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Public Television Recognizes John E. Marshall, III as a Champion of Public Broadcasting

APTS and PBS to Recognize Former Kresge President for his Lifelong Service and Commitment to Public Broadcasting

WASHINGTON—February 7, 2007—The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) will present the Champion of Public Broadcasting award to John E. Marshall, III, former President and Chief Executive Officer of The Kresge Foundation. The Champion of Public Broadcasting award will recognize Marshall’s lifelong service and commitment to preserving and strengthening public broadcasting in America.

During Marshall’s 18-year tenure, The Kresge Foundation’s assets grew from $609 million to $2.8 billion. This increase in assets enabled the foundation to provide local Public Television and radio stations with essential “challenge grants” for capital projects. Recipients of challenge grants leverage the matching requirement as an incentive for donors and volunteers.

John Lawson, APTS President and CEO, said: “John Marshall is a remarkable leader whose vision of encouraging the use of public-private partnerships has served as a model for Public Television’s development activities. As local Public Television stations were making the transition to digital, John provided essential seed capital in the form of challenge grants that stations leveraged to raise money from federal and state governments, as well as their local communities.”

Lawson continued: “Under John’s leadership, Kresge’s challenge grants helped form the foundation for local stations’ capital campaigns to raise critical funds to make the conversion to DTV. Without the promise of these funds and the leverage it provided, many of our stations may not have been able to realize the promise of digital technology to provide a new generation of digital programming and services to their communities.”

“Thanks to John Marshall, The Kresge Foundation has become an invaluable resource to public television stations across the United States,” said Paula A. Kerger PBS’s president and chief executive officer. “The foundation’s innovative challenge grants are transformative, helping stations build the infrastructure they need to move into the digital future. John has made Kresge an important partner to public television stations as they strive to serve their communities in the Digital Age, and PBS is enormously thankful for his support.”

In addition to his leadership at the national level, Marshall has played an instrumental position in Michigan. He played a significant role in establishing the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM) in 1984 and, more recently, Kresge’s Detroit Initiative, which has provided a total of $151 million in grants to support extraordinary public/private projects in Metropolitan Detroit.

Steve Antoniotti, President and General Manager of Detroit Public Television, said: “Without John Marshall’s foresight, determination and guidance, Detroit’s arts and cultural community would be significantly less than it is today—with no great symphony orchestra, wonderful opera, world-class art institute or classical radio station. Thanks, John.”

APTS and PBS will present the award to Mr. Marshall during a ceremony beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, February 12, as part of the APTS Capitol Hill Day and the PBS General Managers Planning Meeting/Annual Members Meeting. The ceremony will be held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Washington, D.C.

APTS was established to support the continued growth and development of a strong and financially sound noncommercial television service for the American public. As broadcasters make the transition to digital, APTS is working to ensure the federal government continues its commitment to universal public television services.

PBS is a media enterprise that serves 354 public noncommercial television stations and reaches over 75 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment, and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. PBS is a leading provider of educational materials for K-12 teachers, and offers a broad array of other educational services. PBS' premier kids' TV programming and Web site, PBS KIDS Online (www.pbskids.org), continue to be parents' and teachers' most trusted learning environments for children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.

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