Following a loss of federal funding and the appointment of new leadership, the board of directors for Lehigh Valley Public Media met on Monday to address an ongoing challenge — defining a clear vision for the organization’s future.
LVPM operates public radio, local news and the PBS39 TV station in the Lehigh Valley. Since Hasanna Birdsong became CEO and president in June, board members discussed the progress that has been made in her first months of leading the nonprofit’s 45-person staff, consequences of public media funding freezes and future financial strategies.
The finance committee presented the organization’s revenue and operational expenses as of August for the 2026 fiscal year. The reported year-to-date revenue total was $413,963, with operational expenses equating $1,231,945, creating an operating loss of $817,981.
Stephen Bahmueller, an accountant for LVPM, said this loss is about $275,000 below what they had anticipated this fiscal year.
The committee also presented the financial impacts of losing a federal grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. According to the presentation, LVPM received $1,115,255 from the grant, which was part of their net income of $950,071 in the 2025 fiscal year.
Without that grant, the organization’s net income for the 2026 fiscal year is estimated to decrease to $333,826, with the majority of revenue coming from membership, which consists of donations.
The majority of expenses were reported to come from licensing and contractual costs with PBS and NPR, which are needed in order for LVPM to put out radio and TV signals.
Birdsong said LVPM is working to add additional local programming to reduce how much the organization has to pay for outside programs.
Joseph Topper, a board member and the CEO of Dunne Manning, asked how the uncertainty for the future of PBS following the shutdown and defundment of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would impact incomes and expenses.
“Everything that I’ve heard on meetings is that (PBS) has at least two years of content already set to go, and they are very actively raising a lot of money,” Birdsong said.
She also confirmed that if more public stations go out of business, there is the potential for an increase in the cost of purchasing PBS programming.
Susan Yee, a board member and the CEO of Active Data, said the likelihood of the numbers shown for the 2026 fiscal year are yet to be solidified considering uncertainties with federal funding.
Birdsong said the organization’s programming primarily comes from local stations that are still producing content. However, the distribution mechanisms of that content pose the challenge.
“We need to figure out a broader strategy of where we’re gonna get our content from,” said Michael Keim, the board chair and president of Univest Bank and Trust Co. “If we can finalize that moving forward, and the more we do locally, the better and more efficient I believe it will be.”
In a broader discussion about how the board can better streamline its processes and committee responsibilities, the group approved an amendment to reduce each member’s term limits from 12 years to nine years. Some also suggested the possibility of downsizing.
Keim said he believes reducing term limits will help the board have a balance between returning members who have a sense of the organization’s structure with new talent that can contribute fresh ideas.
Keim also said that regardless of how the board chooses to organize itself, it needs to play a bigger role in helping to raise money and fund operations as they move forward.
“This organization is incumbent upon this board getting back to being strategic and being governance oriented,” he said.
This led the board members to discuss the organization’s visions and how they can extend their mission to the broader community. Laks Srinivasan, the vice chair of the board and former interim CEO of LVPM, said developing an understandable vision for the organization is essential.
Birdsong then detailed what she accomplished in her first 84 days as CEO to achieve her vision of extending community outreach.
According to her presentation, she’s conducted internal strategic initiatives including staff and program assessments, and is working to refine the organization’s reporting structure and PTO policies.
Birdsong said her external initiatives have included confirmed and in progress collaborations with 24 local nonprofits. She also listed goals of serving 50% more people through educational outreach and conducting 100% more engagement with the Latino community by the 2026 fiscal year.
Some board members expressed concerns that Birdsong was undertaking too much, asking for some sort of metrics to evaluate which of her initiatives could best increase the organization’s membership.
“How can you focus on other things when you’re doing all that?” Yee said. “I guess I’m just worried that we might be spreading ourselves too thin.”
Other board members said they saw the benefits of community outreach because building relationships in the community can help to drive memberships and partnerships. They said Birdsong was doing exactly what LVPM hired her to do — making connections and collaborations in the region.
Luis Campos, the board’s treasurer and an Easton City administrator, said he’s been in meetings with Birdsong and potential donors to PBS39 where there have been misperceptions about LVPM and its role as an organization.
“What (Birdsong’s) doing right now is putting a Band-Aid on it at least for now,” Campos said. “We have to straighten up this ship.”
LVPM is also in a lease management agreement with Lehigh to operate the digital signal of WLVR, the university’s student-run radio station. The organization has had ongoing discussions about this partnership with the university regarding the future of the radio station, with some calling for LVPM to return WLVR to the hands of the students.
The board did not discuss the organization’s future plans about WLVR during the meeting. In response to a following question from The Brown and White about the radio station, Srinivasan said the future of WLVR is still an ongoing discussion.
“We’ll talk about it once we’re ready to talk about it,” he said. “But as we have said before, it’s all part of the mix we are trying to figure out.”
The board of directors will meet in person on Dec. 1 for their annual meeting at the Univest Public Media Center.
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