WHYY completes its acquisition of WPSU
About 70% of WPSU staff members will continue to work at the organization under WHYY’s ownership.
WHYY’s acquisition of Pennsylvania State University’s public radio and television station, WPSU, is slated to officially go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
At that time, WHYY said in a statement, the WPSU deal will be finished, capping a lengthy process of transferring the university-owned station to WHYY. The public broadcaster will then begin operating WPSU’s radio and television station under the WPSU name, per the conditions of a previously approved agreement.
“For more than 70 years, WPSU has been a trusted resource for the people of central and northern Pennsylvania,” WHYY president and CEO Bill Marrazzo said. “Our responsibility now is to honor that trust while building an even stronger and more sustainable WPSU for the generations ahead.”
Last September, Penn State said it planned to wind down the station’s operations and lay off employees over the following months. Its annual budget was funded largely by university money coupled with federal dollars, the latter of which were slashed after President Donald Trump’s administration stripped federal funding for public media.
School trustees later unanimously voted down a plan for WPSU’s sale to WHYY, citing concerns over $17 million in subsidies Penn State would have had to provide to WHYY over five years as part of that deal. WHYY later agreed to raise funds itself, and school trustees unanimously approved a revised proposal to sell WPSU’s operating assets to WHYY.
Per the approved agreement, WHYY is to continue operating WPSU for at least three years, and give current employees the opportunity to interview for roles under the station’s new leadership, The Inquirer has reported. Roughly 44 employees remained at the station following layoffs in June 2025.
About 70% of WPSU staff members will continue to work at the organization under WHYY’s ownership, WHYY said in a statement. WPSU staff members were invited to apply for positions at the new organization, and anyone who did so was interviewed, WHYY said.
In late July, the station and Penn State filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission detailing the transfer, which involved selling WPSU to WHYY for the sale price of $1, according to commission records. The FCC approved the transfer of WPSU’s broadcast licenses to WHYY in early September, paving the way for the deal to be completed.
WHYY said that under its ownership, WPSU would “remain locally focused and locally run” and continue to serve audiences in central and northern Pennsylvania. Those audiences, WHYY added, will continue to have access to local TV, radio, and digital content, as well as PBS and NPR programming.
“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.”
