The station said goodbye Friday, May 17, to former general manager Renai Bodley, and a national search is underway for her replacement.
In the meantime, Juliana Allely, KPCW’s finance director, will lead the station. She’s been at the station for nine years and said she’s passionate about public media.
“I felt like it just was meant to be for me to be here at KPCW, doing what I do well – accounting and finance – but also with a great love of news and NPR and connecting with the community,” she said.
Board chair Robert Holmes said Allely’s deep knowledge of the station makes her the right fit to fill the role while the board, with help from an executive search firm focused on public media, reviews applications from around the country.
“We last week closed the door on accepting applications,” he said. “We’re hoping to have some in-person interviews here at the station. Up until then, we’ll do some preliminary interviews via Zoom and kind of get the applicants down to a manageable number.”
In a farewell interview Friday, Bodley celebrated the station’s growth over the past several years.
“We doubled the workspace, and along with that, over the past years, we’ve doubled the staff as well – almost doubled, from 11 to 18 full-time people,” she said. “It’s also a big transition in the radio world, because we’re not just a radio station anymore. The digital revolution has changed how people consume media and information and how they get their music.”
Under Bodley’s leadership, KPCW also launched The Local, its email newsletter, in July 2022.
Allely said she doesn’t expect any major changes while the search is on for a permanent general manager. She said she anticipates the new hire will build on Bodley’s legacy of shifting KPCW to a greater digital presence.
“We’ve really built up kpcw.org. We’re working on KPCW Español, so having our news stories in Spanish format on the web as well,” she said. “Having that real presence online, and not just on the radio, is a big direction and a big focus that we’ll want the new GM to have for us.”
Holmes said he hopes to interview top candidates for the role in person in July.
