. PBS 39 extra has themed programming in prime time, such as music, travel, food and repeats of regular PBS 39 programs, and World Channel shows documentaries, nature programs, and history. I watch all of them sometimes, mostly because they are not constantly interrupted by advertising, like the commercial channels, and are not geared to the lowest intellectual abilities. I am particularly happy that my friend, Stephanie Gardner, who created a travel and cultural series called “Cinema Nomad” that she traveled to over 35 countries and features 30 something independent filmmakers from the countries. The first season of the series will start on PBS 39 Extra on May 22, 2025, locally in addition to PBS stations across the USA.
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I’m guessing they hold these in one of the large studios there, but if the turnout is immense, they might have to relocate to the adjacent ArtsQuest Center where Musikfest® Café events are held… Bob Frable, East
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