WPSU, which serves a 24-county region through radio and television broadcasts, has long operated at a deficit. In recent years, the university has subsidized the stations by more than $3 million annually. However, that has become a strain on the university as Penn State faces flat state funding, declining enrollment and a new budget model that prioritizes controlling tuition costs.
The issue was further exacerbated by Washington’s elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the federal funding that helped support stations like WPSU and WHYY. After the trustees rejected the earlier proposal, WPSU became the first public media organization slated to close as a result of those cuts.
Marrazzo called the merger a win-win for WHYY as well as public media consumers in central Pennsylvania.
“We accept the fact that we are operating in a seriously competitive media environment,” he said. “If you accept the premise that I believe in, that WHYY is in the business of positively impacting people who want to be engaged through public media more deeply in their community, you’ve got to reach more and more people over time.”
WPSU has been part of Penn State’s identity for more than seven decades. WPSU-FM, an NPR affiliate, first went on the air in 1953 and now reaches roughly 450,000 listeners across 13 counties. Its television counterpart, WPSU-TV, a PBS affiliate, began broadcasting in 1965 and serves more than half a million households. Together, they provide local news, cultural programming and community engagement throughout the university’s home region.
Larry Terry, vice president for Penn State Outreach, said that he was pleased that central Pennsylvania residents would continue to have access to trusted public media.
“We have worked diligently to find the best path forward for the station, our people who work there, and certainly all of our WPSU viewers and listeners,” Terry said in a statement. “We are grateful that WHYY, one of the country’s leading public media organizations, recognizes the importance of maintaining access to public media for the Central Pennsylvania region and is committed to the continuation of these services in our communities.”
For decades, WPSU has served as both a media outlet and a training ground for Penn State students pursuing careers in journalism and communications. The station’s leadership has said that hundreds of students have gained hands-on experience through WPSU, many of whom went on to work in public radio, national newsrooms and local media across Pennsylvania.
“We are very pleased the stations will continue to offer our Bellisario College of Communications students real-world experiences,” Thorndike said.
The agreement now heads to WHYY’s board for consideration but must also be reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission for final approval, which Marrazzo said he is confident it will receive.
“It is a transaction that in many ways reinvents public media, and I would imagine that the FCC will look favorably on that,” he said.
If completed, the deal would give WHYY one of the largest public media footprints in the Mid-Atlantic — stretching from South Jersey and Delaware to western Pennsylvania.
As for WPSU, Reddy said she was grateful for the outpouring of support that helped save her station.
“We heard from a ton of people about public media and how much they appreciated WPSU and that was part of what is making this happen,” she said.
