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Licensee of WSRE ends PBS affiliation for the Pensacola TV market.

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

current.org

Licensee of WSRE ends PBS affiliation, moves to decertify foundation

Trustees at Pensacola State College in Florida voted to end WSRE’s PBS affiliation after fiscal year 2026.
current.org current.org

Note WSRE-TV will end their affiliation with PBS in 2026. This comes after Pensacola State College voted to end its membership with PBS starting in 2026.

weartv.com

Pensacola State College debates future of WSRE as PBS affiliation set to end next year

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The future of Pensacola's PBS station WSRE is still unclear.
weartv.com weartv.com

The college licensee of WSRE in Pensacola, Fla., is taking steps to cut jobs at the station, end its affiliation with PBS and decertify its supporting foundation.

The board of trustees of Pensacola State College voted 3-1 Sept. 16 to end WSRE’s affiliation with PBS after June 30, 2026. PSC President Ed Meadows made the recommendation, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Current through an open records request.

“My recommendation is that we end our PBS affiliation at the end of this funding year and that we optimize all available grant funding to support WSRE during this transition,” Meadows told trustees.

The decision follows a reduction of state funding to Florida’s public broadcasters and the rescission of federal funding by Congress.
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I'm sure this will damage both the reputation of the station as well as diminish viewership, but I suspect that was the entire point of the budget cuts at both the state and federal levels.

I know that elsewhere I've read, "it's okay, because there's still APT" but I don't think WEIQ is a full market signal with coverage of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. I'm in Baldwin County and it's one of the weaker signals for me even with an outdoor antenna.

Plus, APT isn't exactly carrying the full slate of PBS programming, every time I tune in it seems to be gospel shows and prosperity gospel huckster type stuff.
 
I suspect they won't be the last...

WPSU-TV Altoona/State College will completely shutdown next June
NJ PBS (WNJB/WNJN/WNJS/WNJT) announced it will fold next July
WEIU in Central IL will drop PBS and become an educational independent next week
 
tomservo said:
Plus, APT isn't exactly carrying the full slate of PBS programming, every time I tune in it seems to be gospel shows and prosperity gospel huckster type stuff.
Click to expand...

Huh? I looked at their schedule, and it seems to be pretty much straight-up public TV, what you'd expect.

There are a couple of gospel shows on Saturday night (which could be seen as something that just emerges from Alabama culture, and can be seen as "religious but not just religious", the gospel brunch at the House of Blues comes to mind), but as to "prosperity gospel", I'm not seeing it.
 
txchipk said:
NJ PBS (WNJB/WNJN/WNJS/WNJT) announced it will fold next July
Click to expand...

Not exactly true. What happened is that WNET announced it won't renew its agreement with NJ PBS to act as operator. The current status is that NJ PBS is looking for a replacement operator. Obviously the options are pretty limited.

973espn.com

After Decades Of Broadcasting New Jersey PBS Future Takes Shape In 2026

After decades of broadcasting history, New Jersey PBS faces a complicated move in 2026
973espn.com 973espn.com

The situation in Pennsylvania is they rejected an operating opportunity, and said they will "wind down operations" in June. But a lot can happen in six months.
 
Re: NJ PBS, I guess it depends on the news source as it seems as other outlets say it will wind down: After harsh budget cuts, NJ PBS announces it will cease operations next summer.

Obviously plans can change between now and year later for most of these outlets. Realistically, the NJ PBS stations largely overlap with WNET and WHYY. Those two also pretty much cover the state via cable and satellite as well since most of the state belongs to either the NYC or Philly TV markets. With no state and now no federal funding, it seems unlikely they would find a working funding model to keep alive stations that essentially largely duplicate PBS programming available on WNET and WHYY with a few NJ public affairs shows in the mix.
 
txchipk said:
Those two also pretty much cover the state via cable and satellite as well since most of the state belongs to either the NYC or Philly TV markets. With no state and now no federal funding, it seems unlikely they would find a working funding model to keep alive stations that essentially largely duplicate PBS programming available on WNET and WHYY with a few NJ public affairs shows in the mix.
Click to expand...

Not trying to be a jerk here, but the entire state, not just "most" of it, falls into one of those two markets.

It's entirely possible that someone at the far edges of the state, with a good rooftop antenna, could get stations from places such as Scranton, Lancaster, or even Baltimore, but that would not be the same as being in those markets, and there's no place in the state that can't get at least major stations from either NYC or Philadelphia, or both.
 
Poledo said:
I find it interesting that one of the options the WSRE board is considering is purchasing a commercial television station.

WSRE-TV Foundation explores future options as PSC severs ties, seeks station assets
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There are a surprising number of minor commercial stations in Mobile–Pensacola, which makes a purchase quite thinkable. The two that come to mind are:
  • WPAN Fort Walton Beach, which airs Blab TV and has a full-market signal
  • WAWD Fort Walton Beach, which airs Beach TV and has a more restricted signal
CTN, TCT, TBN, and Daystar all have commercially licensed sticks, making this a very saturated Christian TV market for its size, but I doubt they would want to sell. Sinclair and Deerfield each own an indie, and I wonder if they'd do some juggling and spit out a license or two with the Top Four rule abolished.
 
Poledo said:
I find it interesting that one of the options the WSRE board is considering is purchasing a commercial television station.
Click to expand...

That's a really interesting article. It could lead to a similar situation to what's happening in Miami between the licensee of WLRN and the station's foundation. The Friends group just purchased a commercial FM station, and they plan to turn it into an NPR station.

radioinsight.com

Miami-Dade School Board Sues WLRN Management Over WFLM Purchase

After filing a petition to the FCC to deny South Florida Public Media Group’s $6.45 million purchase of Hip Hop
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
IM42A said:
Not trying to be a jerk here, but the entire state, not just "most" of it, falls into one of those two markets.

It's entirely possible that someone at the far edges of the state, with a good rooftop antenna, could get stations from places such as Scranton, Lancaster, or even Baltimore, but that would not be the same as being in those markets, and there's no place in the state that can't get at least major stations from either NYC or Philadelphia, or both.
Click to expand...
Woah I was thinking at first that New Jersey has to have at least some counties split between the Philadelphia and New York TV markets but its not the case in this map for TV Markets.
 

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tomservo said:
I'm sure this will damage both the reputation of the station as well as diminish viewership, but I suspect that was the entire point of the budget cuts at both the state and federal levels.

I know that elsewhere I've read, "it's okay, because there's still APT" but I don't think WEIQ is a full market signal with coverage of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. I'm in Baldwin County and it's one of the weaker signals for me even with an outdoor antenna.

Plus, APT isn't exactly carrying the full slate of PBS programming, every time I tune in it seems to be gospel shows and prosperity gospel huckster type stuff.
Click to expand...
en.wikipedia.org

WFSU-TV - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Are you thinking that the Pensacola TV Market might have to get another PBS Station from another part of the state to broadcast in the area? Here is another PBS member station like WFSU-TV from Tallahassee does that have to be considered?
 
Poledo said:
I wonder if trading the WSRE license for one of the commercial Christian licenses is a realistic option?
Click to expand...

The foundation doesn't own the WSRE license. That's the problem. The University owns the station license. The foundation wants to continue to provide PBS programming to the area, and now needs a station.
 
radiofan2023 said:
What kind of shows do these stations run?
Click to expand...

Blab TV is like a local TV station lifestyle show turned into a TV channel. A lot of sponsored segments and the like, but as full shows. Titles on shows on the Blab schedule I write include Bankruptcy Hour, MoxieFoods, Rowe's Moving, Ask the Dr. with Dr. Harbour, and so on. It's existed in Mobile/Pensacola for 40+ years, but expansion attempts into other markets never caught on. One of the co-owners, according to their site, is former CBS News/Food Network boss Eric Ober. Blab has production facilities, which could make it a particularly viable partner for the WSRE-TV Foundation.

WAWD is one of the Beach TV stations, which broadcast tourist information.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
en.wikipedia.org

WFSU-TV - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Are you thinking that the Pensacola TV Market might have to get another PBS Station from another part of the state to broadcast in the area? Here is another PBS member station like WFSU-TV from Tallahassee does that have to be considered?
Click to expand...
WFSG in Panama City doesn't even put a signal into Pensacola, so I think that's a non-starter unless they have some repeater closer by I don't know about. It barely grazes Fort Walton Beach.
 


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