Nat'l Public Radio prexy search comes to Klose
Former Post journo, IBB director named CEO, prez
Klose fills a management void created in August when Delano Lewis, the former president and CEO, ankled for personal reasons.
After spending 25 years at the Washington Post, including a four-year stint as Moscow bureau chief, Klose was named president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty. Currently, Klose is the director of the U.S. Intl. Broadcasting Bureau -- the nation's global non-military radio and television system.
NPR board chairman Kim Hodgson said the board targeted Klose for the top job because of his management experience at the IBB and Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty. As head of the latter, Klose oversaw a budget reduction from $170 million to $68 million. In addition, he moved the org's headquarters from Munich to Prague. At the same time, the radio outlet continued broadcasting its full compliment of news and cultural programming in 23 languages.
The Republican majority in Congress seems to have come to terms with not carrying out its initial impulse to zero out the federal subsidy for public broadcasting, but Hodgson noted that Klose's most recent jobs have given him experience when it comes to cost-cutting and building political support for quasi-private radio organizations.
In addition to his management experience, Hodgson said Klose has an "almost molecular passion for public radio."
In a press conference beamed to NPR's 604 affils, Hodgson introduced Klose as "a brilliant advocate for public radio."
Klose's parents, Woody and Virginia Taylor Klose, were radio producers and writers during the 1930s and 1940s.
"Radio and typewriters and journalism has been part of my life since I was a kid," said Klose Wednesday.
Klose's long career in journalism was highlighted at his introduction to the NPR stations. Lewis, the former NPR prexy, arrived at the pubcasting operation after a career as a telephone company executive, and some insiders complained that he never caught on to the quirks inherent in a news organization.
Other pubcasters offered congratulations on Klose's ascendancy. "Klose brings an intimate knowledge of radio broadcasting and impressive journalism credentials that will serve him well at National Public Radio...," said Sharon Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA, D.C.'s local TV pubcast outlet.
