In July of 2026, GBH and NEPM finalized a merger, bringing Boston and Springfield’s public media organizations together (with Cape and Islands Radio, CAI) under the same statewide public media network. This marks the beginning of an extraordinary new chapter, integrating three stations — their employees, supporters, and communities — into a collaborative public media powerhouse with a mission to tell stories that matter to all Bay Staters, while maintaining local character and identity.
Central to this merger is the idea that our stations have much we can learn from and share with each other to become — in the words of GBH President and CEO Susan Goldberg — stronger together. From sharing content and broadcasts to hosting collaborative events and forming a system of newsrooms that cover every corner of the state, the opportunities that come with this merger will help realize GBH’s Connecting the Commonwealth initiative.
In order to get a fuller picture of the ways the organizations are stronger together, we sat down with Matt Abramovitz, NEPM President and GBH Vice President of Audience Strategy and Operations.
GBH and NEPM have been partners for a while now, but could you talk about how this merger came about?
To give you a sense of the history, GBH had a TV license out here in Western Mass. called WGBY. GBH stood for “Great Blue Hill,” and GBY was short for “Great Blue Yonder” — which always makes me laugh. In 2019, WGBY merged with the Springfield NPR affiliate, New England Public Radio, under the umbrella of “New England Public Media.” All along, we’ve been deeply connected to GBH, but the rescission of public media’s federal funding brought into focus the need to think about doing things a little differently to ensure that we survive long-term.
Late last year, we started to talk about what a merger would look like logistically, as well as the opportunities it would provide to expand service within our local market while also connecting the Commonwealth.
Why was right now the right time for this relationship to be formalized?
We’re a small state. All three stations share a lot of the same values, our missions align, so we figured: let’s combine our resources and efforts so that we can be more efficient and continue delivering our services to the public for the long haul.
Speaking of collaborating, what opportunities does this partnership present to all three stations’ coverage offerings and capabilities?
There are so many examples where it’s coming together. Look at a show like In Common: News from the Berkshires to the Bay. We’re doing something that nobody else has tried, which is to have a show every week that captures stories affecting the lives of people across the entire state. It’s a way for us to get to know each other — across, inside, and outside of I-495.
On the classical side, NEPM now carries all of the Boston Symphony Orchestra broadcasts from Tanglewood that CRB produces. That’s a 50% increase in classical coverage from Tanglewood. And on the back end, there are service contracts and other relationships that we can negotiate as a statewide entity rather than as individual stations, giving us additional leverage and creating efficiencies.
Events are another area where we see a lot of promise. Our stations do a lot of like-minded things: like an event with our local bird club, our book club, or our speaker series called “Smart and Funny People,” where we partner with a local presenter to bring interesting conversations and entertainment to the Springfield area.
Every year, we have Hunger Awareness Week and our March for the Food Bank. Monte Belmonte, one of the hosts of our radio show, “Fabulous 413,” is deeply committed to feeding the people of Western Mass. For more than 15 years, he’s been running this march in mid-November where he pushes an empty shopping cart 42 miles, from Springfield to Greenfield, raising money for the Food Bank of Western Mass. It’s the single largest fundraiser for the food bank, and we’re proud to promote it on air. All of these ideas can be adapted and replicated in other places. Likewise, there is a lot of stuff happening at GBH that we can adapt or combine with our events programming.
I also think there’s real value in people working together. Across the board, we do some pretty specialized work in public media. For instance, the job of a classical radio host might be to pick through 500 years of music to find the right hour for your audience. But now, working in partnership with the other stations, we have a community of practice. You’re not the only person doing that anymore; there are plenty of colleagues who share your passion and commitment to doing great work.
Why is it so important that NEPM maintains its local character and identity, even as it joins this statewide public media network?
People feel strongly about their local public media station. They want these local institutions to survive, because they foster a unique sense of place and human connection that can’t really be replicated at scale.
One of the keys to a functioning society and democracy is the public having shared information that is true and trustworthy, and makes people feel like they’re not alone, but rather, tied to others in their community. Because the truth is we share more in common than things that divide us.
We can offer that through journalism, storytelling, and arts programming that bring people together. When we do that, people have better access to trusted information, more awareness of what is happening politically, and a greater sense of what their neighbors are going through. It makes our community a more functioning, kinder, happier place to be.
What are your hopes for NEPM and this public media network going forward?
I hope this merger and the solutions we find working more closely together will strengthen our local service and help us tell stories across Massachusetts, making us more informed and connected people.
By connecting our newsrooms, music teams, and being a more unified organization, not only do we get the benefits of working with all the experts across the state, but we also make the perspectives of Western Mass. impossible to ignore. That would be a huge benefit to the folks out here, but also to the whole state.
What’s something supporters would be surprised to learn about you?
I’m a birder, a baker, and I’m currently building an acoustic guitar. Also, Through NEPM’s “Fabulous 413” podcast, I got to go out birding with [the hosts] and David Sibley for a segment on birding. Sibley, who lives in South Deerfield, wrote all the Sibley Guides to Birds and created the Sibley Birds app. I was lapping it up, birding with someone who’s so knowledgeable and whose ears are so sharp.
What are you watching right now?
I’m mostly watching TV with my young daughter. She’s enjoyed The Marlow Murder Club quite a bit, but right now we’re on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Monarch.
What can we find you doing in your free time?
I live in a co-housing community in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is an intentional living community where neighbors pitch in to get all the work done. So when I have free time, I’m out doing yard work, tending the chickens, and doing projects around the community to keep it up.
What are some of your favorite places you’ve traveled?
We took a big family vacation to Costa Rica. That was super fun. We were in a rental place in the jungle, and we just sat on the porch, watching the birds and monkeys come and go. Our whole family is really into wildlife and birding, so it was a real treat to be in that environment, exposed to so much wildlife from the comfort of the porch.
You’ve worked in public media and broadcasting for several decades now. What keeps you coming back?
I started my career in high school volunteering at a local public jazz station in Newark called WBGO. I was there because I loved the magic of talking to people and connecting to them through music. I found my people — who were committed to serving communities and enjoyed broadcasting. So I got the bug from those years as a high school kid. I went on to work for Sirius Satellite Radio, as well as WQXR, a public station in New York.
What I really love about working in public media is that — for lack of a better phrase — the kindness is the point. The work we want to produce connects people and makes them feel seen, part of something bigger than themselves. That’s always been a driver for me. In commercial media, you track users; but when you work in public media, everybody’s a neighbor. That difference is everything to me.
—
Check out NEPM’s programming and content and keep an eye out for future collaborations between the stations.
