Alan Chartock steps down from WAMC

GREAT BARRINGTON — After more than 40 years on the air at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, Alan Chartock has decided to hang up his microphone.

The 81-year-old Great Barrington resident, who has led the Albany, N.Y.-based radio station since 1981, announced Thursday, May 25  that he was retiring as president and CEO, effective immediately, according to WAMC.

Stacey Rosenberry, the station’s director of operations and engineering, was named interim CEO Thursday by the executive committee of WAMC’s board of trustees. The board will conduct an executive search for a new CEO following a strategic planning process that is currently underway.

Although Chartock’s retirement is effective immediately, the board said Thursday that he will continue to help the station in any way he can. A full celebration in honor of Chartock is being planned for a later date.

Chartock, known as “Alan” to all his colleagues, reflected on his four-decade tenure at WAMC in a news release.

“I feel it is time for me to turn things over,” Chartock said. “This has been the journey of a lifetime and I have loved every minute, every challenge and every opportunity for growth this work has afforded me. But it’s time to let a new crop of leaders take the helm and I have every confidence that the board and staff will more than rise to the occasion.”

Originally from New York City, Chartock was a 39-year-old political science professor at SUNY New Paltz in 1981 when he started leading WAMC, when Albany Medical College handed over the station’s FM signal that it had used for in-house medical lectures. Under Chartock’s leadership, WAMC has grown into an award-winning, 29 station network that serves seven states, including Western Massachusetts.

He also created numerous programs on WAMC, including Capital Connection, a weekly show with New York leaders about the topics of the day, and Congressional Corner. Chartock turned his 12 years of weekly interviews with the late Gov. Mario Cuomo into a book titled, “Me and Mario.”

“More than all the stations and all the programming, Alan built a community,” said WAMC board Chair Dorothy H. Reynolds. “He built it with a passion and an energy that was just boundless.”

The Journal publishes this article courtesy of The Berkshire Eagle.