Due to Circumstances . . .

After a disappointing 1967-68 season, the staff of the Public Broadcasting Laboratory was naturally let down. Then last month PBL, the Ford Foundation's $12.5 million experiment in public-interest television, began its second year on an encouragingly upbeat note (TIME, Dec. 6). Birth and Death, PBL's cinema verite documentary on natural childbirth and death by cancer, won critical acclaim, and the staff was jubilant. Said Executive Director Av (Avram) Westin: "This year we go for broke."

Last week Westin went, all right, but not for broke. Come March, he announced, he will leave PBL to take over as executive producer of ABC's nightly Frank Reynolds news show. Westin's new job will probably pay him between $50,000 and $60,000 a year (about what he earned at PBL). The imminent departure reinforced industry rumors that PBL will soon be going too. The Ford Foundation's TV consultant, Fred Friendly, would say only that "no decision has been reached at this time."

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