County’s Bill Roberts appointed WPBS-TV board chair

Bill Roberts

Prince Edward County’s Bill Roberts has been appointed Chair of the PBS affiliate WPBS-TV – serving Northern New York and Eastern Ontario.

Roberts has served as a director there since 2019, and brings an impressive legacy spanning public broadcasting, international experience, public policy and grassroots community work. WPBS describes Roberts’s career as “a rare blend of high-level policy acumen, media innovation, and unrelenting commitment to community service.

“He assumes this new role at a time when public media faces significant challenges. WPBS welcomes his leadership in service of this crucial community resource for Northern New York and Eastern Ontario,” states the organization.

WPBS is a PBS station serving approximately 600,000 households via cable, satellite, Internet and over-the-air distribution. It is a non-profit organization with a mission to educate and inspire diverse communities.

“It’s a challenging time for public service media around the world,” said Roberts. “Independent services like our CBC, TVONTARIO, and PBS are committed to entertaining, educating and enlightening content that is fact-based, balanced and comprehensive. We’re not about pushing people apart and polarization, we’re about finding a common ‘language’ and bringing people together.”

In fact, he notes the WPBS audience is roughly 70 per cent Canadian and based throughout Eastern Ontario.

“This with programming that airs more independently produced Canadian content than any PBS station in America… maybe any American TV service period,” he adds. “Of course, we face challenges such as MAGA’s toxic misinformation and crude funding bludgeon; and how best to navigate the vital transition to digital… especially for younger viewers.
But we’ll get there.”

One interesting fact he notes “is that year-after-year polls show that American tax payers see PBS as their #2 best investment after the military… This White House might want to be careful when it tangles with Big Bird and Clifford The Big Red Dog!”

At home, Roberts serves as a municipal councillor; sits on the boards of Hastings Prince Edward Public Health/South East Ontario Public Health and the Prince Edward County Police Services Board. He is also an Advisor at Canadian Armed Forces Base CFB Trenton, 8 Wing RCAF. He is actively involved in local food security and affordable housing efforts, including with the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

From 2000 to 2012, Roberts was President and CEO of VisionTV, where he transformed a struggling television network with a $1.2 million deficit into a thriving $37 million enterprise. He received the prestigious Canada Award four consecutive years for programming that reflected Canada’s multicultural identity. He also founded the Independent Broadcast Group (IBG) and launched several national specialty channels.

As Secretary General of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) from 1996 to 2000, Roberts built global broadcasting partnerships, expanded membership fivefold, and helped shape early HDTV standards. He played a pivotal role in UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day and co-organized the United Nations’ World Television Forum.

Earlier, as Senior Director General of TVOntario (1988–1996), Roberts co-created Public Broadcasters International (PBI), led international co-productions, and forged long-term relationships with Indigenous communities and educational broadcasters worldwide. He also served in senior leadership roles with the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Roberts has served as Constitutional Adviser to two Canadian premiers — Allan Blakeney (Saskatchewan) and Peter Lougheed (Alberta) — during the pivotal constitutional negotiations of 1980–81. That early experience set the tone for a lifelong commitment to public service, policy, and the advancement of democratic institutions.

Roberts’s leadership also extends into education, having served as a guest professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and adjunct professor at York University, where he developed and taught a course on the politics of Canadian media.