KERA President and CEO Nico Leone. (Photo credit: KERA)

North Texas’ KERA has grown in recent years to add classical station WRR and a local newspaper to its offerings. The platforms join NPR member station KERA News, Triple A station KXT and PBS member station KERA TV. Nico Leone is honored to lead the charge.

As morning breaks over Dallas, Nico Leone, President and CEO of public media organization KERA, is definitely tuning into the station’s many platforms. “I’ll tend to listen to KERA News on the way in,” he says. After walking into the station’s headquarters, his attention moves towards the sounds that define North Texas’s public media: KXT’s eclectic Triple A mix or WRR’s classical melodies. “I’m often tuned into one of our music stations throughout the day,” Leone says. “It works better as background for me when I’m working.”

He first walked through the station’s doors weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic. “My timing’s a little bit interesting—a fun time to land in a new city, in a new market, and a new job,” he laughs. Leading through a global emergency while acclimating to a new role was daunting. “I found myself leading an organization in a crisis that we were all grappling with,” he says. “I could stand up in front of the team […] but I didn’t really know enough to help with the pivot into COVID.”

He quickly learned a lesson that he still employs: listen to his senior team and focus on long-term strategy. “We had developed enough trust very quickly,” he explains. This allowed him to envision KERA’s future beyond the pandemic. “Every public radio station had a renewed sense of service during that time,” he observes. “Audiences were turning to us in a different way.”

Despite the timing, Leone’s journey to the station had a sense of purpose to it. “I had been running KCUR in Kansas City and had run a music station prior to that,” he recalls. “This was a chance to serve audiences with music, news, and PBS stations all under one umbrella in an incredibly fast-growing metro with a ton of opportunity.” Returning to Texas also held special significance. “We’ve got some roots here. I went to college in Texas; I met my wife here,” he notes of his time at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

As his day goes on, there’s another thing he finds himself in the center of: internal operations and community engagement. “Most of my days are a question of balance,” he explains. “Am I paying attention to all of our different services? What’s my time on people, strategy, and fundraising?” He aims to split his time between working within the organization and engaging externally. “When everything’s functioning well, half my time should be external—with the board, fundraising, in the community, with partners.”

Assuming management in 2023 of WRR, Dallas’ historic classical music station, led to a significant opportunity to reach out to new audiences. “KERA has been trying on and off for the better part of 40 years to bring WRR into the family,” Leone reveals. “To be able to take advantage of an opportunity that was so squarely down the middle from a mission standpoint felt great.”  Both WRR staff and listeners were thrilled with the outcome. “To the audience, the feedback we’ve heard is that it’s felt like coming home,” he shares. “Converting it to non-commercial has been a huge benefit.”

That hasn’t been the only acquisition he’s led, the other being the Denton Record-Chronicle, the primary source of local news for Denton, a vibrant and growing city north of Dallas. “It made so much sense to welcome The Denton Record-Chronicle to our services,” he says. “Our commitment to preserving and growing trusted local journalism is so aligned.”

Partnerships and collaboration are key to KERA’s vision for serving North Texas. “We will never be able to serve the community in the ways we want if we work alone,” he asserts when thinking about how to expand the impact of KERA and its stations. “It’s about who are the right partners we’re aligned with to serve the community.”

Leone’s attention to expanding relationships means that he witnesses KERA’s impact firsthand. “Being able to really solve something for the team is really satisfying,” he says. “Donor meetings where you connect with someone who couldn’t love what we do more—it’s so meaningful to them.” These interactions underscore the personal connection many have with KERA. “It’s so personal to so many people,” he reflects. “We’re so much a part of their lives in ways that make their lives better.”

It’s a spirit that’s a part of the upcoming Public Radio Music Day celebrating “Bringing People Together: From Coast to Coast.” In fact, Leone sees KERA’s role as vital. “Music is one of the few places where you find it crosses political divides in such a polarized time,” he observes. “It’s one of the things that brings people together.”

For Leone, bringing people together isn’t just about the one-on-ones he has and facilitates. “At the end of the day, my job is to put the team in a position to do their best work and make sure they’re supported,” he states. “That shows up as strategy, fundraising, and managing people.” He trusts his program directors, for example, to make decisions that best serve their audiences. “They’ve got to own it. They’ve got to own the relationship with the audience.”

As the day winds down, Leone tends to reflect on the joys of his role. “It’s an incredible privilege to be able to do this work,” he says. “The trust our audience has in us is our most valuable asset.”

Preparing for another day of balancing strategy, community engagement, and leadership, Leone remains focused on KERA’s mission: serving North Texas through quality public media. “When my day is rooted in not just the service we provide but how it makes a tangible difference in people’s lives—those are the good days,” he affirms.