Nine PBS in St. Louis promoted Denise Kahle to VP and CFO.
Kahle most recently worked as interim CFO. She succeeds Richard Skalski, who retired in September.
Kahle, a certified public accountant, joined the station in 2017 as accounting manager and has also been controller.
“Denise was the clear choice as our new CFO based on her knowledge of our work, her strong track record, her strategic thinking, and her ability to solve difficult problems. She is also highly respected and trusted by our team,” said Nine PBS CEO Amy Shaw in a news release.
Antonia Carew-Watts joined the Independent Television Service as VP of business affairs.
Carew-Watts most recently worked as a senior attorney for The WNET Group in New York City. She joined the station in 2013. Before that, she worked as an attorney for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, advising corporate clients such as Google and Barilla on mergers and acquisitions, nonprofit arts clients and independent filmmakers.
Carew-Watts is on the board of directors of Black Public Media and was director of the Association of Black Women Attorneys.
WNYC in New York City hired two journalists.
David Giambusso will be day-of news editor, a new position. He will oversee daily news coverage and reports published on Gothamist, New York Public Radio’s online news site. Giambusso most recently worked for Politico as New York City editor and has also been a staff writer. He will report to Veronica de Souza, the director of digital news and audience who was hired this month.
Jon Campbell joins as Albany bureau chief. Campbell is an editor for Gannett’s New York State team. He previously worked as the environment and health reporter for the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y.
Giambusso and Campbell start Dec. 6.
Content
NPR promoted Russell Lewis to supervising editor for planning/breaking news. Lewis, who joined NPR in 2006, most recently worked as Southern bureau chief, based in Birmingham, Ala. He has also been a sports editor and a member of NPR’s “Go Team,” a group of producers and reporters who respond to major disasters worldwide.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra became host of The Bay, a podcast produced by KQED in San Francisco. She succeeds Devin Katayama, who was promoted to editor of talent and development this year. Guevarra most recently worked as a producer for The Bay. She first joined the station in 2015 as KQED’s inaugural Raul Ramirez Diversity Fund intern.
Wendy Rollins was hired as a host for WXPN in Philadelphia. Rollins most recently worked as a host for Alt 105.7 in Atlanta before taking a hiatus from radio in January 2020. She has also been an on-air personality and assistant PD for WRFF, a commercial station in Philadelphia.
Ed Timms became editor of a new government accountability team for KERA in Dallas. “We’ll be focusing on the decisions that officials make and how they spend taxpayer money,” Timms said on Twitter. He previously worked as an investigations editor for Roll Call and also held several editor and reporter positions for the Dallas Morning News. KERA reporters Alejandra Martinez and Bret Jaspers will cover Dallas City Hall and Dallas County for the team.
Rodrigo Cervantes joined KPCC in Pasadena, Calif., as senior editor. Cervantes most recently worked for KJZZ in Phoenix as Mexico City bureau chief. KJZZ closed the bureau in June, citing financial challenges. Cervantes has also been secretary for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Anabel Bacon became an editor for The Argument, an opinion audio program produced by The New York Times. Her first day with the newspaper is Nov. 29. Bacon most recently worked as a producer for WNYC in New York City, where she worked on Death, Sex & Money and The New Yorker Radio Hour.
David Steves announced that he’s leaving his position as editor of science and environment for Oregon Public Broadcasting. A spokesperson for the station said he will leave at the end of the year. “I’m looking forward to traveling and pursuing personal projects,” Steves told Current. “If I take to this new, work-free lifestyle, then I’ll decide in a few months if I’m ready to refer to it as retirement.” Steves joined the station in 2011 as the founding editor of EarthFix, an environmental journalism collaboration led by OPB in partnership with six other public media stations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Mary Sanchez was hired as a senior reporter for Flatland, the online journalism platform of Kansas City PBS. Sanchez previously held several roles for the Kansas City Star, including metro columnist, race and ethnicity reporter and editorial board member. She was also a contributing reporter for Flatland and a guest on the station’s program Kansas City Week in Review.
Benjamin Payne joined Georgia Public Broadcasting as a reporter. Payne most recently worked as a freelance journalist and graduate teaching assistant for the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has also been a host for KUNR in Reno and a reporter, producer and Morning Edition host for WVIK in Rock Island, Ill.
Governance
Nathan Vandiver, GM for KUAR in Little Rock, Ark., was elected to the University Station Alliance board of directors. KUAR is licensed to the University of Arkansas. Vandiver joined the station as an intern in 2009 and has also been a reporter, anchor and PD. He became GM in 2019. “I look forward to working with my university station colleagues as we continue to strengthen the bonds between our stations and institutions at this time of great change and opportunity in both higher education and media,” Vandiver said in a news release.
Send news of “comings and goings” to [email protected]