Pittsburgh’s NPR news station has new hosts during drive time
90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR news station, announced that Priyanka Tewari will be the new local host of NPR’s Morning Edition, replacing retiring Maria Scapellato. Priyanka Tewari will join the station on Jan. 9, 2023. Listeners will begin to hear her voice mid-month.
Another new voice our region has been enjoying is Jeremy Scott. Scott is the new local host of NPR’s All Things Considered, 90.5 WESA’s afternoon drive-time program. Scott replaced Christopher Ayers, who is now an editor in the WESA newsroom.
“We are excited to have both Priyanka and Jeremy join the team,” said Mike Sauter, vice president of broadcasting for Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation, WESA’s parent company, “They are eager to discover everything that is special about Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania.”
A native of New Delhi, India, Tewari moved to the United States with her family in the late 1990s, after living in Russia and the United Kingdom. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a master’s from Hunter College, CUNY.
Tewari launched her media career in 2013 as host for the only English-language commercial radio network in India. She also worked as a TV news anchor for India’s national public television broadcaster. After her return to the U.S., she helped launch a South Asian radio network in New Jersey. Since 2018, Tewari has been working as the local host for afternoon weekday and weekend All Things Considered at WHYY, Philadelphia's NPR member station.
“I’m excited about joining 90.5 WESA, exploring Pittsburgh and engaging with its diverse communities,” she said.
Scott, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, grew up on what he calls the “front lines” of the Cleveland-Pittsburgh rivalry. He proudly boasts the title of first in his family to go the way of the Black and Gold.
“At 8 years old, this remains the smartest decision I ever made,” he said.
Scott is a proud alumnus of Ohio University, where he obtained his first public radio experience at WOUB. Throughout his career, he has amassed both commercial and public media experience, with many address changes along the way. Those include radio stops in Parkersburg and Martinsburg, West Virginia; Galena, Alaska; Peoria, Illinois; and Cambridge and Coshocton, Ohio.
Scott said he “looks forward to being in Pittsburgh for as long as Pittsburgh will have him.”
