WQED head talks leadership changes, technical difficulties and possible move
Don’t be alarmed when Jason Jedlinski throws around the phrase “beyond a broadcaster” to describe hisvision for WQED’s future.
“The expectation folks should have is that, expect WQED to show up in more ways and new ways that are not only television and radio,” WQED Multimedia’s newly installed president and CEO told the Post-Gazette last week.
“We can have our cake and eat it, too. You can enjoy WQED the way you always have, but look for us to show up with other partners in the community in new ways.”
Jedlinski arrived at WQED more than six months ago as the successor to previous president and CEO Deb Acklin, who stepped down in September 2022 following a lung cancer diagnosis.
The Post-Gazette recently caught up with Jedlinski to see how he has been handling the early challenges thrown his way and his grand designs for WQED going forward — including a possible relocation from their current Oakland studio.
Changing neighborhood
Jedlinski is a Chicago native who spent the second half of 2023 getting to know “communities of all types” around Pittsburgh. It has been particularly inspiring for him “to see the passion people have” for WQED TV and radio personalities like Rick Sebakand Jim Cunningham.
He made sure that everyone within WQED knew that he was brought in to serve “as a change agent” willing to break from the status quo for the station’s overall benefit. Jedlinski insisted, though, that any deviations from WQED’s current trajectory wouldn’t “come at the cost of other products and services.”
“We don’t have to tinker with or tear down TV and radio to find ways to be even more relevant to more neighbors across Pittsburgh and southwest Pennsylvania,” he said.
That includes collaborating with local organizations like Pittsburgh’s League of Women Voters chapter, the Heinz History Center and MCG Jazz. Jedlinski also shouted out upcoming WQED documentaries about the Carnegie International and Children’s Institute; a national PBS docuseries about the history of gospel; and a celebration of the Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh’s 50th anniversary
Jedlinski has been forced to contend with multiple behind-thescenes departures over his first few months. Mike Waruszewski and Lilli Mosco — WQED’s former CFO/COO and chief revenue officer, respectively, who served as interim co-chief operating officers after Acklin’s exit — are no longer with the station.
David Solomon, WQED’s managing director of production and
TV station manager, retired on Jan. 1. Minette Seate took over his duties and will also continue to host “Filmmakers Corner” on Saturdays.
“WQED has gone through a lot over the years and survived a lot,” Jedlinski said. “The resilience is there and real, and it’s clear how passionate people are about the
mission. It hasn’t been the distraction it might sound like from the outside, because folks are so committed to the work and mission.”
Is this thing on?
WQED also said goodbye in 2023 to Paul Byers, the station’s chief
engineer who had been there for more than 50 years. He was replaced by Robert Bowe, who now holds the title of managing director of engineering and technology.
Bowe has been busy continuing Byers’ efforts to solve the many technical issues that have resulted in Pittsburghers having trouble watching or completely losing access to WQED. As Jedlinski put it, Bowe has been “diligently chasing down all of these gremlins” while also trying to simplify WQED’s transmission system.
“Each time something happens, we’re finding another thing to go fix,” he said. “That’s good, but it’s also maddening in terms of, what else is out there?”
He said that those problems generally boil down to playout interruptions (“the wrong thing on TV”) or antenna malfunctions (“I can’t watch or listen to WQED”). Bowe has so far been fairly successful at this game of digital Whac-A-Mole, according to Jedlinski.
Less ideal for WQED viewers is the licensing snafu that first popped up in August and has continued to result in the reduction of the station’s signal power. That essentially amounts to certain folks being stuck without WQED unless they’re willing to invest in a different (and likely bigger) antenna.
Jedlinski couldn’t provide an exact timetable on when WQED’s licensing conundrum will be cleared up, but he did mention that the station has “discovered a path” that will hopefully lead to the Federal Communications Commission allowing them to increase their signal power back to previous levels.
So, stay tuned on that front! End of an era?
Remain calm, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” fans. WQED has no immediate plans to leave the Fifth Avenue property it has inhabited since 1970, which means that its famed Fred Rogers Studio is staying put for the time being.
But on that subject, Jedlinski said he “would be surprised if we’re still in this building two years from now.” In fact, WQED
was already actively discussing a potential sale with Carnegie Mellon University before he got there. The two parties have met once during Jedlinski’s tenure, and WQED had to cancel what would’ve been its “first exploratory tour” of a potential new location due to bad weather.
CMU currently owns the land on which WQED’s headquarters and parking lot are situated. Jedlinski explained that the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now CMU) initially agreed to a 99-year lease at $1 a year, which Metropolitan Pittsburgh Educational Television (now WQED Multimedia) paid for at the time with a $99 check.
These days, Jedlinski feels like there are contractors “more days than not” in and around WQED’s almost 55-year-old building. He said it remains a functional and safe place to work, but he doesn’t love how much it costs to maintain and all the thick concrete walls separated by long hallways.
“It’s not modern,” he said. “It’s not really conducive to teamwork and collaboration.”
He views the property as an asset “that does not serve us as well as it once did,” which is why he’s confident WQED and CMU will eventually “find something to agree on.” When/if the time comes to move, Jedlinskiis hoping that WQED ends up finding a new home somewhere in“the broader East End.”
When it comes to the historic studio where “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was filmed, Jedlinski said that space gets used these days more for cardigan parties and CMU recitals than WQED productions. The first round of episodes for the game show “SignTasTic!,” in which contestants compete for a $5,000 using only American Sign Language, were shot two years ago at The Fred Rogers Studio.
Jedlinski remained steadfast in his belief that “our heritage and our history is not a physical building” and that it’s hard to reconcile the pioneering spirit embodied by everyone who in 1954 made WQED the United States’ first community-owned public television station with the notion of sticking “with something that outlived its purpose.”
“We have reverence for what happened in that studio,” he said. “Even from the initial conversation with CMU, they agree that whatever plans they have and whatever outcome happens, they too recognize that Pittsburghers expect us to honor what happened there.”