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Perantinides and Nolan donate $250,000 to WKSU
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: July 23, 2019
Akron law firm Perantinides and Nolan have committed to donate $250,000 to the newsroom at Kent State University’s public radio station WKSU. With their initial cash gift of $100,000, the station’s newsroom has been renamed the Perantinides and Nolan Newsroom.
The gift comes one year before the station’s 70th anniversary.
Kent State President Beverly Warren, in a letter to Perantinides, said that the gift was “an inspiring investment in independent journalism. Your gift will transform WKSU’s ability to serve our community with excellent reporting and will be a driving force in Kent State University’s priority of regional impact.”
The firm’s founding partner Paul Perantinides noted that this gift is a continuation of many years of the firm’s support of WKSU.
Perantinides and Nolan has long supported WKSU both financially and organizationally. They have underwritten programming for over 35 years and Perantinides sat on the station’s community advisory council from 1999 until recently. His replacement on that board will be Courtney J. Sutton, who is another member of the law firm.
WKSU Executive Director and General Manager Wendy Turner said that “it has been a pleasure getting to know Paul in the two-and-a-half years that I have been in this position. With every encounter, it is clear that he has a close alignment with our mission. He cares about an informed citizenry and doing good for the community comes up every time I have a conversation with him.”
Turner took this position after many years working at WBEZ in Chicago and public radio in Minnesota. She came to Kent, she said, because of the station’s stellar national reputation.
Natalie Pillsbury, director of advancement (fundraising) for the station, said that the money would be a substantial help in the finances of WKSU.
The station has an annual budget of “a little over” $4 million dollars, of which about 10 percent comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The rest comes from various kinds of fundraising.
“We hope that this gift inspires people to think about philanthropy regarding journalism, as true public service,” said Pillsbury, who noted that local journalism is both the lifeblood of a community and under extreme pressure now.
The donation will specifically go toward the news reporting capabilities of the station, but there are no specific strings attached to how the money will be used, said Perantinides.
Turner said that she would eventually like to see an expansion of the station’s newsroom staff, but at the same time “federal funding is always in jeopardy, so we see this endowment as a buffer against a potential loss of federal funds.
Notably, neither Perantinides nor Nolan attended Kent State University. Perantinides did his undergraduate work at Youngstown State University in his hometown, and Nolan did his at The Ohio State University. Both attended The University of Akron School of Law.
But Perantinides has been listening to WKSU since he returned from serving in Vietnam in the fall of 1971.
“I turned it on, liked what I heard, liked what I was learning. I taped all of it.”
It was a listening habit that stuck with him through the rest of his life. As he and his firm began attaining success, they began to look around for how they could contribute to the public good. In addition to working with several nonprofits, they decided to begin to underwrite shows on WKSU, starting around 1984.
“Chris Nolan and I believe in translating our success into significance,” said Perantinides. “We have an obligation to our immediate and extended community to have our non-professional activity to be such that they have an impact in the community. We pick our organizations that we support carefully.”
That has included strong support for the Boys & Girls Clubs and other charitable organizations. It gives them a seat at the table to help make sure that nonprofit boards do what they are supposed to do, said Perantinides.
In particular, Perantinides feels that the public education services broadcast by National Public Radio nationally and WKSU locally have brought the problems and potential solutions of this society to light—that is, he said, “if you choose to educate yourself and escape ignorance, then public radio provides a window into that knowledge. We have learned so much from NPR.”
Beyond the actual programming, the firm’s continued support of the station also reflects the way that WKSU conducts its business, said Perantinides.
“Having been so close to them through the years, having gone through so much with them, they have the highest level of talent and commitment,” said Perantinides.
He said that the station has been rightly recognized throughout the state and country for their high level of programming.
In the end, besides this gift, Perantinides, like Turner and Pillsbury, hopes that the gesture will inspire other people to “step up” and help keep local journalism alive.