Montclair State University has been selected as the operator of NJ PBS, New Jersey’s network of four state-owned public TV stations, ending a period of uncertainty about the broadcaster’s future in the wake of federal funding cuts.

New Jersey State Treasurer Aaron Binder and the university announced the five-year deal to make the university the programming and management operator of NJ PBS. The state legislature now has 15 days to review the contract between the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority and the university. Lawmakers have expressed strong support for NJ PBS to continue operations.

Montclair State was one of four bidders for the management contract, which follows months of uncertainty over NJ PBS’s future. The WNET Group, parent of WNET New York and WLIW Garden City, N.Y., had operated NJ PBS since 2011, but said last fall that it wouldn't renew its contract with the NJBPA, citing significant state and federal budget cuts.

WNET Group’s contract is set to expire June 30. That prompted fears NJ PBS might shutter at the end of this month.

“Public broadcasting is a vital public service that ensures New Jersey families have access to trusted news, educational programming, and information about their communities,” said New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat. “At a time when local journalism faces growing challenges, today’s action keeps this essential service alive in New Jersey.”

The five-year agreement includes two five-year extensions and makes Montclair State responsible for programming the network and providing at least six hours per week of New Jersey-centric programming, including a nightly newscast on weeknights and other public-affairs programming; live broadcasts of the governor's State of the State Address and budget message; and New Jersey election coverage.

Public television has long held importance to government officials in New Jersey, who argue the state is underserved by commercial and public TV stations in nearby New York and Philadelphia. In 1968, the state established the NJPBA to launch and operate the four stations, known on-air as New Jersey Network (NJN) until former Gov. Chris Christie ended direct state involvement and inked the deal with WNET Group in 2011. The NJPBA still holds the station licenses.

“New Jersey’s public television stations exist to serve every resident of this state, and this selection reflects our commitment to ensuring that mission continues on a sustainable, long-term foundation,” said Rick Williams, NJBPA executive director. “Montclair State University brings broadcast-ready infrastructure, deep community ties, and a demonstrated commitment to New Jersey journalism. We look forward to working with the University and the Legislature as this transition moves forward.”

In announcing the deal, MSU said it plans to reimagine public media and expand the value public broadcasting can provide to New Jersey residents. As part of that effort, it said it plans to draw on the state’s 300-plus news organizations, its colleges and universities and its diverse communities to create and inform programming made stronger through collaboration and shared expertise.

In addition to a robust broadcast presence with daily newscast and discussion programming, NJ PBS said it will focus significant efforts on digital and social media content as well as in-person events and public engagement.

MSU’s proposal used existing university assets to create an operational budget that reflects the difficult financial climate for public media in the wake of the Trump Administration's push to end federal funding.

Montclair State has committed to providing $1.2 million annually of in-kind contributions, including studio access, engineering expertise, IT infrastructure, human resources, finance, legal, and facilities management. It also includes teaching and internship opportunities for students.

The station will be housed in MSU’s College of Communication and Media. The college has a production facility, complete with professional broadcast studios and film stages, multiple control rooms, a multimedia newsroom and engineering infrastructure built for network-level production. Faculty and staff bring extensive professional experience in the New Jersey and national media landscapes, and the college has been nationally recognized for its work while preparing the next generation of New Jersey media professionals.

More than 20 full-time employees will initially operate NJ PBS, including three reporters and a production team of 11. Students will also participate through internships and supervised experiential learning opportunities.

In addition, MSU said that the Center for Cooperative Media, housed within its College of Communication and Media, will help build the backbone of NJ PBS’s statewide journalism model.

The university said the center’s longstanding relationships with hundreds of New Jersey news organizations provide NJ PBS with an existing statewide journalism ecosystem to support collaborative reporting and community-informed storytelling across all regions of the state. Montclair’s operation of NJ PBS will also include content partnerships, including collaborative agreements with other New Jersey colleges and universities as well as civic, arts and news organizations, ensuring network content reflects the diversity and talents of New Jersey’s residents and communities.

MSU plans to produce a daily newscast and discussion program, a weekly public affairs roundtable, and sports coverage, including a formal partnership with the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

NEW YORK—The WNET Group has partnered with Japan International Broadcasting (JIB) to launch the NHK World-Japan channel in the New York DMA.

The service became available on April 1 on public media station WLIW’s digital channel 21.3 and on local cable providers including Optimum, Spectrum, Comcast, Verizon Fios, and Astound/RCN.

NHK World-Japan is the English-language international service of Japan's sole public broadcaster, NHK.

"We are excited to partner with Long Island's WLIW to bring the NHK World-Japan channel to an even broader New York audience," said Mr. Hiroshi Maeda, the president & CEO of Japan International Broadcasting. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with its parent company WNET and collaborating with them to highlight this unique perspective on Japanese culture, lifestyle programming, and international news to English-speaking viewers in Long Island and the entire tri-state area."

"NHK World-Japan has been providing viewers of the tri-state area high-quality, diverse content for nearly a decade, delivering programs on Japanese society, history, food, politics, and more," said Neal Shapiro, President & CEO of The WNET Group. "We're proud to continue this partnership expanding the reach of NHK's exceptional programming from Asia and around the world by adding NHK World-Japan to our WLIW digital channel lineup for our local communities."

Digital antenna viewers will need to rescan their tuners after April 1 to receive over-the-air channel updates including NHK World-Japan on WLIW 21.3 and the World Channel, which is moving to 13.3 (THIRTEEN WORLD) on April 1.

Viewers can check your local listings or wliw.org/HowToWatch for additional channel information.

NEW YORK—Neal Shapiro, president of The WNET Group, will retire from his role at the end of the his contract in 2026, the public broadcaster said.The WNET Group is the parent of public TV stations WNET New York and WLIW Garden City, N.Y.

Shapiro's decision, made in consultation with the board of trustees, follows nearly two decades of leadership that strengthened WNET's position as one of the nation's most respected public media organizations, it said.

Shapiro will remain as CEO until a successor has been identified. Following a transition period, he will then assume a new role as president emeritus, continuing to support WNET's fundraising priorities and organizational objectives.

"Leading WNET has been the privilege of my professional career," said Shapiro, former NBC News president, executive producer of “Dateline NBC” and a producer at ABC News. "After careful consideration, I believe this is the right time to pass the torch to new leadership who will build on our momentum and guide WNET through its next chapter. I'm enormously proud of what our team has accomplished together, and I'm confident WNET's future is bright."

In announcing the retirement, WNET highlighted some of his major accomplishments that have helped transform and strengthen the organization. They are:

• Launched its transformation from a broadcast organization to a multiplatform media company, pioneering company-wide digital initiatives and production to meet audiences where they are. This includes modernizing technology by implementing advanced systems that streamlined fundraising, production, and distribution, resulting in significant cost savings and revenue increases.
• Expanded local and national programming—including the creation of ALL ARTS, the 24/7 local and national multiplatform arts portal; the creation of daily news, weekly arts and science series, and the “Treasures of New York” library. WNET also acquired, preserved and modernized New Jersey's statewide public television network, rebranded as NJ PBS, with award-winning daily news coverage, and WLIW-FM, the NPR station on Long Island.
• Developed key partnerships with for-profit and non-profit news organizations, including CNN (“Amanpour and Company”) and Newsday, while leveraging philanthropic support to maximize resources, improve operational efficiency, and enable the 2026 move to new headquarters. The move will reduce overhead by more than 60 percent and create a collaborative workspace for the office of tomorrow.
• Strengthened the entire PBS system by driving the growth in CentralCast, a joint master control facility now serving more than half the country's PBS stations and saving the system millions of dollars; launched Wavelength, a content-sharing platform that enables dozens of PBS stations nationwide to produce local arts programming.

“We are deeply grateful for Neal’s exceptional leadership,” said James A. Attwood Jr., chair of WNET’s board of trustees. “His vision, integrity, and unwavering commitment to our mission, have elevated public media and strengthened our service to millions of viewers. While we will miss his leadership, we celebrate his remarkable legacy and the profound impact he has had on our organization.”

WNET said the board has started a comprehensive search for Shapiro’s successor and will announce further details in the coming months.

“In this next chapter, WNET remains committed to operating in alignment with our mission, even amid a complex industry environment,” Attwood continued. “We look forward to finding a leader who will build on Neal's legacy with the same commitment to excellence and innovation.”

In a notable example of how government funding cuts, are putting severe financial strains on public media, the WNET Group has announced that it has been unable to reach an agreement with the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority to extend the management of NJ PBS, New Jersey’s public television network, beyond the expiration date of June 30, 2026.

Fourteen years ago, The WNET Group agreed to operate New Jersey’s public television network, then called New Jersey Network, after Republican Gov. Chris Christie and the legislature determined that the state should no longer be in the television business.

WNET Group cited significant funding cuts by the federal government and New Jersey state government as a prime reason for the impasse on the operating contract. In theory, NJ PBS could continue operating past June 30 if another operator is found or if the two parties shift their positions and can reach an agreement.

WNET Group said that it will continue to operate NJ PBS, its newsroom, and produce its nightly newscast, “NJ Spotlight News,” which will remain available on NJ PBS, New York PBS station WNET and digital platforms.

After the current contract ends, WNET Group said it will continue producing and airing the daily New Jersey newscast on WNET and its digital platforms.

WNET also said that it is “committed to supporting the state through this transition and looks forward to collaborating with New Jersey–based institutions interested in operating a public television network.”

“We have been proud to serve the state of New Jersey with content that inspires, educates and informs. And we are deeply grateful to the NJ PBS Board of Trustees, the state of New Jersey, the NJPBA and, most importantly, the members and viewers who have supported NJ PBS for so many years,” WNET said in a statement. “We remain a willing partner to collaborate, and we will continue to serve the New Jersey community on THIRTEEN and our digital platforms.”

The Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress has eliminated all federal funding, which will lead to the end of most operations at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting at the end of Sept. In addition, New Jersey has reduced funding from $1 million to $250,000.

Critics have warned that the cutback could lead to the closure of many public stations, particularly in rural areas.

BOSTON, LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK—The Writers Guild of America has announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with management at PBS member stations WGBH Boston, WNET New York (branded on-air as Thirteen) and PBS SoCal (Los Angeles stations KOCE and KCET), on a new three-year collective bargaining agreement.

The agreement was reached just hours before the current contract expired.

The WGA said the deal breaks new ground with first-ever union protections for animation writers, paid parental leave, AI protections, expanded union protections for made-for-new-media programs, increased residual payments for reuse on streaming services, industry-standard raises, and easier paths for members of writing teams to access health coverage.

The council of the Writers Guild of America East and the board of the Writers Guild of America West will vote on sending the tentative agreement to the 94-member bargaining unit for a ratification vote. The specific details of the agreement will be released before the bargaining unit is asked to vote to ratify the agreement, the union said.

MERIDEN, CT—In advance of the expected launch of NextGen TV in the U.S.’s largest market, Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), announced today that it has expanded the existing RFS antenna and combiner infrastructure atop One World Trade Center to deliver  ATSC 3.0 to 7.45 million households across the New York City area.

The installation is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 and will be the first high-power source of ATSC 3.0 for New York. The upgrade will allow NYC-area PBS stations to launch NextGen TV, announced earlier this year. The WNET Group's WLIW21 will serve as the host station for ATSC 3.0 broadcasts for the three major PBS member stations in the New York metropolitan area: THIRTEEN, WLIW21 and NJ PBS.

New York got its first low-power ATSC 3.0 service last month, with the launch of WNYZ-LD, a low power station that provides Korean language TV and radio broadcasts to the metropolitan New York City area and eastward towards Long Island. 

RFS has worked on installing broadcast equipment atop One World Trade Center since 2015. In this latest upgrade, an additional ATSC 1.0 channel, WMBC 18, an independent television station licensed to Newton, N.J. is being added to the existing RFS main and auxiliary antenna and combiner systems, which will allow WMBC 18 to upgrade to ATSC 3.0. In addition to the combiner add-on equipment, the system incorporates 12 pole mask filter systems for both main and reserve operation that are combined with an RF switching system to provide high levels of redundancy and flexibility.

Victor Joo of WMBC commented, “The aim of this project is to deliver the best for our customers in a timely and efficient manner. Working with RFS, tapping into its knowledge base, technical expertise, and experience in the industry, especially at One World Trade Center, is allowing us to achieve this. We believe the future looks bright for the industry and the general public, as ATSC 3.0 allows us to meet changing and growing demands.”

In addition to the new equipment, the RFS patented Variable Polarization Technology (VPT) antenna installed in 2017 to address the immediate spectrum repack challenges, but with NextGen TV adoption in mind, is ready to support ATSC 3.0. VPT technology is incorporated into the equipment to allow any of the stations operating into the system to optimize their radiated power by setting preferred polarization ratios for each of the main and auxiliary systems.

For WLIW21 (Channel 32), a station already on RFS’s One WTC combiner/antenna system, the recent optimization of its VPT input now provides circularly polarized radiation, which is vital for numerous ATSC 3.0 applications. 

Frank Graybill, Senior Director of Engineering and Technology at The WNET Group commented, “We want to be a leader in the broadcast space and ATSC 3.0 adoption is a key part of this. The system designed by RFS has the flexibility that will allow us to be nimble and adapt to several scenarios with this deployment.”

Marc Musgrove, Director of Broadcast Communications for The Durst Organization, at the One WTC site added “We see One WTC as the premier facility in New York City and to maintain that status, we have to keep pace with the latest industry developments. From deployment support to the system design itself, RFS is a key partner in ensuring we deliver this with a solution that adapts with broadcast evolution.”

Nick Wymant, Global Product Line Manager - Broadcast at RFS added, “One World Trade Center is one of the preeminent broadcast sites in the world and we are honored to support its ongoing development to deliver the latest in broadcasting standards. By selecting ATSC3.0 ready equipment in 2017 and continuing to build on that system, the One WTC site will now deliver the full potential of what is possible with NextGen TV.”

NEW YORK—The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded The WNET Group a $2.9 million grant to expand the Cyberchase: Mobile Adventures in STEM.

The WNET pilot project reaches families through their mobile phones and works to engage Latinx and low-income families in math and environmental learning. 

The NSF grant will enable The WNET Group and Education Development Center (EDC) to expand the program and advance STEM learning in 6-8-year-olds by helping parents, particularly Latinx and low-income families, engage with their children in fun environmental science and math activities. 

Over the next three years, The WNET Group's Kids' Media & Education team will significantly expand the reach and impact of Cyberchase: Mobile Adventures in STEM by producing new Cyberchase videos focused on using math to learn about the environment and implementing a bilingual family learning program in 15 communities nationwide. 

Weekly texts will serve up activities and strategies that encourage STEM learning at home and are designed to be culturally responsive and inclusive. EDC will conduct research into the use and impact of the program among diverse low-income Latinx families and assess their needs and interests regarding informal learning and media.

"By deploying innovative outreach strategies through its mobile texting program, Cyberchase: Mobile Adventures in STEM has great potential for engaging families and children in STEM content and activities," said Dr. Lori Takeuchi, program officer at the National Science Foundation. "The earlier you can inspire children's interests in STEM, the greater the chances they will pursue STEM pathways. This project opens up new possibilities for igniting these early interests and broadening future participation in STEM learning and careers."

Cyberchase, which is America's longest running math series, has engaged millions of children ages 6-8 in the fun and challenge of math for nearly 20 years. 

NEW YORK—Public broadcaster WNET is coming up on the one-year anniversary of a successful remote production control deployment.

In early 2018, the station enabled remote control of WLIW in Plainview, Long Island, production via a JPEG 2000-based transport solution from Nevion. Since then, the company’s Virtuoso software-defined media node platform has been used to transport audio and video streams from the Plainview station to WNET’s New York City headquarters.

The system has proven to be reliable and agile “with no faults” since its rollout, said Frank Graybill, Director of Engineering, WNET.

Virtuoso seamlessly backhauls multiple camera and audio feeds from the WLIW studio to WNET’s Manhattan control room without requiring production personnel in Plainview.

This approach does away with the need for guests and staff to travel to the Manhattan studio to produce WLIW programming as well as eliminates the costs involved in building a staffed facility for these productions in Long Island, Nevion said.

Rather, WNET repurposed an existing WLIW studio and deployed the Nevion Virtuoso low-latency, high-quality transport with JPEG 2000 encoding for live remote production controlled in Manhattan.

This setup makes it possible for the broadcaster to conduct interviews on short notice, which allows WLIW to produce more timely, relevant content to tie into local breaking news stories.

“We have been thoroughly impressed with the Virtuoso solution. Its GUI is user-friendly, and the software is easy to understand, which allowed us to have the system up and running within a matter of hours,” said Graybill.

WNET purchased the Virtuoso solution from Dynamic Performance Technology, a Nevion certified business partner.

More information is available on the Nevion website; information on Dynamic Performance Technology is available on its website.