America's Public Television Stations


America's Public Television Stations is a non-profit membership organization established in 1979. The mission of APTS is to conduct – in concert with member stations – advocacy, planning, research, communications, and other activities that foster a strong and financially sound public television system providing essential public services to all Americans. Its affiliate APTS Action, Inc. promotes the legislative interests of non-commercial television stations at the national level through direct advocacy and through grasstops and grassroots campaigns designed to secure and enhance bipartisan congressional support.

History of APTS

In 1978, the Public Broadcasting Service board of directors commissioned the public television "system planning project" to consider the most appropriate organization of national service functions for public television for the 1980s. Among the concerns was the feeling of many that insulation of programing from representational responsibilities, and the more effective conduct of both the operating functions of the national program service and the system planning and representation functions for the licensees, would be better served if the two functions were not the responsibility of a single organization and management.
The planning project concurred with this view, and after a process of consultation with the PBS membership and other agencies, concluded with this recommendation to the PBS Board. At the PBS Annual Meeting in Los Angeles in June 1979, the membership voted unanimously to endorse the establishment of a new "center for public television planning and representation" separate from PBS, and the reorganization of PBS to provide multiple program services. On November 1, 1979, Articles of Incorporation for the Association for Public Broadcasting were filed in the District of Columbia. On November 27, the PBS Board reviewed the work of its Committee and endorsed the formation of the Association. The Association's Interim Board of Trustees, at its organizational meeting the same day, adopted By-Laws for the new organization.
In December and January, the great majority of the public television licensees accepted the Board's invitation to become Members of the Association, and voted overwhelmingly to approve the By-Laws. The Association began operations on January 1, 1980, with an interim staff and with transitional financial support and staff assistance provided by PBS. The Association's first full president, Dr. David Carley of Madison, Wisconsin, began in mid-May, and at that time, more than 90 percent of the station licensees had elected to become Members of the Association, and had designated more than 300 lay and professional representatives to serve as charter members of its Board of Delegates. In nationwide mail balloting, the Delegates elected trustees to oversee the management of the Association's affairs, and the trustees called the First Annual Meeting of the Board of Delegates for June 2, 1980, in Washington, D.C.

Mission and goals

The mission of APTS is to lead the continued growth and development of strong and financially sound non-commercial broadcasting, dedicated to public service missions in education, public safety and well-informed citizenship.
Local public television stations:
The major initiatives of APTS include:
Patrick Butler, President and chief executive officer
Mr. Butler joined APTS on January 1, 2011, after 20 years at The Washington Post Company, where he was Senior Vice President with responsibilities for public policy, new business development, television production, the conference business, community service and special corporate projects.
During his service with The Post Company, Mr. Butler was Chairman of PCS Action, a consortium of companies that secured the licensing and launch of the wireless digital industry of personal communications services. As President of Newsweek Productions, he supervised production of more than 200 hours of non-fiction programming, including "Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History," a PBS retrospective on the Watergate scandal, that won the Emmy Award for Best Documentary of 2003.
Mr. Butler earlier served as Washington Vice President of Times Mirror, the corporate parent of the Los Angeles Times, and was a Founder of the Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press, which now operates as the Pew Research Center. Mr. Butler also served as Government Relations Vice President for RCA Corporation and as Director of Corporate Public Relations for Bristol-Myers Company. He was Founder and President of Patrick Butler & Company, a communications consulting firm whose clients included leaders of government and business, including former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and actor Cary Grant.
In government service, Mr. Butler was Special Assistant to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker, Jr., Policy Director of Baker for President and consultant to the White House Chief of Staff during Baker's service with President Reagan. He was also a speechwriter and associate editor of the White House Editorial Office for President Gerald R. Ford. Mr. Butler was Chairman of the impeachment task force for U.S. Representative Lawrence J. Hogan, a member of the House Judiciary Committee during its consideration of articles of impeachment against President Nixon in 1974.
Mr. Butler was appointed by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the National Council on the Humanities, where he served as Chairman of the public programs committee for the National Endowment for the Humanities under chairman Lynne V. Cheney. During his tenure, Mr. Butler recommended funding Ken Burns’ public television series The Civil War.
Mr. Butler is Vice-chairman of the board of Trustees of American University, Vice-chairman of the board of the Foundation for the National Archives, Chairman of the Corporate Advisory Board of SOME and chairman Emeritus of the Maryland Public Television Foundation. He is a member of the Boards of America's Public Television Stations, the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, the DC College Access Program, the Children's Charities Foundation and the Better Angels Society supporting the work of Ken Burns.