Sophiasburgh Councillor Bill Roberts, a veteran broadcaster with decades of experience at TVOntario, has been elected to head the board of WPBS, a PBS affiliate that broadcasts from Watertown, NY.

The regional station counts Eastern Ontario in its catchment area. It reaches 600,000 households via cable, satellite, internet and over-the-air distribution. Many viewers in southern Prince Edward County can pick it up via digital aerial. As much as 70 per cent of its viewership originates from this side of the border.

Mr. Roberts explained its staff understand WPBS’s important role as a bi-national broadcaster. There’s a Canadian flag flying outside the studios in Watertown. And the incoming board chair called the televised coverage of this year’s Canada Day celebrations “magnificent.” 

A director on the WPBS board since 2019, Mr. Roberts takes on the role of Chair during a time of tremendous tribulation. U.S. President Donald Trump is waging open war with many American institutions — public broadcasting prominent among them.

Mr. Roberts takes on the role of Chair during a time of tremendous stress for 
news media and journalists. 
U.S. President Donald Trump 
is waging open war on many American 
institutions — with public broadcasting front and centre.

At the time of Mr. Robert’s posting , the U.S. Senate was preparing to vote on the  Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) proposal to rescind $9.4 billion in previously approved funding, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees both NPR and PBS. The bill was approved by the Senate and passed by the US House of Representatives on Friday.

Kate Riley, President and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, said the funding clawback would devastate local public television stations throughout the country.

“These stations provide essential, lifesaving public safety services, proven educational services and community connections to their communities every day for free,” she said. “This elimination of federal funding will decimate public media and put local stations at risk of going dark, cutting off service to communities that rely on them — many of which have no other access to locally controlled media.”

The Politics of Sesame Street

Mr. Roberts says he’s remained engaged in public broadcasting for a number of reasons, but primarily because over-the-air information remains vitally important and highly valued amongst the PBS viewership. “Unwavering commitments to truthfulness, balance, lifelong learning, children’s programming, and education are lynchpins of PBS programming,” he notes.

In 2019, an independent, third party national survey indicated PBS was, for the 15th year in a row, the most trusted of national institutions. A follow up survey of Democratic and Republican voters found public broadcasting was favoured only second to military investment when it came to best uses of the U.S. tax dollar.

“I believe strongly in the ethics of Big Bird and Clifford the Big Red Dog,” Mr. Roberts quipped. “PBS remains one of the most truthful entities out there.”

The first thing authoritarians do when they sweep to power is try to close down independent, local community voices and take charge of the message, says Mr. Roberts. In a country like Canada, where two thirds of residents live near the border, a strong PBS is far more important than we might realize.

“PBS deals only with the facts. The cross-border spillover of polarized, over-opinionated messages from commercial outlets mean public broadcasting entities are vitally important.” 

The DOGE clawback will eliminate 30 percent of PBS’s revenue. But there are potential pathways around the devastation. Mr. Roberts was part of TVO when then-Premier Mike Harris threatened the public broadcaster in the mid-1990’s. He recalled the inspirational feeling when a dozen major-market PBS stations from Seattle to Detroit to Boston stood up and offered support to TVO as it was threatened.

“In this age, there will be time for PBS to reunite with TVO, the CBC, the BBC. We all need to be looking for those partnerships that have sustained us in the past.”