Penn State is laying off all WPSU employees as part of the station’s transfer to WHYY, with the Philadelphia-based station making job offers to many of those employees.
The employees received notification Monday of Penn State's decision to proceed with the layoffs now. It comes as WPSU's transfer is still under review by the Federal Communications Commission.
A Penn State spokesman said in an email that the layoffs are affecting 31 full-time employees: 22 staff and nine unionized technical service employees.
The FCC review includes a public comment period of at least 30 days, which will be met on Wednesday. But there is not a specific timeframe for an FCC decision.
The Penn State spokesman said that “based on conversations with WHYY and insight from the FCC over the past few months, we believe that the acquisition will be close to complete by mid-September.”
If the approval takes longer, Penn State plans to extend some employees' contracts so that WPSU TV and radio operations can continue throughout the process.
The boards of both Penn State and WHYY approved the transfer in October 2025. Those votes reversed an earlier decision by the Penn State trustees' finance committee in September 2025 to reject a similar transfer agreement, but one that included $17 million in funding support from Penn State. Without the agreement, the university administration had said it would shut down WPSU by June 30, 2026.
The university had said it was not possible to continue to subsidize WPSU, particularly with the loss of federal funding.
