BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Lehigh Valley Public Media has tapped Easton native Hasanna Birdsong to become its next chief executive officer after a year-long search.
Birdsong, the managing director of the Allentown-based Adept Group and a former vice president of advertising at The Express-Times, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the nonprofit starting in early July.
The public media company operates the television station PBS39, the radio station 91.3 FM WLVR and LehighValleyNews.com, a hyperlocal news site, out of the Univest Public Media Center on the SteelStacks campus. In addition, the organization supplements educational efforts at Lehigh Valley schools, libraries and with other partners.
Mike Keim, chair of LVPM's board of trustees, said Birdsong was the unanimous choice by the board's five-member search committee.
Her ties to the region, and her record of success and experience leading organizations in transition made her the clear-cut pick, he said.
The board envisions Birdsong as someone capable of strengthening the nonprofit's ties to the community while amplifying their voices through Lehigh Valley Public Media's platforms, Keim said.
"I think Hasanna’s passion, drive and determination will be a fantastic addition to the team and allow us to make that dream a reality," he said.
Birdsong, a graduate of Easton Area High School and DeSales University, said it's been a longtime dream of hers to lead a nonprofit. After 25 years of leading organizations in the private sector, she's relishing the opportunity to provide key services to the community, she said.
"It’s an exciting opportunity because it comes at a time in my career to essentially leave a legacy. I want to do something that is meaningful," she said. "This is a real opportunity to give back to the community in a meaningful way."
Access to information
She said she is committed to LVPM's mission of engaging, informing, inspiring and educating people in the greater Lehigh Valley. But that will require the organization to evolve in order to better serve the community.
A top priority will be ensuring that the content produced by LVPM is more accessible to the community, Birdsong said. In a time when more and more people shift away from television in favor of internet offerings, LVPM's content lacks a unified streaming home, she noted. The three media outlet's content is split between three websites, and little of its work is available in Spanish despite the region's fast-growing Latino community.
"People can't access the good work that [Lehigh Valley Public Media] is doing. That is a problem," she said. "At the end of the day, if you can’t deliver the content — literally — it’s of no use."
Birdsong, a Bethlehem resident, will be the first permanent CEO to lead the organization since Tim Fallon resigned from the position in April 2024.
The nonprofit's volunteer board of trustees has largely overseen the day-to-day operations since then; Laks Srinivasan, the board's vice chair, has served as acting CEO in recent months.
Nonprofit challenges
Birdsong inherits a Lehigh Valley institution in transition. LVPM netted $82 million in 2017 by auctioning off its television broadcast spectrum and piggybacking onto WFMZ's signal. The income kicked off the largest growth period in the organization's history as it launched WLVR in 2019 and LehighValleyNews.com in 2022.
But the operation has shrunk in recent months as the organization wrestles with its spending. After reporting an operating loss of $8.6 million in 2023, LVPM currently has about 45 employees — about 35 people fewer than its peak in late 2023. Srinivasan has acknowledged the future of WLVR is uncertain. The station is operated in conjunction with Lehigh University, which owns the FCC license.
"The fact that it’s going through a more challenging period makes it more attractive to me. I love a good challenge."Hasanna Birdsong, incoming CEO of Lehigh Valley Public Media
The financial balancing act is likely to only get more complicated. President Donald Trump has worked to strip public media of its funding, including a freeze on some funding that had already been awarded. That includes the remnants of a $200,000 Ready to Learn grant that LVPM had planned on using to assist in a summer enrichment program for Bethlehem students and similar programming at local libraries. The programs were restored after a local donor made a matching grant.
Trump has also asked the Republican-controlled Congress to defund PBS and NPR. LVPM receives just over $1 million, or about 20% of its funding, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the nonprofit that acts as a clearinghouse for the federal funding.
LVPM should be better situated to weather the cuts compared to many other public media groups. Despite the nonprofit's budget challenges, it still reported having an endowment of $75.5 million as of February.
Birdsong did not blink when asked about the trials ahead.
"The fact that it’s going through a more challenging period makes it more attractive to me. I love a good challenge," she said.
"Our reliance on federal funding will not be the thing that prevents us from sustaining the mission."
She has served on several Lehigh Valley nonprofit boards and committees, including Community Action Lehigh Valley’s Generation Next program, the Northampton Community College Foundation and Friends of Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks.
Birdsong earned from DeSales a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing. She is the mother and stepmother of adult children — her daughter is a missionary in Ecuador and her stepson serves with the U.S. Coast Guard.
