Jo Anne Wallace, VP and GM of KQED Radio in San Francisco, will retire from the station in late November.
Wallace has worked for KQED since 1990, when she joined the station as GM of KQED Public Radio.
Wallace
“Jo Anne Wallace is one of the superstars of public radio and we are so fortunate that she dedicated 28 years of her career to KQED,” said KQED President John Boland in a release. “She built the most successful public radio station in the nation and the people of the Bay Area have been the beneficiaries. She has also been a generous and collaborative colleague to everyone at KQED and she will be missed.”
Wallace served three terms on the NPR Board and was elected vice chair in her second and third terms. She is a member of the board of directors of the Station Resource Group.
Before joining KQED, Wallace worked in NPR’s news division for nine years.
She began her radio career in 1969 as a volunteer at WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she became manager in 1973. She also worked at WGBH in Boston and KPFA in Berkeley, Calif.
After leaving KQED, she plans to consult with public radio stations and producers on audience building and content strategies.
Content
Charney
NPR has promoted Tamar Charney from managing editor of NPR One to managing director for personalization and curation. Charney “will work closely with Digital Media focusing on how editorial content — particularly audio content — is created, aggregated, and distributed for new digital audiences using personalization algorithms,” said Christopher Turpin, acting SVP of news and editorial, in a statement Thursday. Charney has been with NPR for nearly three years. Previously she was program director at Michigan Radio and assistant PD at Detroit Public Radio.
Longtime KCRW host Gary Calamar has left the Santa Monica, Calif., station, according to Variety. Sunday was his final appearance. “I’m very sorry to leave KCRW, which has been my radio home for 25 years,” Calamar told the entertainment media outlet. “I’m grateful for all the opportunities I’ve been offered, but times change, and it’s time to move on. I’m looking forward to what the future brings.” Calamar “is in talks with both terrestrial and satellite radio for his next show,” Variety said.
Greenberg
Boston’s WGBH has named Ben Greenberg director of digital content for American Experience. Greenberg previously worked as senior manager of digital communications for Management Sciences for Health, a multinational nongovernmental organization. As a freelance journalist, he has reported for NPR’s Code Switch and USA Today. Greenberg also co-founded the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Civil Rights Cold Case Project.
New England Public Radio is expanding its Saturday classical programming by hiring host Steve Petke, anchoring 1–5 p.m. Petke has been a substitute host at the Springfield, Mass., station for two years. Previously he was classical music director at WWUH in West Hartford, Conn. “He has performed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as the barking dog in Walter Piston’s The Incredible Flutist,” NEPR noted in its announcement.
Legal
Pemberton-Heard
Attorney Denielle Pemberton-Heard, who has worked at PBS for 16 years as group counsel for business affairs, has joined Diversified Search, an executive search firm. She is general counsel and managing director in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. Pemberton-Heard is also senior adviser to Diversified Search’s STEMconnector, a professional services firm working to increase the number of workers in fields using science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Human resources
Marcello Sawyer has left American Public Media after working as its human resources manager for six years. “I left to spend more time at home,” Sawyer told Current in an email. “I’m a full-time dad and husband.” Earlier in his career he worked in HR at the Los Angeles Times and Coca-Cola.
Communications
Hardwick
Donna Hardwick is the new chief marketing officer at PRX. Previously she was senior director of communications at the Independent Television Service in San Francisco. She began her public media career at WGBH, where she led station relations marketing. She also spent five years as director of communications at American Public Television.
Anna Fry has joined WAMU in Washington, D.C., as a media relations and communications specialist. Previously she worked in marketing and communications at DataPath Inc. She also reported for newspapers in Arkansas and Kansas.
Fellowships
Ten Audion Fellows will spend the next two years reporting from public media stations as part of the Guns & America project headed by WAMU in Washington, D.C. The fellows are: Adhiti Bandlamudi at WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C.; Anthony Cave, KERA, Dallas; Heath Druzin, Boise State Public Radio, Idaho; Lisa Hagen, WABE, Atlanta; Chris Haxel, KCUR, Kansas City, Mo.; Jonathan Levinson, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland; Ryan Lindsay, Connecticut Public Radio, Hartford; Leigh Paterson, KUNC, Greeley, Colo.; and Matt Richmond, ideastream, Cleveland. The fellowship is supported by a $5.3 million grant from the Kendeda Fund.
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