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REVIEW SUMMARY
Name. Susan Howarth
Position. President and CEO, WEDU/Florida West Coast Public Broadcasting Inc.
Key. Finding more ways to educate and enlighten viewers.
Susan Howarth has plenty of great ideas on how to enhance the kinds of programs available through WEDU, the Tampa-based Public Broadcasting Service channel reaching 16 counties along the Gulf Coast.
Those ideas rely on the generosity of viewers, which can be hard to get in a tough economy. But if they work the way she envisions, they might take care of themselves.
“I'm a firm believer that the support comes when you improve the services that you provide for the community,” says Howarth, a 35-year PBS veteran now entering her third month as WEDU's president and CEO. She previously held those positions at WCET in Cincinnati, where she was instrumental in that station's transition to offering online content.
The ability to watch programming on a computer screen as easily as on HDTV, and with near-parallel quality, has created a significant shift in the way PBS is able to reach viewers now. Where transmitters and antennas have been involved in bringing “Sesame Street” or “Great Performances” into living rooms over the last half-century, PBS viewers can now tune in online anytime and anywhere, provided they have access to a reliable Internet connection.
The possibilities extend to the seemingly endless advance of technology: Imagine being able to watch “Austin City Limits” on a video phone as easily as YouTube.
While members of the WEDU board of directors were impressed with what Howarth was able to do with her last station's Web site, cetconnect.org, she says she doesn't want to impose too much too quickly. “I think it's a little presumptuous of me to come down here and say I have all the answers and we figured everything out in Cincinnati,” she says.
Varied experiences
Howarth, who started out as college intern for Connecticut Public Television, has spent time at various PBS stations and networks throughout her career in Missouri, New York and Arkansas, and even previously worked at WUFT-TV in Gainesville. She also served three years as vice chair on PBS' national board of directors and visited Tampa a few times before on network business.
She came out on top of 150 applicants to become only the fifth president and CEO in the 52-year history of WEDU, succeeding Dick Lobo, who was appointed earlier this year by President Barack Obama to direct the International Broadcasting Bureau. Lobo is awaiting Senate confirmation but has already relocated to Washington, D.C.
Geoff Simon, host of WEDU's “Suncoast Business Forum” and a member of the station's board of directors, chaired the search committee to find a new president and CEO. He said Howarth's success at WCET brought her to the forefront, specifically pointing to its Web offerings.
“We surveyed members of the community, WEDU staff and supporters for their input,” says Simon, who is also senior vice president of Simon Johnson Stanger Wealth Advisors at Raymond James & Associates in Tampa. He notes that Howarth places special emphasis on local programs, such as his own, that will be crucial to the station's progress going forward.
“There is a new tomorrow for public media and it's incredibly important that WEDU remain in front of the curve,” adds Barry Alpert, station board chairman and managing director of investment banking and business development for Raymond James.
No longer relegated to its longtime Channel 3 status, WEDU now operates three other digital and cable TV outlets — WEDU Plus, Florida Knowledge Network, the state government-oriented Florida Channel and a Spanish-language channel called V-me. Programming is plentiful for filling all those time slots around the clock each day, with PBS offering 16 different national feeds including children's shows, history, culture and practically anything else of broad interest.
Narrowcasting programs
But the station isn't content to air programs from other PBS stations across the country. It puts extra effort into programs of specific local interest, namely “A Gulf Coast Journal with Jack Perkins” and “Florida This Week,” the longest-running public affairs program on any Tampa Bay TV channel.
Howarth says some of those Emmy-winning programs can get quite expensive, but not all WEDU programming has to be. For example, a narrowcast program geared toward a targeted audience in a simplified format can be done for a fraction of the cost of a full-scale program and can potentially be viewed on wedu.org by hundreds of thousands of people over time, rather than tens of thousands at a specific time on TV.
“If you have a good speaker who is saying things of interest to an individual, it doesn't have to be a complicated production,” Howarth says. At WCET, putting programs on the Web was found to be more favorable than trying to fit them into a TV schedule or rejecting them outright.
“We found ourselves producing more content in a week than we used to produce in a year,” she says. “That was pretty significant and it put us in a position to be able to say 'yes' to people in the community.”
Greater availability of programming can also make a stronger case for WEDU to seek funding from area companies, government entities and its viewers, some of whom contribute thousands of dollars annually as individuals or couples. Howarth says grants are available for certain types of programs, such as documentaries, but most others require local generosity.
WEDU has had to get creative to stay within its $10 million yearly budget, with contributions from the general public declining sharply during the current recession from the boom years of the mid-2000s. However, Howarth says its quarterly pledge drives remain effective, especially among older viewers, and its latest one in June made goal at a time when many PBS stations struggle to do so.
“As a newcomer, it validates the fact that this is a well-supported public media organization that has a long history of support in this community,” she says. It's one reason she says she was attracted to the WEDU opening.
Corporate support
Numerous Gulf Coast-based businesses are on the list of WEDU “community partners,” with Howarth noting that corporate support accounts for 15% of its overall budget. While promotional space between commercial-free programs is highly limited, she says there may be more opportunities for local companies to sponsor or underwrite online offerings.
Although it is difficult to ask for more at times like this, Howarth is hopeful that the possibilities of adding programs and services through WEDU will eventually generate greater support.
“We will be making our case,” she says, “whether it's in membership campaigns for individual support, major gifts from corporations, grants from foundations, or federal and state funding.”
It appears WEDU may be on its way, as one of only 10 PBS stations receiving a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to extend public awareness, political debate and community action around livability and sustainability issues showcased in the ongoing “Blueprint America” series. The $10,000 grant will be used for special programs, on TV and online, focusing on the Tampa Bay area's efforts to develop high-speed rail.
That type of programming, which incorporates public forums into what goes on the air, will be needed in years to come as commercial TV resources become increasingly strained by declining advertising revenue, Howarth observes.
As a PBS veteran, Susan Howarth says it isn't unusual for a television market as big as Tampa to have two such stations. For that matter, she says at her last post in Cincinnati there were as many as four PBS channels within Ohio and northern Kentucky overlapping within the same market.
In her new role as president and CEO of WEDU, she is understandably diplomatic in answering questions about whether a second PBS affiliate is necessary locally. That's been a longtime topic of debate as public TV supporters try to decide whether to write checks to WEDU, based in downtown Tampa, or WUSF at the main campus of the University of South Florida.
Both channels are currently working together on an in-depth healthcare reporting project funded by $1.2 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
WUSF is taking the lead on the effort, which includes WGCU in Fort Myers, WMFE in Orlando and WUFT in Gainesville. Listener-supported radio station WMNF-FM in Tampa is also partnering on the project.
“I'm one for collaboration where you can make it happen,” Howarth says. She notes that she isn't concerned about two PBS stations operating within the same market diluting local support, and that both operate on complementary schedules rather than running programs redundantly.
“It doesn't really make sense to think of it as competition,” she says. “It makes better sense for us to think we're all in this thing together, we have the same mission, we're trying to service this community, so let's work together to do it in the smartest way possible.”
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