Delmarva Public Radio selects Whitehair as general manager

Dana Whitehair arrives this week as the new general manager for financially struggling Delmarva Public Radio in Salisbury, Md., whose licensee will be reassessing the station’s future in three years.

Whitehair’s experience includes four years as g.m. of WNCW-FM at Isothermal Community College in Spindale, N.C. He also spent 17 years at University of Texas at Austin’s KUT, 11 of those as manager of technical services, and worked as a broadcast engineer at WXXI in Rochester, N.Y.

Most recently Whitehair was executive director of Foothills Connect Business & Technology Center, a nonprofit focused on expanding broadband service in western North Carolina.

Salisbury University said in today’s announcement that WSDL in Ocean City, Md., and WSCL in Salisbury will soon move from their headquarters on campus to temporary facilities nearby. The university is building a new tower and replacing aging equipment. The SU Foundation will transfer licenses to the university, “where DPR is expected to form closer ties with SU academic programs,” the announcement said.

“In recent years, with a changing media market,” it noted, “DPR has been losing listenership and running deficits. In spite of these challenges, SU has reaffirmed its commitment to DPR for at least three more years and is looking to a change of leadership to make the stations sustainable.”

“The university has made an enormous investment of confidence in DPR,” Whitehair said. “While other colleges are divesting themselves of their public radio stations, SU did not.”

Whitehair begins work Wednesday.