SAN ANTONIO — Joe Gwathmey, an individual who created Texas Public Radio with the merger of San Antonio Community Radio and the Classical Broadcasting Society of San Antonio, has died of natural causes.
Gwathmey’s death came on Wednesday. He was 84 years of age. News of his passing came from daughter Sara Gwathmey on Facebook.
Gwathmey began his career in radio in 1958 as a part-timer at KBWD Radio in Brownwood, Tex. Later, the University of Texas at Austin hired Gwathmey to manage KUT-FM, today the leading NPR Member station in the region. This was in the years before National Public Radio. In 1969, he joined a group of educational station managers that eventually evolved into the founding board of directors of NPR. In fact, Gwathmey joined NPR two years later to help create its programming service and later managed NPR’s program production, news gathering, engineering and promotional activities. He also developed strategies to increase public radio participation in cooperative projects with foreign broadcasters and for marketing NPR programs abroad.
In 1983, NPR named Gwathmey its VP in charge of programming. Within two years, NPR’s programming had become more extensive and diverse than ever before, winning numerous awards for production and journalistic excellence.
By the late 1980s, Gwathmey eyed the Alamo City, which did not have its own NPR Member station. This saw him take over as GM of noncommercial Classical KPAC-FM in 1988. Once there, he helped with the launch of spoken word KSTX-FM. With the two stations operating in partnership, a new non-profit corporation with the Texas Public Radio branding was born.
In 1998 a third FM, KTXI-FM, joined the TPR family. It serves Hill Country communities including Kerrville and Fredericksburg, Tex.
Learn more about Joe Gwathmey by clicking here.
