Rhode Island PBS and The Public’s Radio plan to merge

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Rhode Island PBS and The Public’s Radio announced Thursday that they plan to merge into one public media organization.

The new media entity is pending state regulatory approval.

The two institutions both have a long history of engaging viewers in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

The combined team would unify nearly 100 employees.

“We have believed for quite some time that our amazing organizations will be stronger and achieve even greater impact together,” said Dave Laverty, chair of the Rhode Island PBS Foundation Board.

“By combining resources and talent, we can build on our respective traditions of trust and integrity to meet audiences where they are, across platforms, to deliver rich programming that is meaningful, accessible, and inclusive,” he said. “By working together, we will create an opportunity to bring a more powerful and necessary public media voice to serve our community.”

Rhode Island PBS is located on Park Lane in Providence. The Public’s Radio office is inside the Union Station building.

The CEOs of both institutions, David Piccerelli and Torey Malatia, will continue to serve.

Once the merge is approved, they will launch an engagement process to create a shared vision for the new public media organization.

They said the vision will focus on “serving our diverse communities with quality journalism through broadcast and digital channels.”