Leigh Wood, membership director of NPR affiliate KUAF 91.3 FM, has been named the University of Arkansas-based station’s new GM. Rick Stockdell, who has served as general manager for the past 35 years, is stepping down to focus on teaching journalism full time.
Stockdell was hired by the U of A in 1980 as an assistant professor to teach broadcast reporting classes and advise KUAF, which was then a 10-watt student radio station. By 1985, Stockdell had built a new student radio station and made KUAF an NPR affiliate.
“The radio station is in a good place with solid staff and budget and all new transmission equipment, so it seems like a good time for a transition,” Stockdell said. “After 35 years of work in public radio, I’m ready to give teaching and research my entire focus.”
Wood is a native Arkansan who graduated from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 2001 and earned a Master of Arts degree in English in 2007. She has worked for KUAF for a total of eight years.
In addition to raising funds from individual donors for KUAF, Wood has experience in fundraising with KUT 90.5 FM, the NPR station in Austin, Texas, as well as with Heifer International, a global hunger-relief organization based out of Little Rock, Arkansas.
“I am very excited to continue my work at KUAF,” Wood said. “The staff, our listeners and our supporters have all made KUAF one of the best public radio stations of our size in the country. I’m honored to be able to build on such a strong foundation.”
