UPDATED 6:57 P.M.
PEORIA, Ill. – He’s been on the job of sorts for one full day; but John Wieland, the new chair of the WTVP Board of Directors, says he’s sorry to viewers and the public for what’s led to an investigation of alleged financial mismanagement by now-former station management.
That said, Wieland – CEO of MH Equipment – believes as much as the public believes all those board members that just resigned should still be held responsible, cooking the books can happen with or without their knowledge.
“We actually had misuse of funds in our company,” said Wieland. “I’m a bean-counter by trade. My CFO is a bean-counter. My COO is a bean-counter. It can happen any place. We took care of it, we got our money back, and (a suspect) spent some time in jail for it.”
Wieland says, though, he knows WTVP has lost the trust of some donors and members, and he wants to work to repair that trust sooner rather than later. Wieland has already spent time apologizing to those members, donors, and to the public.
Wieland says this is not a reboot of the “Save the Station” donation campaign that happened years ago, and backs the use of the word “pivot” to try and make things right again. He says some of a budget deficit the station is dealing with and which included layoffs, has been mostly solved.
“There have been financial commitments of $1.2 million to get it on a solid financial ground, and that does the deal,” said Wieland.
Investigations into the mismanagement continue, with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting recently withholding WTVP’s annual grant pending the outcome of the investigation. Wieland says he will go to Washington, D.C. next month to meet with the CPB on the funding issue.
“I am really confident that we’re going to get the right hand to fellowship, and they’re going to be back supporting and giving us that grant funding,” said Wieland. “The chances of them being punitive is [sic] really slim to none.”
Wieland says he understands it may take a lot to get the trust of viewers and donors back after late-former CEO Lesley Matuszak allegedly cooked the financial books, but the station will get there.
“What happened before will not happen again, because (the station and the board) put different hedges around that activity,” said Wieland. “People shouldn’t be so bold to say ‘that should never happen,’ because things happen.”
Wieland says in some cases, money coming in to the station wasn’t categorized properly, and in others, outright misuse of money occurred. But, as mentioned before, investigations are ongoing. He does say that if any money ends up being owed to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WTVP will pay it back.
As for the mass-board resignations, Wieland says not a single board member had to do that, because those members did the best they could in trying to manage the situation. But, he says they also understood that resigning was likely the right thing to do.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the WTVP Board of Directors.
On Wednesday evening, WTVP broadcast a special with Wieland. The video is below.
(Editor’s Note: Will Stevenson, WMBD Radio News Director, is sometimes employed by WTVP as a part time production crew member.)
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