WPSU Begins a New Chapter With Acquisition by WHYY Complete

WPSU will continue serving more than 1.5 million people in central and northern Pennsylvania with its acquisition by Philadelphia-area public broadcaster WHYY now officially complete.

WHYY finalized the deal to acquire WPSU from Penn State on Wednesday, marking the start of a new chapter for public media in the region a year after the university had been on the brink of shutting down the radio and television stations it had owned and operated for decades.

“Today is both a continuation and a beginning,” Bill Marrazzo, WHYY president and CEO, said in a statement. “For more than 70 years, WPSU has been a trusted resource for the people of central and northern Pennsylvania. Our responsibility now is to honor that trust while building an even stronger and more sustainable WPSU for the generations ahead.”

WHYY now will operate WPSU’s television and radio stations under the WPSU name and call letters. The nonprofit organization said WPSU “will remain locally focused and locally run.”

The finalized deal comes about three weeks after the transfer received Federal Communications Commission approval.

Under the terms approved by the Penn State Board of Trustees and WHYY Board of Directors last fall, WHYY will acquire WPSU’s radio, television and digital assets, along with endowed funds, for $1. WPSU will remain in operation for a minimum of three years and will not sell any non-core assets without university permission, terms included to alleviate Penn State board members’ concerns that WHYY could simply monetize the assets and shut the stations down.

WPSU will continue to operate out of its leased offices in Innovation Park.

“We are very pleased that the more than 1.5 million people across central and northern Pennsylvania will  continue to benefit from this vital public media service,” Sara Thorndike, Penn State senior vice president for finance and business, said in a statement on Wednesday.

WPSU’s roots date back to the launch of the Penn State-owned WDFM (later WPSU-FM) in 1953. In 1965, WPSX (later WPSU-TV) became the first educational TV station in Pennsylvania to be licensed to a university. Today, WPSU-FM reaches listeners in 13 counties and WPSU-TV serves households in 24 counties, one of the largest geographic coverage areas in the nation. 

Penn State sought out a deal to transfer WPSU to new ownership because the university could no longer provide $3.4 million a year in funding from tuition dollars for the broadcasting operation, “given our declining resources for core teaching and research needs,” Thorndike said last year. The station had already seen a cut to its university funding before losing about $1.4 million a year when Congress eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

University trustees rejected an initial proposal in September 2025 that would have seen Penn State pay WHYY $17 million in declining amounts over five years as a post-closing subsidy. At the time, Penn State said it would plan to wind-down WPSU by June 30, 2026.

A month later, though, the two parties agreed to a deal that eliminated the subsidy, with WHYY instead taking on fundraising to cover break-even operating costs.

“We are deeply grateful to the growing number of generous donors from Centre County and southeastern Pennsylvania who have stepped forward at this pivotal moment,” Marazzo said. “Their early support is providing the working capital necessary not only to keep WPSU’s vital service strong during this transition, but to begin investing in its future and growing its impact over time.”

All WPSU employees were laid off by Penn State and about 70% are continuing with the organization under the new ownership, a WHYY spokesperson said. WPSU-FM reported earlier this month that Penn State notified WPSU’s 31 full-time employees they would be laid off from the university at the end of September in anticipation of the WHYY acquisition. WPSU had 44 staff members as of 2025.

Every WPSU staff member was invited to apply for a position under WHYY ownership, and all of those who did were interviewed.

WHYY is also seeking to fill several positions that did not previously exist at WPSU and were handled by the university, such as in advancement, sponsorship, development and membership.

“Post-close, our human resource strategy is to continue to support the creation of local program services plus build out the advancement team to replace that functionality provided by Penn State University up until closing,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “… The clearer picture regarding staffing is that without WHYY’s acquisition of WPSU, all WPSU staff would have been laid off when Penn State shut down the station.”

WPSU will continue to provide access to the PBS and NPR programming, along with local local television, radio and digital content.

According to WHYY, WPSU will combine its local relationships, community knowledge and history of service with WHYY’s experience as an independent public media organization to focus “on preserving what audiences value about WPSU and identifying opportunities to strengthen local journalism, educational services, community engagement and programming in the years ahead.”

“This is not about changing what WPSU means to the communities it serves,” Marrazzo said. “It is about giving WPSU the foundation to grow, evolve and continue serving this region for decades to come. The call letters remain WPSU. The commitment to this region remains WPSU. And the future we begin building today will be shaped by the people and communities WPSU serves.”