KUNM’s longtime General Manager Richard Towne is retiring at the end of this month after 30 years leading the station. The station's new general manager, Jeff Pope, arrived in Albuquerque last week. He is a veteran of public radio, having most recently served as general manager of Blue Ridge Public Radio. He was also executive director at KJSD in Cortez, Colorado. KUNM sat down with him and asked him about his plans and how he first found public media.
JEFF POPE: My radio broke in my car long time ago in St Louis, and all I could get was 87.9, which is the television channel, and 88.1, which was KDHX. And I was really drawn to KDHX’s community radio station. And then from there, I got into more of the news and public radio side as well. So all of those things, I fixed the radio and it stayed on the left hand of the dial because the news information and then entertainment and community-based information just was so interesting to me as a 20-something trying to navigate my way around St Louis and have a great time growing up, so I got hooked.
KUNM: What's your vision for the station over the next few years?
POPE: The first vision is to create a shared vision with the staff and the volunteers and the university. What are we going to do together going forward? We're not a radio station anymore, which is maybe apocryphal to say, but we're a media organization, and like a lot of legacy media, we're at this crux time where the audience we had is falling, it's getting older, it's fading away, and new audience is coming on, and we have to meet a new and valuable and more diverse audience with content they value on platforms they use. And so it's an organizational shift, it's a mind shift, and it's all about audience. And what an exciting time for us with this great newsroom, with an amazing cadre of volunteers producing public affairs, programming, music, information, community affairs, everything. So really, we're well-prepared to do that and to be on platforms that our audience uses, and to meet them and provide what they need to live their lives every day.
KUNM: Public media is going through a lot of changes right now. So where does KUNM fit in that conglomerate?
POPE: KUNM is really well-positioned to face the challenges in that we have a really loyal base of supporters and listeners been around for 60 years. It's an institution, and again, we have a broad base inside this building of people who are making news, making content, making musical presentations, connecting to the community. That's where our superpower is as public media. We're local. We were created in 1967 by Congress to solve local problems. If you go back and look at the legislation, it says a number of things, but the one I key on is we're here to solve local problems, and when we do that, we're going to be relevant in our communities in ways that other media can't be and we’ll be more and more and more trusted. So that's where I see public media really digging in and KUNM specifically having a real advantage in that space.
KUNM: How do you hope to connect with listeners and our supporters? What kinds of things do you want to hear from them specifically?
POPE: Well I hope to hear the good, bad and the ugly. I'm brand new. I want to understand and typically what happens is, you're always going to have the people who have got a bee in their bonnet. They're going to be almost the most excited to come talk, but I'm open to all of it, and my team is as well. It's not just me. After Richard's incredible tenure, building this organization up and building a team, I get to take over and get to listen to the community and say whatever it is. And you ask the question, what do I want to hear? I want to hear everything.
KUNM: Well, of course, because but we're public media, we want to hear our stakeholders involved. So when you're not deep inside the world of public radio, what do you enjoy doing outside of the office? What do you do for fun?
POPE: I like my family. I’ve got three boys. I like to spend time with them, and we like to spend time outside and doing things that are outdoor activities, but we also one of the things that's so attractive about New Mexico, and we've been coming to northern New Mexico for decades to enjoy the outdoors, but [also] enjoy the cultural amenities around here, and mixing and being part of the different cultures and how they mix in New Mexico. So, we enjoy that wherever we go, and New Mexico and New Mexico has so much of it that is really an exciting time for us to be moving here.
KUNM: Is there anything else you'd like to add for our listeners to know as you step into this role?
POPE: Thank you is the first thing I want to say, gratitude for creating this station. We can't do it without listeners. We can't do it without supporters and the long support that you provided for the organization. Thank you to the staff, professional and volunteer who've created this place. And then the thing looking forward is that there are unprecedented challenges in front of us right now, and we have to meet these with creativity and flexibility to become the very best organization that's most relevant to the needs of northern New Mexicans and Americans now, and we need you to help us do that with any kind of support you can provide to us, monetary, physical, whatever it is you have to bring this is your public radio station today and into the future, and we welcome partnering with the community to make it that way.
