WVIK's Pearce elevated to national role with NPR

Jay Pearce, CEO and general manager of WVIK, Quad Cities NPR, has been named to the board of directors of National Public Radio.

The appointment is conferred by vote of other NPR station managers from more than 900 public radio affiliates across the country.  

"I am greatly honored," Pearce said, noting he has been a fan of public radio since he was a teenager. 

"Three quarters of my 40 years in radio have been at public radio stations. The opportunity to serve at the board level is truly exciting."

Pearce will travel to Washington, D.C., for orientation in September, then will begin his three-year-term in November, shuttling back and forth to the capital for board meetings to manage NPR's budget and set the policies and overall direction for public radio at the national level.

The appointment is part of a long record of leadership for Pearce, who serves on several state and local boards of directors and was just named chairman of the River Music Experience board and voted president-elect of the Quad Cities Illinois Rotary Club.

"I was volunteering at the John Deere Classic when I got the call from NPR," Pearce said, "so I had to ask them to hold on a couple of times while I directed cars to their parking spaces."

His association with NPR began as a college student at Southern Illinois University in 1975, when he was a volunteer for public radio station WSIU in Carbondale. When he joined WVIK as general manager in 2011, he brought an extensive record of experience from radio and television stations in Illinois, Missouri and Texas.

WVIK reaches listeners in a 75-mile radius over northwestern Illinois, eastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin. It is owned and operated by Augustana College, broadcasting in the Quad Cities at 90.3 FM and 95.9 FM in Dubuque. It serves an estimated 1.4 million listeners every year.