WHYY opens its doors to the community and supporters for Open House and Sustainer Summit

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WHYY held its annual Open House and Sustainer Summit Thursday evening, providing an inside look at the media productions and educational programming that the Greater Philadelphia public media stations feature.

At WHYY headquarters in Center City, several tables were available for attendees to learn about all of the services that WHYY provides. From exploring the focus of health and science with Maiken Scott and The Pulse team to participating in games about information on the environment with The Climate Desk and Quizzo with Billy Penn.

Sheldon Bass shared that his family has supported the station for over 30 years. “It’s a reliable source of the news and information, and we rely on it.”

In May 2025, President Donald Trump signed the Rescissions Act of 2025, which cut the $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. WHYY is supported by new and sustaining members of the station. The open house presented an opportunity to welcome the community inside the station to see how their dollars are put to work.

Using a map of the event space to navigate, attendees viewed the production studios for “You Oughta Know”. They also saw behind the scenes where “Studio 2,” “The Pulse” and “The Connection” are recorded.

“While WHYY values highly the growing use of its media platforms to support lifelong learning across the tri-state area, there is nothing like the chance to interact with public media’s supporters off line and off air,” said Bill Marazzo, WHYY president and CEO. “We learn so much from them about how to enhance the value of our services.”

Attendees were also able to record testimonials explaining why they support WHYY and share ideas on how we can continue to educate the community.

“WHYY provides the full range of news, entertainment kind of stuff as well,” said Yvonne Appletans, a supporter of the station. “International news, health, wellbeing, environment, just covers all the bases.”

To find more information about future events that WHYY hosts, visit whyy.org/events. Join WHYY for a special screening of “The American Revolution” with Terri Gross and Ken Burns on Oct. 9 at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden.