The nonprofit licensee of KUNC in Greeley, Colo., has named Tammy Terwelp president and CEO.
Terwelp will join the station from Aspen Public Radio, where she is executive director. She has more than 20 years of experience in public and commercial media.
A press release from Community Radio for Northern Colorado, KUNC’s licensee, said that Terwelp “rose to the top of all applicants based on her experience leading NPR-affiliated stations, her fundraising successes and her vision for how KUNC and Colorado Sound can best meet the needs of our staff and community.”
Community Radio for Northern Colorado operates KUNC and The Colorado Sound, a Triple A music service.
“KUNC has been a close ally and partner to myself and the news stations I led in Colorado over the last five and a half years, and my start in radio at a music station similar to The Colorado Sound allows me to reaffirm some of the founding reasons this business has brought joy in connecting people,” Terwelp said in the release.
Terwelp begins in the role April 5. She will succeed Neil Best, who will retire after a 48-year career with the organization. Best helped lead the station to independence in 2001, when listeners formed a friends group to buy the station from its licensee, the University of Northern Colorado.
“It feels like I never have had to work a day in my life,” Best said in the release. “I’m fortunate to come in each day and be part of an organization that values community and in turn is valued by the community.”
The station has developed the Neil Best Future Voices Reporting Fellowship, a yearlong fellowship for young journalists, in his honor.