Your Public Radio has announced the appointment of Jonathan Blakley as Chief Content Officer of Public News/Talk 88.1 WYPR Baltimore and AAA 89.7 WTMD Towson MD.
Blakley has served as Interim Chief Content Officer since January after spending eight months last year in the same role at 88.5 WAMU Washington DC. He has held roles as Executive Director of Radio Programming for KQED San Francisco, Program Director of MPR News for Minnesota Public Radio, and was a producer/editor for NPR and WWJ Detroit, news writer for ABC News, and reporter for the AP in his career. In his new role he will “become the strategic leader of WYPR’s audience efforts across all platforms. He will drive the strategy to maximize, integrate, and synergize all platforms, including WYPR, WTMD, online and the podcast portfolio, while also maximizing the partnership with The Baltimore Banner.”
Concurrently, the group has promoted Tyler Laporte to Assistant Program Director of WTMD under PD Carrie Evans. Laporte began his career at WTMD since 2007 starting as an intern and eventually rising to MD/afternoon host. After exiting in 2013, he returned to the station last year as a Programming Assistant and midday host. He will continue to host 10am-1pm weekdays and Sundays.
Your Public Radio recently named Jonathan Blakley as chief content officer of WYPR/WTMD and announced the promotion of Tyler Laporte to assistant program director at WTMD.
With more than 30 years of experience, Blakley’s long and successful career has included various roles in digital journalism and commercial and public radio. Prior to his appointment as interim chief content officer at WYPR/ WTMD this January, Blakley served as interim director of content at WAMU in Washington, D.C., where he oversaw a team of over three dozen journalists.
From 2018 to 2021, he was executive program director for KQED Public Radio in Northern California. Before that, he was program director at Minnesota Public Radio News. Blakely also served in various editing and producing positions during a 13-year career at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. He has also worked for The Associated Press, ABC Radio News and WWJ Newsradio in Detroit. Blakley majored in communications, earning his bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and his master’s degree from Wayne State University in his hometown, Detroit. A Nieman Fellow of the Class of 2012, Blakley has taught radio journalism at the University of Ghana-Legon as a Fulbright Scholar in addition to journalism classes at Howard University and the University of California-Berkeley.
Blakley will become the strategic leader of WYPR’s audience efforts across all platforms. He will drive the strategy to maximize, integrate, and synergize all platforms, including WYPR, WTMD, online and the podcast portfolio, while also maximizing the partnership with The Baltimore Banner. By implementing creative messaging and effective fundraising that makes the case for listener support of WYPR and NPR programming,promoting audience growth will be a key aspect of Blakley’s new role.
“The wealth of knowledge and experience Jonathan brings to us is tremendously exciting and very much what we were hoping for at the start of this search,” said Tom Livingston, interim CEO for Your Public Radio. “Jonathan is a recognized leader in public media in both programming and journalism. His four previous workplaces, WAMU, KQED, Minnesota Public Radio and NPR, where he performed at the respective level of and focused on the work, he will be involved in with WYPR and WTMD, speaks for itself.”
Laporte has been promoted from WTMD programming assistant and mid-day host to assistant program director. Laporte will continue his 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. weekday and Sunday slots, and music calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. where he can be reached at (410) 307-1682.
Laporte started at WTMD in 2007 after interning while in college, moving from weekends to evenings to Afternoon Drive host and then music director. Laporte left the station in 2013, stopping at Jessica Weber’s co-sign, an artist development agency. He also became a permanent annual voice on Radio Bonnaroo from 2013 through the COVID-19 pandemic.
As assistant program director of WTMD, Laporte will work with the program director to optimize the station’s performance, along with assisting with live and recorded on-air fundraising. Laporte will perform administration duties in the Programming Department in addition to bookings and promotions.
“Tyler brought with him two decades worth of passion for both music and Baltimore when he returned to the TMD airwaves in 2022,” said WTMD Program Director Carrie Evans. “His continued excitement for making new music discoveries, his enthusiasm for live shows and his rich history within the industry will no doubt help lead TMD’s programming team to new heights.”
