Amid tumult over how sexual harassment and racial equity has been addressed at Minnesota Public Radio, its parent organization said Tuesday that a major shift in leadership is underway.
Jon McTaggart, president and CEO of the St. Paul-based radio giant American Public Media, informed staffers in a memo that he has set in motion plans to step down.
APM is the country's largest owner and operator of public radio, an empire that includes MPR. McTaggart has served in his current position since 2011.
The memo, later circulated on social media, told employees that McTaggart has informed the company's board that it is time to begin succession plans. He will remain in his role until a replacement is found, the memo said.
His announcement came on the same day MPR staffers sent a letter to listeners and readers saying that they had lost faith in senior leaders. The employees said they want the company to publicly apologize and make changes to address diversity, hiring practices and other areas.
The announcement of McTaggart's resignation, co-signed by McTaggart and board chairwoman Mary Brainerd, didn't directly address two recent controversies at MPR: the dismissal of Garrett McQueen, the only Black on-air personality on MPR's classical station, and reporter Marianne Combs' very public resignation, in which she accused her bosses of stalling on a story about a co-worker facing misconduct allegations.
The day after Combs resigned, Eric Malmberg, a DJ for the MPR-owned station the Current, was fired.
McQueen, hired in 2018, was an overnight host for Classical 24, a program coproduced by APM and Public Radio International that provides classical music programming for public radio stations nationwide. McQueen told MPR News in a story about his firing that he would make changes to playlists when they called for hours of music written only by "dead white men."
