Current (https://current.org/tag/people-in-public-media/page/6/)
Among the new reporters for Al Jazeera America’s 12 U.S. news bureaus are several with public media backgrounds. The New York City–based AJA announced the bureaus and personnel today in anticipation of the network’s Aug. 20 launch. Ash-har Quraishi will be AJA’s Chicago correspondent. Quraishi has reported for WTTW’s Chicago Tonight since 2011.
Torey Malatia, longtime president and c.e.o. of Chicago Public Media, has resigned effective immediately.
Retiring from public radio finally afforded audience analyst David Giovannoni the time to turn his hobby, collecting antique phonographs and early sound recordings, into a full-time pursuit.
The next general manager of Idaho Public Television is Ron Pisaneschi, now its director of content. Pisaneschi takes over Aug. 5 from Peter Morrill, who announced his retirement in March. The State Board of Education announced Pisaneschi’s appointment today. “Idaho PTV is fortunate to have someone with Ron’s passion for public television and expertise in programming and operations ready to step up and lead the organization,” said Don Soltman, board president.
Rick Schneider, president of WPBT in Miami, will take over as executive vice president and chief operating officer at WETA in September, the Arlington, Va., station announced today. Schneider will step into the position being vacated by longtime WETA exec Joe Bruns, who announced his retirement in April. WETA President Sharon Rockefeller said in the announcement, “I have worked alongside him in public broadcasting’s national organizations, and I know firsthand that Rick’s strong management experience is matched by his true dedication to public media. He brings with him superb knowledge of the national public broadcasting landscape and the complexities of managing a major-market station, and he shares our profound commitment to public service.”
Schneider will report to Rockefeller. He will supervise all senior managers as well as oversee WETA’s financial and administrative operations, local television and radio operations, fundraising, engineering and technical operations, communications, information technology, educational enterprises, and community and government relations.
Frontline‘s Arun Rath will join NPR in late September as host of Weekend All Things Considered, which is relocating to studios at NPR West in Culver City, Calif.
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.
Pledge legend TJ Lubinsky, whose retro musical revue shows have raised multiple millions of dollars for public television over 20 years, has returned to radio — and he’s hoping his pubTV audience will visit him on the air.
J.J. Yore, a veteran producer credited as a creator of the public radio show Marketplace, was one of three senior executives riffed June 17 from American Public Media, the Minnesota-based company that produces the series. Yore, who rose up through the production ranks two years ago to become v.p. and g.m. of the weeknightly business and economics show, will be succeeded by Deborah Clark, e.p. who steps into the role of v.p.
Clark has worked for Marketplace over two stints since 1995, and APM expects her to move the show forward “business as usual,” Mardi Larson, spokesperson, wrote in an email confirming the layoffs. “We thank J.J. for his valuable and lasting contributions to our company’s mission and audience service, and we wish him well in his next career opportunity.”
“I am disappointed, and I’m surprised, but I’m not angry,” Yore said in an interview last week. “This is the thing I’ve been associated the longest with in my life. But I am now looking forward to figuring out what will come next.”
APM also eliminated the positions of Mary Pat Ladner, v.p. of marketing, and Kathy Golbuff, v.p. of underwriting.
At dual licensee WVIA in Pittston, Pa., Tom Currá has succeeded Bill Kelly as president and c.e.o.; Kelly will concentrate on the station’s endowment.
J.J. Yore, a veteran producer credited as a creator of the public radio show Marketplace, was one of three senior executives riffed June 17 from American Public Media, the Minnesota-based company that produces the series. Yore, who rose up through the production ranks to become v.p. and g.m. of the weeknightly business and economics show two years ago, will be succeeded by Deborah Clark, executive producer who steps up into the role of v.p.
APM also eliminated positions of Mary Pat Ladner, v.p. of marketing, and Kathy Golbuff, v.p. of underwriting. An APM spokesperson described the restructuring as a move to eliminate layers of management and organize the company around an “Audiences First” strategy. Clark has worked for Marketplace over two stints since 1995, and APM expects her to move the show forward “business as usual,” Mardi Larson, spokesperson, wrote in an email confirming the layoffs. “We thank J.J. for his valuable and lasting contributions to our company’s mission and audience service, and we wish him well in his next career opportunity.” Yore’s departure is the third set of job cuts to hit Marketplace’s staff since last July.
A group of young public media professionals who began meeting informally last year to network and share ideas has moved to step up its profile.
Cara Mertes, the incoming head of the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms, previously served as executive director of American Documentary Inc., a job that includes oversight of POV, one of PBS’s showcases for independent film.
WBUR-FM in Boston has hired Richard Chacón as executive director of news content, and promoted Tom Melville to news director.
Chacón takes a newly created position with responsibility for managing all local news content produced for radio and the web.
KUOW President Wayne Roth, a former NPR Board chair and past recipient of CPB’s Murrow Award honoring outstanding contributions to public radio, will retire in September. During his 45-year career in public broadcasting, Roth provided strategic leadership to public radio on both the local and national levels.
The first television broadcast in China was transmitted in 1958. The first time that Ling Ling Sun watched a television program was 20 years later, when she was 18. Now she is engineering manager for television broadcast services at WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, and was recently appointed vice chair of the PBS Engineering Technology Advisory Committee.
Orlando pubcaster WMFE-FM has hired LaFontaine Oliver as its new president and g.m., replacing José Fajardo who left in December 2012. Oliver comes to the station from WEAA-FM in Baltimore, a jazz and NPR news station licensed to Morgan State University. He joined WEAA in 2007 and, while there, created the nationally syndicated Michael Eric Dyson Show. Oliver has also held management positions with SiriusXM in Washington, D.C., and Radio One, an urban-oriented, multimedia company based in Silver Spring, Md. “We are very excited to bring LaFontaine into this very important role,” said Derek Blakeslee, chair of the Board of Trustees of Community Communications Inc. , WMFE’s license holder.
Wayne Roth, longtime station chief at Seattle’s KUOW-FM and a past recipient of CPB’s Murrow Award honoring outstanding contributions to public radio, plans to retire in September. Roth’s influential pubradio career spans 45 years. During nine years on the NPR Board in the 1980s, Roth “played a critical role in reinventing NPR, moving it from reliance on federal funding and directing those funds to the stations instead,” according the announcement released by the University of Washington, KUOW’s licensee. His long service on the NPR board included two years as chair from 1988-90. Roth joined KUOW in 1983. During his tenure, the station — which serves Puget Sound, western Washington and Southern British Columbia — has become a pubradio powerhouse.
Mark Leonard, g.m. for Illinois Public Media in Urbana, takes over as g.m. and c.e.o. of NET in Lincoln, Neb., Aug. 1. He will step into the spot vacated by current G.M. Rod Bates, who is retiring June 30 after 30 years in pubcasting and 18 years of leadership at the station. Leonard’s appointment was announced today by Ken Bird, chair of the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission, who said Leonard “is the right fit for Nebraska and NET.” Leonard has worked at six pubcasting stations over 32 years.
Karen Everhart, a media reporter and editor who has covered public broadcasting at Current for more than two decades, has been promoted to managing editor. She joined Current in 1991 and has reported on the programming, politics and funding of both the public television and radio systems, as well as the growth of nonprofit news organizations specializing in investigative journalism and local news coverage. Prior to her March 2012 interim appointment, she was Current’s senior editor covering public radio and digital media.