Notes on GPB’s July 2023 Foundation Meeting

Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Foundation board met this morning online rather than in person. This meant I was unable to ask any members any direct questions, though I did watch the meeting. As expected, there were no programming discussions or comments on the cancelation of Political Rewind.

In an email yesterday confirming today’s Foundation meeting, interim CEO Bert Wesley Huffman said the full Commission plans to meet sometime in the last two weeks of July, rather than August.

Since the Foundation last met in Jan., its financial advisor left wealth management firm Mercer Advisors. At today’s meeting, a new advisor and another representative from Mercer Advisors presented their overall view of the economy and investment strategy.

GPB’s fiscal year ended June 30th amid a better stock market than the previous year. The Foundation saw a gain compared to the end of June in 2022.

CFO Elizabeth Laprade alluded to the legislature’s cut to its state appropriations budget causing a bit of a cash crunch at the start of the new fiscal year.

Liz Laprade: “You touched on the cash needs that we need access to, which just so the board members are aware, we just asked for some money from Schwab for the first time in over 12 to 16 months. So, we’ve done well, we didn’t need anything last fiscal year but this year we’re starting out, as you all know, with a bit of a dip. So, cash needs are tight right now.”
…
“So we have gotten some of our money market funds out of there with little liquidated. So, we’ll need to build that back up, obviously.”

Interim CEO Huffman said GPB had another record fundraising year:

Bert Wesley Huffman: “Only other thing I’d say is that we fed the foundation really well this year. So, we had another record fundraising year, so we’re closing out just shy of eleven million dollars, which is fantastic. So, we have good year overall.”

Huffman announced programming changes including the cancellation of Political Rewind with Bill Nigut in mid-June.

If that resulted in any canceled donations from angry listeners, they may have been too late in the fiscal year to impact overall fundraising.

There was no discussion of the controversy or the status of a search for a permanent CEO. Those are duties of the Commission, but the Chair and Vice Chair of the Foundation serve reverse roles on the Commission.

Foundation Chair Jerald Mitchell thanked Huffman and CFO Laprade for “keeping the hands on the wheel for this thing.”

Jerald Mitchell: “Alright, Bert, you know, you and Liz have done a fantastic job, you know, just kind of keeping the hands on the wheel for this thing. So, I appreciate that. And I’m sure the rest of the board does to.”

Before closing the meeting, he added:

Jerald Mitchell: “Sincerely, I appreciate everything you guys are doing. And I know, Brian and the rest of the board does too. But, you know, considering, you know, the, you know, where we’re starting from a financial or budgetary standpoint, you guys don’t hesitate please to just. you know, holler if they’re any adjustments or things that we need to make.

Because again I know that, you know, you guys have a business to run, and we want to make sure that we’re teeing you guys up to do that successfully.”

The other Foundation members attending online, Brian Dill and Gail Evans, agreed. None expressed any complaints about the interim leadership.

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Radio ratings for major market public radio stations have been down something public media consultant Tim Eby wrote about this week in his substack newsletter.

Eby doesn’t discuss Atlanta, but that trend applies to WABE as well which was out of the top ten stations last month. Its June 2.7 rating is down from 2.9 in May, 3.4 in April, and 3.6 in March.

WABE is still well ahead of GPB on WRAS, who’s last month of Political Rewind saw a slight increase from to .8 from .7 the month before, but in line with the .8 to .7 numbers of the previous 4 months.

WABE scored its first ratings win over WSB radio last fall amid election interest but has had a steady decline since.

Of course, public radio isn’t commercial radio so getting the largest audience possible isn’t the mission. But serving the public interest does need a healthy audience.

It will be interesting to see if WABE’s ratings increase after the cancellation of Political Rewind.

GPB is still on WRAS but with only its own news headlines as local programming. The rest mostly duplicates programs airing on WABE.

If GPB were to end its partnership with GSU and WRAS reverted to full-time student programming, WABE may gain radio audience.

With the new fiscal year, GPB has ended its advertising on a prominent billboard on 14th St. along the I75/85 Connector and just down from its headquarters.

For the last year it was advertising GPB Educational resources which remained popular with the state legislature and were spared any budget cuts despite state funding being distinct from funds for TV and radio programming.

The 14th St. billboard may have been the last remnant of an extensive billboard and bus wrap campaign GPB launched to promote GPB on 88.5.

I don’t know what to read into them all ultimately being replaced by a law firm promoting Justice.