Public Media Infrastructure, the new entity that hopes to play a growing role in supporting the infrastructure of public media stations, has named its board of trustees.
Its chair will be LaFontaine Oliver, executive chair of New York Public Radio.
As we’ve reported, PMI was launched in November by American Public Media Group, PRX, New York Public Radio, Station Resource Group and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
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It received a five-year, $57 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, one of CPB’s final acts.
“Each of these organizations already provides services that stations depend on today,” PRI explains on its website, “including PRX’s Dovetail and Exchange; APMG’s state and national services; NFCB’s direct support to community and Tribal stations; SRG’s research and convenings; and NYPR’s national programs and distribution network.
“PMI brings these capacities together under one roof so that stations can count on reliable, universal and affordable distribution services while benefiting from a coordinated roadmap for adoption, innovation and sustainability.”
Among other things PMI has said it plans to unify the existing help desks of PRX, NFCB and APMG into “a coordinated support pathway.”
The board’s first members are Anni Caporuscio, general manager of KKCR Community Radio in Kauai, Hawaii; Mariana Robertson, general manager of KCAW Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska; José Martínez-Saldaña, co-executive director of Radio Bilingüe in Fresno and Oakland, Calif.; Vijay Singh, CEO of Vermont Public in Colchester, Vt.; and Kenya Young, president and CEO of Louisville Public Media in Kentucky.
More board members will be seated later this year. PMI is being led for now by Interim Executive Director Bob Kempf.
In the board announcement, PMI said its broad purpose is “to strengthen and sustain the essential public services local stations provide to their communities by modernizing and providing shared technology, distribution platforms and data analytics systems powering the U.S. public radio network … PMI exists to ensure every station — large and small, urban and rural — can reliably and efficiently deliver content, reach audiences on every platform and thrive in a rapidly changing media environment.”
The organization has posted an FAQ page for interested stations.
