WEKU Director and General Manager Mike Savage has been elected to the Board of Directors for National Public Radio (NPR). This is Savage’s second term as a member director. His three-year term begins in November.
NPR's 23-member Board of Directors is comprised of 12 member directors who are managers of NPR member stations and are elected to the board by their fellow member stations.
The election announcement follows several weeks of voting, including an unprecedented nomination process whereby Savage is believed to be the only NPR member station representative to be successfully petitioned onto the ballot. “Not only will I be representing Kentucky and EKU, I’ll also be representing smaller public radio stations like WEKU which serve rural areas of our country.” Savage said.
Savage is the Director & General Manager at WEKU, a University licensee that serves central and eastern Kentucky through four full-power F.M. stations and five translators. WEKU is the only dedicated public radio news station serving Lexington. In many parts of rural eastern Kentucky, WEKU is the only source of news and information.
“It’s important for stations like WEKU to be represented on the NPR board, and with Mike’s advocacy and experience, we’re elated he’s been elected for the second time,” said Dr. David McFaddin, EKU senior vice president for operations and strategic initiatives.
Under his leadership, WEKU has improved its financial position through the implementation of a long- term strategic plan. The station has also enjoyed growth in audience, underwriting and membership.
Previously, Savage was General Manager of WBAA in West Lafayette, IN and WKCC in Kankakee, IL.
“I look forward to providing the NPR Board with the perspective of small and rural stations like WEKU,” Savage said.
Savage served on the NPR Board from 2014-2017 serving in leadership roles including Vice Chair of the Distribution Interconnect Committee. In that role, he successfully advocated for a change in the D/I fee calculation for stations to protect stations from large fee increases in the event of CPB defunding.
Savage also served on other NPR committees including Strategic Planning, Audit and Membership. He has held board positions on state and regional public radio organizations including Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations, Association of Kentucky Public Radio Stations and Public Radio in MidAmerica.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a master’s in mass communication and has been honored with dozens of journalism awards by the Society for Professional Journalists and Associated Press.
WEKU is a charter member station of NPR and just celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. The station reaches a population of 1.5 million people in central and eastern Kentucky as well as parts of Virginia and Tennessee. WEKU broadcasts two separate channels of noncommercial news and classical music on a variety of broadcast and digital platforms including weku.fm and the WEKU mobile App. More information on WEKU is at weku.fm.
For more information, contact Lanny Brannock, Director of Communications, EKU, at Lanny.Brannock@eku.edu.
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