NORTH GREENBUSH – WMHT Public Media recently named Anthony Hayes, a longtime industry executive, as its newest CEO to replace Robert Altman, who had held the job the past 15 years.
Hayes, who was chief operating officer and general manager of New England Public Media in Springfield, Mass. before he began his new job on Jan. 23 is also the first Black leader of WMHT, which began operations in 1953 in Schenectady and now operates its TV, radio and digital operations out of the Rensselaer Technology Park.
Times Union reporter recently sat down with Hayes for an interview. The following Q&A was edited for space and content.
When you were hired, what mandate were you given? Did (the WMHT board) want you to come in and make drastic changes?
WMHT has a rich history, and the previous president (Altman) did a wonderful job. The station is solid financially. And so, no, they did not want me to come in here and do a major overhaul or anything like that. However, there was the opportunity to build upon the past success, help elevate the organization to another level. And, you know, there are opportunities to reach out to a wider, more diverse community.
I would also like to place additional emphasis on local content. That is something else that I see as an opportunity. And I also want to hear from the community, and we are going to do a listening tour.
What’s the business environment like these days in public media? Is it a tough one?
I would not necessarily say it’s tough, but we have to stay up to date as to what’s going on in the industry. There are new opportunities to create content and distribute that content on various platforms, and we need to start doing more digitally. Make more content available on digital, make more content available on our website first. Some things may just be digital first and simply reside on…
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