WTVP

After a lengthy audit and review process, vital Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding has been distributed to WTVP, Peoria’s PBS station.

The film covers prehistoric times through 1900, exploring key moments in agriculture, rail transportation and education in McLean County.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting should require repayments and reduce grant funding to WTVP to the tune of $198,663 after the station overreported its financial support by more than a million dollars.

There was enough evidence to charge former WTVP president and CEO Lesley Matuszak with embezzlement of funds and forgery, had she not taken her own life.

Jenn Gordon, a name well-known in Peoria's arts community, will become WTVP's next president and CEO on April 22.

WTVP's board of trustees is set to select a new president and CEO for the public television station at a special meeting next week.

Public television station WTVP lost nearly $870,000 in its last fiscal year, with Peoria magazine's ballooning costs driving much of the deficit.

Peoria's public television station must await the completion of an independent audit by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's inspector general before a decision is made on WTVP's annual funding request.

Eleven members of WTVP's board of directors are resigning amid mounting public anger over the station's alleged financial mismanagement.

Community anger and anxiety about WTVP's direction boiled over during the public comment section of the station's regular board meeting Tuesday.