CPB COO Curren Retiring

Vinnie Curren, chief operating officer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is retiring effective July 15.  CPB's president and CEO is Patricia de Stacy Harrison.

Curren has been COO since 2006 and before that was senior VP of radio. He joined CPB in 2002 from noncommercial WXPN-FM Philadelphia, where he had been GM.

No permanent replacement has been named, but Steven Altman, senior VP, business affairs, for CPB, has been named acting chief operating officer.

Curren will remain available to consult after his retirement, and will be helping out with some projects between now and July.

CPB was created by Congress in 1967 to oversee the allocation of federal funds for noncommercial radio and television.

That money makes up the minority of station budgets (the majority of that budget — something like 85% — comes from pledges and underwriters). But CPS says it is the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.