Chloe Wellingham Aaron, who, when she became senior vice president for programming at PBS in 1976, was “believed to be the highest-ranking woman executive at the network level in the history of television,” as the announcement of her hiring put it, died on Feb. 29 at her home in Washington. She was 81.

Emily Eliza Wall, her goddaughter, said the cause was cancer and related complications.

During her four and a half years in the PBS post, Ms. Aaron sought ways for the service to compete against the big three commercial networks that existed at the time, all the while fighting its perpetual budgetary woes. She made a particular mark with arts programming, starting, among other programs, “Live From the Metropolitan Opera” (also known as “The Metropolitan Opera Presents”).

She helped PBS establish a national identity. When she arrived, the local affiliates that made up the Public Broadcasting Service were largely going their own way in programming; Ms. Aaron brought uniformity to the prime-time hours, as The New York Times noted in 1981.

“She set about persuading the PBS affiliates, a fractious and independent group, to allow ‘common carriage’ four nights each week (Sunday to Wednesday) between 8 and 11 p.m.,” the newspaper wrote. “It was a turning point for PBS, something that had never happened before. In effect, the affiliates agreed to yield their prime evening hours and permit PBS to create a national network.”