Dennis Adkins, the executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, will retire Dec. 21, according to the Charleston Gazette. The announcement came after an hourlong executive session of the Educational Broadcasting Authority on Thursday (Sept. 13), and after “months of Adkins being at odds with authority members over finances and the future of public broadcasting in the state,” the newspaper said. West Virginia Public Broadcasting faces a 7.5 percent state funding for 2013-14, amounting to a $420,000 reduction. In August, Adkins had proposed some $200,000 in cuts that included dropping APTS membership. He’s been at the station since 2007.
Board members also directed the chair to begin a search for Adkins’ replacement, and appoint a task force to study the future of public broadcasting.
At the same meeting, News Director Beth Vorhees told the board she is hiring two full-time reporters for the station’s Charleston newsroom to expand its news operations to seven days a week, in the wake of criticism over its failure to cover the June 29 derecho storm, which struck on a Friday night.