Rocky Mountain PBS restructures exec ranks, Fraser heads KMUW-FM and more comings and goings in pubmedia

Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver has restructured its management team.

“It is critical that we have leaders at the helm of our ship who can help shape the future of public media for all of Colorado and beyond,”said Doug Price, c.e.o. of the Rocky Mountain Broadcasting Network, in an announcement. “We have made tremendous strides over the past year with the merger of Rocky Mountain PBS, KUVO jazz public radio and I-News, our public-service journalism team, and I look forward to continued growth and success up ahead.” The organizations joined forces in January 2013.

Harris Ravine, network c.o.o., is also now president and general manager of KRMA-TV, one of the network’s five stations. His previous experience includes chairing the board of Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn. He also practiced law.

Carlos Lando, previously interim president and program director of KUVO-FM, rises to president and g.m. As p.d. he helped establish KUVO/KVJZ as a community-based jazz station, and he continues to host First Take with Lando and Chavis, featuring music, news and community affairs.

Laura Frank steps up to president and g.m., news, at Rocky Mountain PBS; her previous title was I-News executive director and v.p., news. She’s a Denver native who has worked for 20 years at newspapers, radio and public television stations around the country.

And Amanda Mountain becomes e.v.p. and chief marketing officer at Rocky Mountain PBS. Previously, Mountain was founding executive director of the Tim Gill Center for Public Media, a collaboration among 21 community organizations including the network.

Debra Fraser took over as general manager of KMUW-FM at Wichita State University in Kansas July 1.

Most recently, Fraser served as c.o.o. and station manager of Houston Public Media at University of Houston. At the Texas pubcaster, Fraser developed and managed a $20 million budget for the three-station group. She also led strategic development and execution of radio on-air pledge campaigns and established internship labs for news, music, TV and digital services.

Fraser joined KUHF-FM, now part of Houston Public Media, in 1988 as a news reporter and anchor. She rose to news director in 1992, station manager in 2003 and c.o.o. in 2007.

At KMUW, she replaces Mark McCain, who retired in December after 19 years.

Management

The Pacifica Foundation has selected Quincy McCoy as the new general manager of KPFA-FM in Berkeley, Calif. McCoy was previously executive director of the Museum of Children’s Arts in Oakland, Calif. The author of No Static: A Guide to Creative Radio Programming (Backbeat Books, 2002), McCoy also spent eight years as v.p. of radio at MTV Networks and served on the board of Youth Radio International.

Programming

Bradley George is a new senior anchor/correspondent for Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta. He’ll contribute stories to GPB’s nightly news show On the Story and host Morning Edition, which he did at WPLN-FM in Nashville since 2011. Before joining WPLN, he worked as afternoon news host and reporter at WBHM-FM, pubradio in Birmingham, Ala.

Shannon Spillane is the new co-host of the 40-year-old Ceol na nGael (“Music of the Irish”) on WFUV-FM in New York City. Spillane, a sophomore at licensee Fordham University, joins Megan Scully, a senior, on the program, which has always been hosted by Fordham students. Spillane “has been immersed in Irish music and culture her entire life,” an announcement said; her grandparents are from Kerry and Cork, and she has been to Ireland at least a dozen times.

 

Governance

Jonathan D. Rogers is the new board chair at WYPR-FM in Baltimore. He succeeds Jack Machen, whose term expired June 30. Rogers has served on WYPR’s board since 2011. He is an s.v.p. at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management. He previously led the board of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.

Nonprofit news

Mark Katches, editorial director at the Center for Investigative Reporting in Emeryville, Calif., since 2009, is now v.p. of content for the Oregonian Media Group and editor of the Oregonian newspaper in Portland. Before his work at CIR, Katches created and ran investigative teams at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Orange County Register.

Legal

Jon Hart joined NPR July 1 as chief legal officer and general counsel. Hart previously practiced as a partner at Cooley LLC in Washington, D.C., in its technology transactions practice group. He also has served as outside general counsel to commercial ventures including Cox Interactive Media and Worth magazine and to nonprofit organizations such as the Center for Public Integrity, the Online News Association, Public Media Platform Inc. and the Online Publishers Association. He often speaks on media, technology and publishing law, and he authored Internet Law: A Field Guide (BNA Books), now in its sixth edition.