WATERTOWN, N.Y. – Long-time Canadian broadcasting executive (and Cartt.ca correspondent) Bill Roberts has joined the board of directors at U.S. local public broadcaster WPBS-TV, which serves Northern New York State as well as Ontario’s National Capital Region.
Roberts is the former president and CEO of Vision TV, and has served as the secretary general of the North American Broadcasters’ Association, is co-founder of Public Broadcasters International, and past senior vice-president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. In addition, he has served as a board member of the Banff Television Festival, as an international director with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and was a founding member of the Imaginative Media Arts Festival.
Plus, he also is a Cartt.ca correspondent, covering the Banff World Media Festival this year and contributing a number of podcasts, to Cartt.ca as well.
When he was managing director at TVOntario, Roberts was the primary representative to the PBS Border Programming Consortium. He also taught journalism, broadcast and communications law, and media policy at the university level; sits on numerous cultural and not-for-profit boards; served as senior policy analyst at the CRTC; helped establish the Broadcast Accessibility Fund; and, as a NASDAQ (UCLA) and TSX (University of Toronto) certified corporate director, remains active in matters relating to good governance and capacity building.
He is also a member of the Explorers Club (and went to Antarctica last year); holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Winnipeg, and is currently serving as a municipal councilor in Prince Edward County, where he lives.
“Bill’s extensive leadership experience in public media – in Canada and internationally – is unsurpassed and we are delighted to welcome him as a Board member,” said Stephen Todd, chair of the WPBS-TV Board. “We look forward to working with Bill to continue to build on WPBS’s commitment to viewers and members in our region.”
WPBS-TV also recently hired a Canadian as its president and general manager, Mark Prasuhn, who worked under Roberts at Vision.
