WGTE Public Media
ANNUAL REPORT
FISCAL YEAR 2010
July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010
WGTE TV
Reached an average of 200,000 households (500,000 people) each week through
WGTE TV, comprising 30% of the people living in our region.
Presented 240 local video productions.
Broadcasted 2,131 hours of instructional television to teachers,
providing them with additional classroom learning information.
WGTE FM
Reached 75,000 plus listeners each week on FM 91 in a 26-county region of Ohio and Michigan.
Added three new NPR and American Public Media programs to the FM 91 schedule.
Early Learning
Conducted 75 workshops for 1,042 caregivers and parents, who have 8,039 children in
their care.
Distributed nearly 2,900 storybooks to 1,330 low income children with funding provided by
the United Way of Greater Toledo.
Educational Resource Center
Provided more than 206 area schools with 6,500 teachers and their 120,000 students with
support, materials, and training to integrate technology in their classrooms.
Conducted 115 professional development workshops and video conferences for
1,835 teachers.
Loaned 561 media and technology resources, including videos, teacher guides, lesson plans, and
hands-on learning kits, from our lending library to area teachers and homeschoolers.
Provided direct educational services to 222 students through eleven student-based,
instructional programs.
Knowledge Stream
Library now includes 489 videos by videotaping 304 presentations this year alone.
Added 65 Knowledge Stream Classroom modules for a total of 130 modules that are
available to teachers and students.
Improved site viewership with over 5,400 videos viewed monthly, up from 2,300 monthly views
last year.
Increased the average number of page views per month to 41,600, an increase of 11,100 over last year.
Offered 37 live streams with 2,142 online viewers. Each of these streams was archived
at knowledgestream.org
MISSION STATEMENT
WGTE Public Media is dedicated to enabling personal development and
civic improvement by the innovative use of technology to enlighten, educate,
enrich, engage, entertain, empower, and explore.
Television
TV Channels: WGTE HD, WGTE Family and WGTE Create
WGTE TV features the best in national and local programs that educate, inspire, entertain
and inform. In a digital age, we provide video content via multiple platforms: traditional over the air
digital broadcast, as well as online streaming, DVDs, among others.
WGTE TV presented 240 local video productions during the fiscal year. Highlights include:
TOLEDO STORIES: production of six new stories highlighting the people, places and things
of northwest Ohio.
“Turning Point,” a look at a year in the life of Waite High School.
“Holy Toledo,” a tour of some of our area’s most significant religious architecture.
“The Arena,” followed the design and construction of Lucas County’s new multi-purpose facility
in downtown Toledo.
“Reverence: Toledo Ballet,” introduced the public to the dancers, choreographers and supporters
that make magic on stage.
“Tradition and Transformation,” an examination of over a century of instruction and innovation
at Maumee Valley Country Day School.
“Islamic Toledo,” explored the community and history of Toledo-area Muslims.
WGTE TOWN HALL SERIES: this new addition to WGTE’s schedule is a series of
programs, hosted by veteran Toledo broadcaster and multi award-winning journalist Bill Harris, that
address community needs and issues. In the past year WGTE explored:
The mortgage and financial crisis in our area;
Families and how they can maintain strong bonds during hardship;
How science and technology can be better integrated into our school systems; and,
The effects of depression and where viewers can go for help.
WHY SCI: multimedia video modules illustrate hard-to-teach Earth Sciences concepts and provide
strategies for engaging 5th grade students in active learning.
DEADLINE NOW: WGTE’s weekly public affairs program with host Jack Lessenberry
examines political, economic and social issues that affect the entire Lake Erie West region.
EGGS AND ISSUES: WGTE, Buckeye CableSystem and Toledo Regional Chamber of
Commerce partner to bring this series of talks aimed at business leaders to a wider audience through
both online streaming and television broadcast.
CANDIDATES’ FORUM: WGTE, Buckeye CableSystem and the Toledo Regional Chamber
of Commerce present candidates running for local, state and federal elected offices.
PUBLIC MEETINGS: WGTE and Buckeye CableSystem partner with Toledo Public Schools
(TPS) to provide coverage of TPS Board Meetings. Partnerships with the City of Toledo and the
Lucas County Commissioners provide coverage of City Council and County Commissioner meetings.
These civic meetings are made available online at WGTE’s Knowledge Stream Website.
PLUGGED-IN: in its second season, this Emmy award-winning program has UT students
exploring the latest innovations in technology and research in the fields of medicine, energy,
engineering, astronomy and more in our region. Produced in partnership with the University of
Toledo and Regional Growth Partnership.
Radio
Stations: WGTE FM 91.3, Toledo; WGLE FM 90.7, Lima; WGBE FM 90.9, Bryan; and
WGDE FM 91.9, Defiance
FM 91 continues to meet the area’s listening needs with a programming mix of classical
music, NPR news, entertainment, and locally-produced music programs.
FM 91 ADDED NEW PROGRAMS:
WAIT WAIT…DON’T TELL ME on Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. is NPR’s weekly hour-long
news program where listeners test their knowledge of the past week’s events with a panel
of writers and entertainers.
THE SPLENDID TABLE on Saturdays at noon is hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper with
culinary, culture and lifestyle features celebrating food.
AFROPOP WORLDWIDE on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. is a lively blend of music, interviews and
stories from Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas.
ONLINE ARCHIVE OF LOCAL CLASSICAL CONCERTS: Our weekly music program,
“WGTE in Concert,” is now archived online, offering on-demand listening of performances by the
Toledo Symphony, Toledo Opera and other local arts organizations.
LIVE WEB STREAMING OF IN-HOUSE MUSIC PERFORMANCES: Episodes of “Live
from FM 91” are now Webcast live at wgte.org, where the performances are archived for future,
on-demand viewing.
EXPANDED MUSIC RESOURCES ON THE WEB: In addition to our live Webcasts
and online archives, we now provide 24-hour music playlists (with links where to buy music), and an
online store of the best in new classical CDs, including editorial reviews and audio samples. Purchases
also benefit WGTE financially.
WGTE ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE: Music Director Brad Cresswell represented
WGTE as the winning panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz in May of 2010, during the live
international broadcast of Alban Berg’s “Lulu.” Brad’s appearance on the Opera Quiz was heard on
over 300 stations in 40 different countries on five continents.
Education
Early Learning
Continuing nearly 25 years of efforts in early childhood education, WGTE worked with caregivers,
parents, and children to increase learning outcomes in children aged 2-8.
RAISING READERS: Continued leadership efforts as one of the first five PBS member stations in
the national literacy and research initiative called PBS Kids Raising Readers.
BETWEEN THE LIONS PUPPET SHOW: Hosted three shows at the station, with Leo and
Leona, encouraging families to “Get Wild about Reading.”
A PLACE OF OUR OWN CAREGIVER RECOGNITION: Honored six deserving family
childcare providers for their efforts on behalf of young children at a special luncheon during a day-
long early childhood conference.
THE ELECTRIC COMPANY TOUR: Hey you guyyyyyyyys! Bowsher High School was
the site for a family event with Shock from the Electric Company.
SESAME STREET’S 40TH BIRTHDAY PARTY: WGTE and the Main branch of the
Toledo Lucas County Public Library honored Sesame Street’s 40th birthday anniversary, with games,
activities and cake!
LIBRARY CORNER EXPANSION: Three branches of the Toledo Lucas County Library—
Main, Mott and Locke—were provided with computers so that children could experience pbskids.
org and readytolearnreading.org along with WGTE-created literacy games, A…B…See Me and Word
Blaster.
SUPER WHY! CAMPS: Two week-long literacy camps for children entering kindergarten in
the fall were held in conjunction with Adelante Latino Family Resource Center and Heffner Early
Childhood Development Center.
RAISING READERS WEEK AND FAMILY FUN DAY: The first week of June saw events
at all of our partner libraries, with a culmination event at the station on Saturday. Winners of our
Share a Story contest were honored at a special ceremony and all children delighted in a variety of
literacy games and crafts.
LITERACY NIGHTS AT THE MUD HENS: Super Why!, Princess Presto and Curious George
all made appearances at Mud Hens’ games, helping us deliver our literacy messages to families with
young children.
WORD WORLD FAMILY DAY: Sauder Village hosted 25 rural, low income families for a
Word World Literacy Farm Day, where children not only learned to spell “sheep,” “goat” and “duck”
but got to experience the real animals.
METROBARKS: Clifford the Big Red Dog joined other canines at this Secor Metropark event.
Children could make some Clifford Ears and toss bean bag bones into Clifford’s rather large red dog
bowl!
OHIO READY TO LEARN: WGTE continued to lead statewide delivery by Ohio’s eight
public TV stations for the Ohio Ready to Learn project through development of workshops for family
homecare providers.
GETTING READY TO READ: Workshops for parents based on Ohio’s Early Learning
Content Standards for Language Arts, the Getting Ready to Read series, continues to be available through
local partnerships.
EARLY LEARNING LENDING LIBRARY: The Early Learning Lending Library, with
over 200 learning kits, remains a resource for parents and caregivers.
Education
K-12 Education
The Educational Resource Center (ERC) enables teachers to become more effective by assisting them
and their schools in finding better, more technologically-oriented ways to educate students and improve
their educational outcomes. ERC programs focus on the integration of instructional technologies and 21st
century skills within instruction.
Developed and implemented the following educational programs that targeted specific educational needs:
WHY?SCI: Produced ten science-related videos and supplemental learning materials that focused on
science concepts related to weather and plate tectonics.
MUSIC INSTINCT: COMPOSING SCIENCE: The ERC and FM 91, in partnership with the
Imagination Station, Toledo School for the Arts (TSA) and The Carrera Program of YWCA of Greater
Toledo, immersed 47 middle-school students from low income, under-resourced communities in hands-on
and minds-on explorations of the interconnectedness between music and science.
TECH21: Funded via a Martha Holden Jennings Grant, Tech21 engaged 55 teachers from eight area
school districts in an intensive, hands-on professional development series focused on 21st century skills
and technology tools.
TOLEDO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Funded via a grant from Bowling Green State University’s
(BGSU) NWO Center for Excellence, a cohort of Toledo Public School science educators and curriculum
specialists attended a three-session series to gather teaching resources and learning tools for creating
active, engaging learning opportunities for middle school students.
SUMMIT ACADEMY SECONDARY SCHOOL: The school utilized the services of the
ERC after receiving a 2009 eTech Ohio 21st Century Learning Environments grant. Teachers had hands-
on practice with the technology and gained strategies for differentiating instruction.
BIG TECH PAK = TECHNOLOGY + PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: The ERC provided
hundreds of document cameras, Flip Video Camcorders, Airliner Wireless Slates, iPod Touch, iPADs and
SMART Response Systems that enable high-tech classroom interaction to NW Ohio schools via the Big
Tech Pak series. Teachers explored online apps, basic video production and much more as they developed
creative, technology-rich learning activities for their classrooms.
USE-IT: A year-long series, funded through a partnership with the BGSU NWO Center for Excellence
in Science and Mathematics, engaged 25 third through eighth grade teachers from ten districts in 21st
century skills and technology applications. Educators created their own Google Sites, collaborated with
Google Docs, created content-specific videos and gathered lesson ideas for using Google Earth and
interactive Websites in their science and math classrooms.
TECHNOLOGY IS FOR ADMINISTRATORS TOO!: This series assisted
administrators in using technology to enhance their productivity, communication and organization.
CUSTOMIZED PROGRAMS: The ERC facilitated customized programs for numerous schools
and districts. Ottawa Hills Local Schools explored how Google Earth, 21st Century Skills and Wikis can
support K-12 district curriculum initiatives.
CAREER TECH AT TPS: The ERC designed a series for 30 Toledo Public School Career
Tech teachers that focused on tech integration strategies and resources that aligned with their
career tech curriculum.
New Media
For more than ten years, WGTE’s New Media department has been creating and
deploying simple-to-use, interactive new media solutions that support educators,
nonprofit organizations and for-profit business centers.
WORD BLASTER: WGTE created a series of online, interactive literacy games that allow the child to
use his or her picture to star a space adventure where they can pilot a spaceship to complete their missions,
each with its own literacy focus.
A…B…SEE ME ADVENTURES: The A…B…See Me! Online Adventures developed last year
by the New Media department was one of only two sites selected by PBS for implementation nationally.
HCR MANORCARE: New Media Services has been contracted to Webcast the company’s quarterly
report live from WGTE’s Stranahan Studio.
STEM Education: Critical Partnerships for the 21st Century: A local commitment to increase the
focus on STEM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) resulted in a partnership between
WGTE, WBGU PBS, UT3, Ohio STEM Learning Network and the National Governors Association to
present a special, live televised Town Hall. The broadcast was followed with a live Web discussion where
students, educators, parents and business leaders conferred on how everyone can support STEM education
for a brighter future.
WGTEKIDS.ORG: Developed a new interactive Website featuring content from PBS Kids, PBS Kids
GO!, and WGTE’s own kid-related games and information.
TEXT CLUB: Initiated a WGTE Kids text club for parents and kids to receive WGTE
information via text, picture and video messaging.
SYSTEM UPGRADES: WGTE has made some significant upgrades to improve user experience on
wgte.org, knowledgestream.org, and client-related sites. These include interface design changes, social media
integration, addition of member groups and civic space forum, and more.
Knowledge Stream/Knowledge Stream Classroom
Knowledge Stream, launched in August of 2008, is an interactive, online archive of free, video-on-
demand multimedia resources for the public. Multimedia resources are produced by videotaping and
packaging presentations made by authors, historians, scientists, artists and others.
KNOWLEDGE STREAM CLASSROOM: In addition to facilitating the public’s access
to knowledge and information, we offer a special online library of learning materials for K-12 teachers
and students. Knowledge Stream Classroom employs licensed teachers to create learning modules—
teachers creating content for teachers. Our teachers edit the recorded public videos to a classroom-
friendly running time, develop lesson plans, and add collateral learning materials, all of which are
aligned to Ohio’s Academic Content Standards.
LIVE STREAMING: A new feature this year is live streaming of select presentations, including
Toledo Public School board meetings. In addition to watching an event in real time, viewers can also
participate by registering comments online. Live streaming is a cost effective and efficient way to reach
and engage a larger audience that may not be able to attend meetings in person. More often than not,
the number of people watching a live Knowledge Stream presentation is greater than those attending
in person.
Station Support
WGTE’s support comes through a variety of avenues, including membership, corporate and nonprofit
support, and government funding. All sources of station support have seen decreases.
Membership
Membership support remains the largest single source of WGTE’s total revenue, comprising nearly
30% of our operating budget.
Consistent with the experience of other public broadcasters across the country, WGTE experienced an
8% decline in the total number of station members and a decline in the average annual gift to $94
from $102.
Benefactors Circle, comprised of donors at the level of $250 or more, experienced a decrease in giving
of 7% and the loss of 119 donors.
Corporate
Received 69 total underwriting orders from 55 local businesses and organizations.
Nonprofit
Placed 166 nonprofit announcement orders from 44 local organizations.
Technology and Engineering
Continuous technology maintenance, improvements and upgrades are imperative to the success of what
WGTE provides on-air, online and through our educational services.
PBS INTERCONNECTION: Began implementation of the PBS Next Generation
Interconnection System, Phase 2, which reduces the expensive use of the real-time satellite receiver
system by 75% through faster-than-real-time, file transfer-based program delivery.
DIGITAL UPGRADE OF MASTER CONTROL: TV Master Control continued
its digital upgrade with the assistance of Federal and State of Ohio capital funding to implement
a completely seamless, integrated archive management of program content providing improved
workflow efficiencies.
REDUNDANT SYSTEMS: Installed redundant systems for many TV master control content
origination, distribution, and processing systems.
HIGH DEFINITION PRODUCTION: Planning began for the upgrade of TV
production control to high definition capability for recorded and live programming originating from
the WGTE studios.