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Nonprofiteer
← ALABAMA EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION FOUNDATION AUTHORITY

Form 990 for tax year 2024

Filed by ALABAMA EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION FOUNDATION AUTHORITY.

Totals

Total revenue
$8,330,630
Total expenses
$7,253,816
Contributions and grants received
$2,268,410
Grants paid
$51,000
Program service revenue
$5,181,936
Investment income
$227,373
Other revenue
$652,911
Total assets, end of year
$16,897,855
Total liabilities, end of year
$1,010,975
Net assets or fund balances, end of year
$15,886,880
Program services expenses (Part IX)
$5,554,244
Management and general expenses
$929,477
Fundraising expenses
$770,095
Program service expenses (Part III)
$5,554,244

Program services were 76.6% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Revenue

Part VIII, the statement of revenue.

  • 1d · Related organizations

    $1,593,018

  • 1f · All other contributions, gifts and grants

    $675,392

  • 2a · Program service revenue: Corporation for Public

    total $3,111,657 · related or exempt $3,111,657

  • 2b · Program service revenue: State of Alabama Depar

    total $795,117 · related or exempt $795,117

  • 2c · Program service revenue: Public Broadcasting Se

    total $79,838 · related or exempt $79,838

  • 2d · Program service revenue: Alabama Community Coll

    total $76,450 · related or exempt $76,450

  • 2e · Program service revenue: Alabama Power

    total $76,245 · related or exempt $76,245

  • 2f · All other program service revenue

    total $1,042,629 · related or exempt $1,042,629

  • 3 · Investment income

    total $227,373 · excluded $227,373

  • 11a · Other revenue: APT Foundation

    total $647,010 · related or exempt $647,010

  • 11b · Other revenue: All other revenue

    total $5,901 · related or exempt $5,901

  • 11e · Other revenue, total

    $652,911

Functional expenses

Part IX, the statement of functional expenses.

  • 2 · Grants to domestic individuals

    total $51,000 · program services $51,000

  • 5 · Compensation of officers, directors and key employees

    total $17,100 · management and general $17,100

  • 7 · Other salaries and wages

    total $3,163,776 · program services $2,357,912 · management and general $230,948 · fundraising $574,916

  • 8 · Pension plan contributions

    total $101,210 · program services $77,668 · management and general $8,942 · fundraising $14,600

  • 9 · Other employee benefits

    total $421,795 · program services $323,682 · management and general $37,267 · fundraising $60,846

  • 10 · Payroll taxes

    total $239,617 · program services $183,880 · management and general $21,171 · fundraising $34,566

  • 11b · Fees: legal

    total $29,012 · management and general $29,012

  • 11c · Fees: accounting

    total $41,800 · management and general $41,800

  • 11g · Fees: other

    total $33,986 · program services $7,814 · management and general $26,172

  • 12 · Advertising and promotion

    total $303,495 · program services $212,317 · management and general $19,459 · fundraising $71,719

  • 13 · Office expenses

    total $150,755 · program services $79,740 · management and general $66,825 · fundraising $4,190

  • 14 · Information technology

    total $73,894 · program services $26,000 · management and general $39,107 · fundraising $8,787

  • 16 · Occupancy

    total $64,430 · program services $58,910 · management and general $5,520

  • 17 · Travel

    total $247,944 · program services $152,148 · management and general $95,325 · fundraising $471

  • 19 · Conferences, conventions and meetings

    total $36,196 · program services $14,143 · management and general $22,053

  • 21 · Payments to affiliates

    total $41,609 · management and general $41,609

  • 22 · Depreciation, depletion and amortization

    total $54,340 · program services $51,629 · management and general $2,711

  • 23 · Insurance

    total $121,331 · management and general $121,331

  • 24a · Other expenses: Programming Acquisition

    total $1,213,271 · program services $1,213,271

  • 24b · Other expenses: Production-on-air / web

    total $381,639 · program services $381,639

  • 24c · Other expenses: Broadcast network opera

    total $253,956 · program services $150,831 · management and general $103,125

  • 24d · Other expenses: Educational materials /

    total $211,660 · program services $211,660

Balance sheet

Part X, book values.

  • 1 · Cash, non-interest-bearing

    beginning of year $1,000 · end of year $1,000

  • 2 · Savings and temporary cash investments

    beginning of year $4,491,642 · end of year $5,509,338

  • 3 · Pledges and grants receivable

    beginning of year $40,883 · end of year $18,498

  • 4 · Accounts receivable

    beginning of year $192,333 · end of year $356,286

  • 9 · Prepaid expenses and deferred charges

    beginning of year $280,867 · end of year $277,099

  • 10a · Land, buildings and equipment: cost or other basis

    $2,284,558

  • 10b · Land, buildings and equipment: accumulated depreciation

    $1,264,755

  • 10c · Land, buildings and equipment, net

    beginning of year $1,075,944 · end of year $1,019,803

  • 11 · Investments: publicly traded securities

    beginning of year $8,982,652 · end of year $9,715,831

  • 17 · Accounts payable and accrued expenses

    beginning of year $772,413 · end of year $819,999

  • 19 · Deferred revenue

    beginning of year $201,942 · end of year $190,976

  • 27 · Net assets without donor restrictions

    beginning of year $10,801,163 · end of year $12,740,543

  • 28 · Net assets with donor restrictions

    beginning of year $3,289,803 · end of year $3,146,337

Mission and programs · 2024

Mission

The AETFA's sole purpose is to provide funding support for Alabama Public Television (APT); therefore, it fully embraces the stated mission of APT. In summary, APT is committed to enrich the lives of Alabama citizens by providing essential educational services with the highest quality direct instructional content through digital streaming; by acting as an indispensable resource of Alabama's Storyteller; by promoting Alabama to the world as a unique community postured for business and growth; by working closely with Homeland Security and state agencies to provide a statewide network to disseminate information effectively in times of disaster; by bringing the very best in the world of music, theater, dance and the arts to enrich and inspire the lives of the people of our state; and by offering programming that educates the citizenry, giving them the means and the desire to reach their highest potential through the development of a strong work ethic bonded to honesty and integrity.

Activities or mission (Part I)

The Alabama Educational Television Foundation Authority (AETFA) was created in 1982 as a public corporation by Code of Alabama 16-7A-1. It's primary mission is to raise and expend funds in support of the mission of the Alabama Educational Television Commission (AETC) whose nine public television stations and one FM public radio station are licensed to the State of Alabama by the Federal Communications Commission. The funds raised by the AETFA supplement the budget of the AETC which receives annual appropriations from the Alabama State Education Trust Fund. Together, the AETFA and the AETC operate and do business as Alabama Public Television under the brand name of APT which is widely recognized throughout the state as well as nationally.

  • Education Services:1. Alabama Public Television (APT) facilitates student learning in a variety of ways. In FY 2025, the Educational Services staff presented at various conferences as well as facilitated K-12 teacher development/training workshops. Through their efforts, educations who affect the lives of over 80,000 students were served.2. Early Childhood Learning - AETFA, through its employed team of trainers and those of partner organizations previously trained by AETFA staff, conducted workshops for educators and parents of children ages birth to eight throughout the state of Alabama. The workshops demonstrated ways to incorporate PBS children's programming, broadcast by APT or available for streaming on the APT website, into comprehensive learning experiences that also included reading and other activities related to the content. Through APT and our partners trainings, over 55,000 students were directly or indirectly reached. Futhermore, the Early Childhood Learning staff provided 111 on-demand courses with over 22,000 course completions. APT once again hosted Be My Neighbor Day. Over 675 people attended the event at Boaz Public Library. During the event the Early Childhood staff distributed resource bags to all families and donated 100 sweaters to a local charity.

    Expenses $1,420,084 · Grants $51,000 · Revenue $1,311,539

  • Programming and Broadcast Delivery:1. APT leases the majority of its content for television from the Public Broadcast System (PBS) and is a member affiliate of this distributor. APT also leases a smaller amount of its content needs from various other distributors. The AETFA assists directly with purchasing a portion of these costs which exceeded $4.03 million in fiscal 2025.2. APT leases the majority of its content for its FM-public radio station (WLRH) located in Huntsville from National Public Radio (NPR) and several other distributors. The AETFA assists directly with purchasing a portion of these costs which exceeded $290,000 in fiscal 2025.3. The engineering, utility, technical and equipment costs of broadcasting television signals over the entire state on a 24 hour-7 day basis well exceeded $6.1 million in fiscal 2025 including that of WLRH-FM. The AETFA assists with paying for these expenses by purchasing needed equipment and paying vendor invoices directly when the state appropriation has been exhausted for the year.4. APT's association and membership in nationally recognized content distributors such as PBS and NPR provide viewers and listeners in the state with quality, commercial free television and radio that they depend on as a trusted source for educational content value and entertainment integrity.

    Expenses $2,122,064 · Revenue $2,954,334

  • Production:1. AETFA assists with the funding needs of APT to produce television and web-based programs on a local level. Such programs include Capitol Journal, Spotlight on Education, Subcarrier, Monograph, DIY Science, Garden Party and documentary specials including Shuttlesworth.2. APT and WLRH-FM continue to receive awards for locally produced television and radio programming along with educational content produced for the web. Through 2025, the programming and production efforts have received a combined 43 Southeastern Regional Emmy Awards, 120 Telly Awards, 2 National Cine Awards, 3 Edward R Murrow Awards, 31 Alabama Broadcasters Association Awards, 14 National Educational Telecommunication Association Awards, and 1 National Association of Broadcasters' Service to America's Children Award.

    Expenses $2,012,096 · Revenue $1,568,974

As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

  • Harvey Lester Barnett

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $50
    From this org
    $0
    From related orgs
    $50
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Tijuanna Adetunji

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • W Peter Conroy

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • J Holland

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $50
    From this org
    $0
    From related orgs
    $50
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Belva M Williams

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $50
    From this org
    $0
    From related orgs
    $50
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Ferris W Stephens

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Barry B Copeland

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Johnny Curry

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Dr Allen Mendenhall

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • William A Green Jr

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $50
    From this org
    $0
    From related orgs
    $50
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Dr Douglas L Ragland

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Melissa Austin

    Chief Financial Officer

    Total calculated
    $135,136
    From this org
    $6,500
    From related orgs
    $102,516
    Other
    $26,120
    Hours/week
    40

  • D Wayne Reid

    Executive Director

    Total calculated
    $252,640
    From this org
    $9,300
    From related orgs
    $199,872
    Other
    $43,468
    Hours/week
    40

    Schedule J breakdown matched by us

    Base
    $9,300 + $199,872 related
    Bonus
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Deferred
    $0
    Nontaxable benefits
    $0 + $43,468 related
    Filer's total
    $9,300 + $243,340 related

  • Philip F Hutcheson

    Interim Executive Director

    Total calculated
    $127,823
    From this org
    $1,950
    From related orgs
    $105,360
    Other
    $20,513
    Hours/week
    40

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Answered yes

  • 2 · Substantiation required before reimbursing expenses
  • 3 · Approval by the board or compensation committee

Answered no

  • 4a · Severance or change-of-control payment
  • 4b · Supplemental nonqualified retirement plan
  • 4c · Equity-based compensation arrangement
  • 5a · Pay contingent on this organization's revenues
  • 5b · Pay contingent on a related organization's revenues
  • 6a · Pay contingent on this organization's net earnings
  • 6b · Pay contingent on a related organization's net earnings
  • 7 · Other non-fixed payments
  • 8 · Paid under the initial-contract exception

The filer's explanations (Part III)

Part I, Line 3
Compensation recommendations and evaluations of the work performance of the Executive Director is conducted by a committee appointed by the Chair of the Alabama Educational Television Commission on a periodic basis. This committee may use a number of resources to assist with their charge including use of salary surveys, interviews with key employees and officers, and other benchmarks that may have been previously established.

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Related organizations on this return

Schedule R Part II: tax-exempt organizations related to the filer by control. It does not record shared board members or money.

  • Alabama Educational Television Commission

    Governmental Entity · Educational Television · AL

  • APT Foundation

    501(c)(3) · Fundraising · AL

Provenance

Return type
form_990
Tax year
2024
Filed
14 August 2026
IRS schema version
2024v5.5
Source object
202602269349302730

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