PBS Taps Public-TV Veteran Paula Kerger as President

Paula Kerger, who succeeds Pat Mitchell as PBS presi- dent. The latter's tenure was marked by controversy. (Public Broadcasting Service Via Associated Press)

The Public Broadcasting Service hired from within yesterday, naming a veteran public-television executive as its new president and chief executive.

Paula Kerger will succeed Pat Mitchell, who spent six mostly rocky years running the Alexandria-based nonprofit, which funds and distributes programs to 348 independent public TV stations. Mitchell announced last year that she would not seek another three-year term; she is leaving to head the Museum of Television & Radio.

Kerger, 48, the executive vice president of the nonprofit corporation that oversees public station WNET-TV in New York, joins PBS after much of the political fog surrounding the organization has lifted, at least for now.

Mitchell spent much of the past 18 months fending off controversy -- most notably, accusations from the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that PBS's programming has had a liberal bias.

Kerger's appointment was without controversy. She won unanimous approval from PBS's board. In addition, Patricia Harrison, the former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is president and chief executive of the CPB, called her hiring "a very wise move."

The board of the CPB, a congressionally chartered agency that distributes federal funds to PBS and other public broadcasters, forced out board member Kenneth Y. Tomlinson in November after the CPB's inspector general found that Tomlinson might have violated federal law while promoting his desire for "programming balance" as chairman. His chairmanship expired in September.

Although that controversy appears to have played itself out, Kerger faces longer-term challenges. PBS typically grapples with uncertain funding, from the federal government and from such entities as corporate "underwriters" and its member stations. Public stations are gradually losing viewers and donors amid a long-running debate about the kinds of programming that public television should offer in a world of many specialized channels.

In an interview yesterday, Kerger said: "Our biggest issue is revenue. We have to find ways to come up with the resources we need to do the types of programs we want. We need to do the kinds of programming that commercial broadcasters and cable aren't doing.

"At the end of the day, we'll be judged by the good work that we're doing. But you need a base of support to do that."

She offered no specific programming ideas but said she wants to build a permanent endowment that ultimately would wean PBS from its dependence on politically volatile federal funds (federal taxpayers supplied $70.3 million, or about 13 percent, of PBS's revenue of $531.6 million last year).

Although the endowment idea has been floated for years without much success, Kerger has been a successful fundraiser. At WNET, she initiated a four-year campaign that raised $79 million, the largest such endowment for a public TV station (the endowment's assets have grown to $90 million). Before beginning her career in public broadcasting in 1993, she held fundraising positions at New York's Metropolitan Opera, International House and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF.

Jeffrey Chester, who directs a watchdog group, the Center for Digital Democracy, said: "Ms. Kerger probably already deserves a medal for taking a job that should either only attract masochists or those who enjoy working every day in a political minefield."

He urged Kerger to "challenge the system" to produce serious and thought-provoking programming: "To succeed, Ms. Kerger has to ruffle feathers, not hide behind Big Bird's."