Texas Public Radio Vice President of Technology and Operations Ruben Garcia died on February 3 at the age of 66, following a sudden brain aneurysm days earlier. He was also the voice of TPR, heard daily through sponsorship messages and top-of-the-hour imaging.
Garcia began his radio career in 1975 as a teenager at KLAR-AM in Laredo before moving to San Antonio, where he landed at KZ100. He also served as a traffic reporter with Metro Networks. His career later took him briefly to Houston and then back to San Antonio, where he worked at KSAQ and spent several years with Cox Radio in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including stints on Y100 and KONO.
He joined Texas Public Radio in 2011 as a production announcer and soon became involved in the organization’s engineering and operations. Garcia was promoted to Vice President of Technology and Operations in 2024, overseeing broadcast operations, automation systems, and IT across TPR’s stations.
In a comment, Texas Public Radio President & CEO Ashley Alvarado said, “Ruben was not only the voice of TPR, he was our heart. His love of radio, his way of connecting with each and every colleague, and his quiet insights into how we can best show up for each other will leave a lasting imprint. To say he’s already missed would be an understatement.”
