[A] public media leader with a strong background in journalism will soon be taking the helm of Vermont Public Radio.
Scott Finn, the current CEO and executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, will become the president and CEO of VPR this May.
He’ll be replacing Robin Turnau, who announced she would be departing from the station last year.
Finn is taking the reins of the NPR affiliate a time when public radio listenership in Vermont and across the country is hitting record highs. Last fall, 182,400 unique listeners tuned into VPR each week — its highest numbers ever, according to Finn.
Just this week, NPR announced that its nationwide programming has maintained record-high ratings of 37.7 million weekly listeners.
Under Finn’s leadership, VPR will strive to expand its reach even further.
“Even though we have this record listenership, we still know that there are a lot of Vermonters that we’re not reaching yet,” Finn said in an interview.
“Whether it’s people that live in isolated, rural communities or maybe it’s the refugee community,” he said, “there are lots of different groups of people that we still need to do a better job of representing.”
While in charge at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Finn led the station through programming and fundraising expansions.
He oversaw the launch of a new reporting initiative focused on health issues, Appalachia Health News, and a podcast called “Us and Them,” which tells stories about “the cultural issues that too often divide us.”
Finn also led the station through a near-crippling funding crisis. Last year, because of government funding woes, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice proposed eliminating all state funding for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. That would have meant a loss of $4.6 million, or half the station’s budget.
WVPB worked to educate its supporters about the impending cut and thousands sent emails or called the governor’s office to protest the proposal. Eventually, Justice changed his mind and only cut the station’s funding by about $1 million.
“It was still a large cut, but the good news is our supporters have rallied behind us,” he said, adding the station has nearly made up the loss in funding through private donations and grants.
Finn said it’s too soon to know whether VPR will see an expansion of its podcasting or news operations under his leadership.
But he said one of the station’s goals will be to find a larger national and international audience for its existing programming.
VPR shows — including “Brave Little State,” a podcast that explores questions about Vermont posed by the public, and “But Why,” a podcast for kids — already have plenty of listeners outside the state, Finn said.
“We’ll be working with NPR and our other partners in public media to try to learn
how you raise money in this new environment when your audience isn’t necessarily just in Vermont but they’re listening all over the world,” Finn said.
Finn, who holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, worked for years as a reporter at the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia before moving to public media.
He worked at WVPB as a reporter before becoming the news director at WUSF, the NPR affiliate in Tampa, Florida. He returned to the West Virginia affiliate five years ago.
While he has never lived in Vermont, Finn said he is looking forward to getting to know its communities, in part by traveling around the state and asking people what he needs to know about Vermont and Vermont Public Radio.
“I still have my reporter’s notebook. … I’m going to bring that around with me and talk to people,” he said. “I’m hoping people will teach me what I need to know.”
