January 28, 2025

 

Before the meeting was called to order, Mrs. Roeger entertained us with a delightful medley of piano music and afterwards came to the podium to show us her source book of piano solos from Broadway musicals.

 

President Rachel called the meeting to order at 12:10 p.m. Our patriotic song was “America,” led by Dominique Bollenbacher and accompanied by Mrs. Roeger on piano, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation by Kathy Myers.

Our song was “When the Saints Come Marching In,” led by Dominique Bollenbacher and accompanied by Mrs. Roeger on piano.

 

There were no visiting Rotarians today.

Nancy Whitehead’s guests was Kim Holm from PBS Western Reserve.

Kaleena Gharky’s guest was Blair Sebastian with Housing Assistance Council.

 

Steve Dennis reminded us to submit our donations asap for Every Rotarian Every Year. Make checks payable to The Rotary Foundation (not the Kent Rotary Foundation).

Randy Smith announced that the United Methodist Church of Kent has an opening for a custodian.

Larry Lohman had two announcements:

Ben Tipton announced that the next Lord’s Lunch will be held on Saturday, Feb 22 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Kent. Contact Ben about volunteering.

Kathy Myers videoed us wishing Brazilian exchange student Maria a happy birthday.

David Myers told us that the first Kent Rotary auction was held more than fifty years ago and raised $812.50. This year’s auction will take place on March 11. He encouraged us to attend and make a donation or pledge, and asked those of us with local businesses to be sponsors.

President Rachel Kerns reminded us to check our email junk folders for incorrectly filed Rotary emails. She then asked the day’s trivia question: Which two NFL teams are tied for second place in the AFC? The winning answer is the Steelers and the Broncos.

 

Lisa Soeder is happy that her granddaughter enjoyed our recent snowfalls.

Tom Myers told us about his recent epic road trip across America to help his daughter move to Seattle, Washington. It was his first time crossing the continent by car, and it was a wonderful trip. Tom donated $10, one dollar for each state that he traversed.

Anthony Horton gave two dollars, one for the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes and one for Riley Larkin’s new job with the NE Patriots coaching staff.

Anne Moneypenny is happy that her cell phone died and she no longer has to deal with it.

Nancy Whitehead is happy about her recent visit to the “amazing” new STEM center in Mantua.

Carol Crimi is happy to learn today what the AFC is.

Kathy Myers is happy about Mrs. Roeger’s lovely piano music at today’s meeting.

Roger Kramer is happy about his recent visit to S. Padre Island in Texas where he witnessed the latest launch of the Starship space craft.

Rachel Kerns is happy that Portage Habitat for Humanity recently dedicated their 73rd home, a rehab in Ravenna.

 

Stacey Richardson introduced today’s speaker, Natalie Pillsbury, President and CEO of PBS Western Reserve. A Kent native, Natalie lives here with her husband and children. After she graduated from Kent State University, Natalie relocated to Chicago to work with AmeriCorps VISTA. This job ignited her passion for nonprofit work and armed her with a background in fundraising, which led to a position at the University of Chicago. In 2015 she returned to Kent to work for WKSU, managing major gifts, grant fundraising, and strategic planning. Starting in 2021, she served Ideastream Public Media as its Director of Strategic Content Initiatives. In March 2024 she assumed her current position at PBS Western Reserve.

 

Natalie gave us an informative and comprehensive presentation that outlined the following:

 

PBS Western Reserve serves the largest population among Ohio’s eight PBS member stations. Their broadcast channels — PBS Western Reserve, Fusion and FNX — are available to 4.9 million viewers in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. It costs them less than $1 per person per year to provide programming and services to the people in their viewing area, making them the most cost efficient PBS station in the state.

 

PBS Western Reserve comprises two separately licensed public television stations (WNEO and WEAO) and a nonprofit Educational Services division, Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio Inc. (NETO). WNEO was established in 1971, is licensed to the city of Alliance and serves the Youngstown designated television market. WEAO went on the air in 1975, is licensed to the city of Akron and serves the Cleveland-Akron-Canton designated television market. All programming is simulcast on the two stations.

It is the mission and purpose of PBS Western Reserve to see that the powerful medium of television is used to teach, illuminate and inspire. They do this through the presentation of consistently outstanding programs and lifelong educational services that are responsive to the varied interests and needs of Northeast Ohioans. The organization continually strives to bring to their viewers cultural and artistic enlightenment and enjoyment; exposure to local, state and national public affairs of importance; and the opportunity for lifelong learning through formal instruction and general educational programming.

 

PBS Western Reserve airs 35,040 hours a year of commercial-free television on three broadcast services.

PBS Western Reserve is the primary, high definition broadcast service and offers a wide range of programs on subjects including science and nature; drama, art and music; how-tos, travel and adventure; history and biography; and news and public affairs. Additionally, the station airs over 60 hours of children’s programming each week. They are in the process of re-inventing their production platform to be nimble and able to take full advantage of new technology and media. They also enjoy an excellent relationship with regional independent producers and serve as the premier television outlet for their work.

The organization has two standard definition channels: Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2) and FNX (WNEO 45.3 / WEAO 49.3). Fusion offers a combination of arts and culture, public affairs, regional productions and BBC Worldwide programming. FNX features Native content from tribes across the United States and also includes programming that directly connects with a vast minority and immigrant population. These digital channels are available over the air and are also carried by Spectrum Cable, Massillon Cable and Armstrong Cable. Carriage on other cable and satellite services is pending.

 

The Educational Services Department, funded by the Ohio Department of Education, serves K-12 students and educators in 10 Ohio counties, which includes over 100 public school districts, over 150 nonpublic schools, over 300,000 students and over 24,000 educators. Since 1973, Educational Services has been training teachers to use the latest educational technologies in their classrooms. Teachers also use the station’s instructional television programming, locally produced multimedia curriculum projects and in-school technology and consultation services. PBS Western Reserve is part of the statewide network of educational technology agencies that provide collaborative training to all educators across the state.
 

PBS Western Reserve’s Ready To Learn (RTL) service is a parent and child-care provider outreach project that supplements PBS children’s programs. The RTL staff offers free workshops, print materials and Web resources to help extend the learning from their children’s shows into reading and hands-on activities. Their free workshops are aligned with the state of Ohio’s “Step Up to Quality” standards and present the professional training now required of all family and in-home child-care providers.

 

PBS Western Reserve extends its brand through strategic partnerships. They are proud to collaborate with other community entities through local events, reciprocal agreements and other types of support. Some of the organizations with whom they work include Akron Civic Theatre, the Akron and Canton symphony orchestras, Akron Museum of Art, The Butler Institute Institute of American Art, Stambaugh Auditorium The Summit FM, WKSU, and the Youngstown Area Children’s Book Fair.

Their program guide, The Alternative, circulates to 12,500 members monthly, while their Monday morning e-blast, The Prompter, is sent to 3,000 and highlights programming for the week. In addition, their website averages 118,500 views monthly.

 

PBS Western Reserve’s website is home to a state-of-the-art video on demand service, which allows visitors to watch PBS national programs as well as over 100 hours of our original regional programming. The site also houses thousands of pages of station-created content. Visitors will find video, daily program schedules for all of their digital broadcast services, station e-newsletters, blogs and our locally developed multimedia curriculum kits for K-12 classrooms, featuring online teacher guides, interactive lesson plans and instructional video.

 

PBS Western Reserve’s 2024 fiscal year operating budget is $4.75 million. Revenue comes from these sources:

Private Support (62%) Private funding includes revenue from 16,000+ members, corporate and foundation underwriting grants and entrepreneurial activities such as tower rental income.

State Funding (16%) Almost all of this funding supports PBS Western Reserve Educational Services and its outreach to K-12 educators. Additionally, Ohio Educational Telecommunications provides partial support for nighttime and weekend operations.

Federal Funding (22%) Federal funding comes to PBS Western Reserve through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

 

PBS Western Reserve is the business name of Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio Inc. (NETO), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The board of directors is made up of 15 members. View the current board of directors members.

 

PBS Western Reserve is affiliated with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), and Ohio Educational Television Stations (OETS).

 

PBS Western Reserve employs 10 full-time and four part-time staff members and engages the services of several freelance professionals for special projects. The operations center, administrative offices and location of public files are housed at 1750 W. Campus Center Drive, Kent, Ohio, 44240. Additionally, the organization operates three transmitters: the WNEO transmitter, located in Salem, serves greater Youngstown and Western Pennsylvania; the WEAO transmitter, located in Copley, serves the greater Cleveland, Akron and Canton areas; and W13DP-D is located in and serves low-lying areas of the Mahoning Valley.

 

David Myers thanked Natalie for her informative presentation and complimented her and Western Reserve PBS for its focus on the good stories about NE Ohio, on education, and on serving the community. He pointed out the alignment between the station’s service values and those of Rotary.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Will Underwood