PRI President to Depart

Public Radio International President Stephen Salyer will leave in the fall to become president and CEO of the Salzburg Seminar, based in Middlebury, Vt., and in Salzburg, Austria. Salyer led the public radio program distributor for 17 years.
Board Chairman Doug Carlson credited Salyer for helping the company find cost-effective ways of reaching audiences on-air and online. A search committee has been formed to fill the position.
Salyer joined PRI in 1988 from WNET(FM), New York where he had been a senior vice president. When Salyer joined PRI, Garrison Keillor, air talent for its flagship program, “A Prairie Home Companion,” had recently left for Europe and the network’s future was uncertain.
PRI said over Salyer’s tenure, PRI has grown from fewer than 300 affiliates and a budget of about $3 million in 1988 to more than 700 affiliate stations and revenues of $26 million in 2004. During Salyer’s presidency, PRI has helped create, fund, market and sustain several programs such as “Marketplace” to PRI’s “The World,” and “This American Life.”
The organization is the U.S. producer and distributor for the BBC World Service and owns Public Interactive LLC, a public broadcasting supplier of Internet tools and services, based in Boston.
PRI will soon have one less program to distribute though; “World Café” produced at WXPN(FM), Philadelphia is leaving to be distributed by NPR as of July 1. “Marketplace” is now distributed by Minnesota Public Radio.