Vegas PBS exec surprised by national award

It took a lot of effort for the Public Broadcasting Service to surprise Tom Axtell, general manager of Vegas PBS, with the 2012 Scott C. Elliott Development Professional of the Year award.

The longtime public broadcasting executive, with offices at 3050 E. Flamingo Road, is known for looking ahead and always being prepared. To do it, PBS had to enlist the station's programming and corporate communications officer, Cyndy Robbins, to make sure Axtell was not only surprised by the honor but that he was at the ceremony to be honored.

"He is someone who likes to make the most of every opportunity to network," Robbins said. "For me to pin him down and get him there was a challenge."

The ceremony took place July 13 at an annual PBS gathering in Seattle. To get him there, Robbins arranged a meeting with her, Axtell and the head of PBS fundraising programs at the 8 a.m. ceremony. Axtell was completely surprised that 1,000 people were there, in part, to celebrate him.

"The organizer s were really pleased to see the look on his face," Robbins said. "He's very humble. I think it's hard for him to be recognized as an individual, even though it's his leadership and guidance that's getting us where we are."

In fact, Axtell took Robbins up to the dais with him and acknowledged her efforts and those of the entire Vegas PBS staff.

A week later, Axtell still insisted the honor was a group effort.

"It's nice to get singled out, but I happen to think the success we have isn't necessarily mine," he said. "It's because of all the people we have who work on these kind of things."

The citation noted that Vegas PBS has a history of innovating new approaches to fundraising .

"I'm proud of the entrepreneurial approaches we've taken to raising funds," Axtell said. "A lot of public television stations rely on a mix of charitable donations and government grants. Nearly 50 percent of our income comes from what is called earned income or fee-for-service income."

To do that, the station has done things such as court cooking programs with its state-of-the art kitchen studio.

Axtell has worked in public radio in Minneapolis and Fargo, N.D., and public television in Spokane, Wash., Milwaukee and Las Vegas.

"There's nothing like Las Vegas," he said. "This is America's greatest city."

Axtell said the important difference between raising funds in Las Vegas and other places he's worked is that Las Vegas, being a young city, lacks a legacy of long-established charitable organizations.

"Other places have founding families that were committed to major institutions and organizations," Axtell said. "Las Vegas has many generous people, but that sort of multigenerational family tradition, with large endowments and very skilled and thoughtful people leading the endowment, is something that a community grows into."

Axtell said that in the 18 years he has been here, the city has steadily been growing and developing regarding charity. He also feels that what the city lacks in tradition it makes up for in forward thinking.

"It's open to innovation and trying new ideas," Axtell said. "It's a very open, inventive and creative kind of place. It's also an incredibly welcoming town, where people care about what you do."

For more information about Vegas PBS, visit vegaspbs.org.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.