This week's layoffs of nine staffers at WQED Multimedia included Jocelyn Hough, executive producer for local programming, and Dave Rhodes, half of the on-air team that hosts "Dave & Dave's Excellent Adventures."

Rhodes was also the station's go-to director of in-studio programming, including "On Q." An "On Q" graphic artist was also let go. (Hough declined to comment and Rhodes could not be reached for comment.)

A statement WQED released Tuesday said the staff cuts would not "immediately impact" local programming -- newsmagazine "On Q" is on hiatus until fall -- including "Dave & Dave," but with Rhodes gone, will the show become just "Dave's Excellent Adventures" or might Rhodes return on a freelance basis to continue his on-air role?

Will local programming, the station's primary focus for the past decade, go by the wayside? And what of the station's signature show, "On Q"?

WQED president George Miles did not want to talk about personnel issues yesterday, but he did say that the station can sustain "On Q" through the end of the year, but beyond that the future is uncertain.

"If you've got $1 and local programming costs $1 and national programming costs $1, what will you do?" Miles said. "I don't have an answer to that."

Miles said the company is taking steps now to prevent the organization from going "over the cliff" in the future. He said WQED has not only been "navigating through rough waters" but also planning en route. "I look at things once a week to look at where our numbers are. Are projected revenues coming in? Are we making sure our revenues exceed our expenses?"

The overall problems facing WQED include a decline in membership donations, a proposed state budget that eliminates funding to public television stations (including $1.1 million for WQED) and a downturn in foundation/corporate donations.

"We are concerned about WQED's future and we care about its mission," said John Ellis, spokesman for The Pittsburgh Foundation, which has given more than $600,000 to WQED over the past five years. "Like most public service TV stations across the country, WQED needs to develop a sustainable model for public service television in this region and we hope they're successful in that endeavor."

Representatives of other local foundations contacted for this story did not want to talk about the WQED situation. Miles said WQED promised to present foundations with a new strategic plan by July; it will be unveiled publicly at WQED's July 23 board meeting. A meeting of or with foundation leaders may happen sooner.

"I haven't heard anything else [from the foundations]," Miles said. "I've heard a lot of rumors, but not one person has called me up and said get [him] out of here. My board hasn't said that to me either. We're on target to finish this fiscal year [ending Sept. 30] in the black."

Miles said he is under contract to WQED until 2011.

Dick Stover, chairman of the WQED board, said the board "absolutely" has confidence in the current management team.

"Starting at this time last year, George began talking about his 'hunker down budget' in anticipation of a difficult 2009, and we took some actions early in our fiscal 2009 with regard to cutting back on expenses and those kinds of things, and now we're looking at 2010 and we're saying it will also be an economically challenging year," Stover said. "This is part of an overall plan, not a knee-jerk reaction on the part of management."

Stover expressed confidence that despite the layoffs, WQED will continue to produce local programming.

"You would hope there are people who can step into those shoes," Stover said. "Just because the Pirates trade away their best pitcher doesn't mean they don't play ball. Well, in the case of the Pirates, they don't play well, but we'll do fine. The point is, you have bench strength and you do what you need to do to make it in these kind of times."

Clyde Goff of Avalon, who said he's supported WQED financially since the early 1970s, said he was upset no one in management was let go. Most of those dismissed this week were lower-level workers -- in the tape vault, the mailroom -- with lower salaries to match.

Miles defended the move, saying that when he arrived at WQED in 1994, the station had 17 vice presidents -- it now has four, plus general manager Deborah Acklin, an executive vice president and general manager.

WQED's most recently available 990 tax forms, filed last August for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2007, showed Miles earning $306,259 base salary (with $23,500 in benefits contributions and a $14,260 expense account) and Acklin earning $240,000 (with $19,000 in benefits contributions and a $19,364 expense account).

Since then, Miles and Acklin have both taken pay cuts -- Miles by 30 percent to $214,382 and Acklin by 21 percent to $189,600 -- and Miles said "everything is on the table" for discussion as WQED plans for 2010, including his salary. Miles also noted that two top-tier positions have been eliminated: vice president of education (which paid $133,000 in 2007) and vice president of publishing ($135,000). Remaining VPs each earned more than $130,000 in 2007; four other executives took pay cuts in March ranging from 20 percent to 26 percent.

In late May, WQED sold Pittsburgh Magazine -- the sale price was not disclosed -- but the company felt layoffs were still necessary. Miles said the company sold its magazine because "we're not in the print business. We're in the electronic media business." As such, WQED didn't want to invest in the print product.

"Magazines are not going for prices that are so outrageous that this is a cure-all," Miles said. "If tomorrow we sold WQEX for eight figures, that may be a different story."

That seems unlikely to happen, but Miles did say WQED has renewed its lease of WQEX to ShopNBC through 2011.

"I don't think [WQED is] existing with their mission statement to serve the public as they originally set out to do," WQED supporter Goff said. Still, he will continue to donate to WQED. "I don't feel it's right for me to say I'm giving up on WQED. Would we be better off today without WQED as an entity? My answer to that is no."