The new boss at WCQS has big plans for public radio in Asheville.

by Jess McCuan . photo by Matt Rose

Jody Evans is convinced traditional radio will never die. She was shocked when NPR’s president Vivian Schiller predicted in June that Internet radio would replace traditional broadcast radio within ten years. Yes, people have embraced technology and new media. But will they abandon the old? Evans doesn’t think so. “People thought the death of radio was television, but it wasn’t,” says the 41-year-old native New Yorker. Still, she knows the web is changing radio, and she seemed ready to shake things up a bit when she took the reigns of Asheville’s public radio station, WCQS, in mid-June. Evans started her career as a TV news reporter, spent nearly a decade as programming director at Vermont Public Radio in Burlington and made a brief stop at Austin’s KUT-FM before taking the executive director spot at WCQS. She replaces Ed Subkis, who was station manager for 18 years.

What do you say to people who want to do away with WCQS’s classical music during the day? I don’t see classical music leaving the station at all. I think there are ways to help provide information programming. I think people will be looking for more news programming, and more regional news programming.

Will you be putting more emphasis on the web? Absolutely. The web can be this big black hole or a beautiful canvas…We’re going to work really hard to provide good quality content on the web.

How will you help WCQS survive financially? The listenership is really strong, and there’s a strong underwriting contingent…We have no shared audience with [KISS Country] the station that’s number one in the market… WNCW is a great station, and I can’t wait to work with them. The more public radio stations in a community, the better off the community is.