General Manager DeAnne Hamilton announced her resignation from 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh's NPR News Station, on Monday.
WESA Board Chair Marco Cardamone will act as interim general manager until a successor is appointed. He steps in July 17.
Hamilton took on the station's early branding challenges when she became WESA’s first general manager in October 2011, about a month after the sale of the station by Duquesne University to Essential Public Media was officially completed.
“It was a great opportunity for me to come in and ... work with the team so we could make the best service possible for southwestern Pennsylvania,” she said.
She wanted to help locals find the national content they wanted, she said, “but we also wanted people to know that we are WESA, Pittsburgh’s station, not only NPR, because we have a lot of wonderful locally-produced content that we provide for our community.”
WESA is more than a public radio station, she said.
Under her leadership, the station hosted community forums and built lasting partnerships with WQED, Pittsburgh Magazine, NextPittsburgh and PublicSource.
“So that’s who we are," she said. "We’re more than NPR; we’re more than breaking news. We provide context and depth and quality.”
Cardamone said, “We will miss her dearly.”
“Thanks to DeAnne’s tireless leadership and tenacity, 90.5 WESA grew from a startup station to a vital community resource and a cornerstone of civic dialogue in Pittsburgh.”
In December, Hamilton was named as one of the 50 “Women of Excellence” in the Pittsburgh region by the New Pittsburgh Courier and Thursday became a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh’s XXXI class. She came to the city after serving as general manager and director of broadcasting services at WKAR in East Lansing, Michigan. She previously served as vice president and television station manager at KQED Public Media in San Francisco.
"I'm proud of our work, and while there’s a lot more to be done, the team at 90.5 WESA is poised to take it on." But Hamilton has not cemented her own future plans.
“I’m going to go out and explore some other challenges and opportunities and see what’s next in my life. ... But this has been an incredible experience, one that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
