National Public Radio pioneer Dave Creagh dies
By Dru Sefton / Courtesy of http://www.current.org
David M. Creagh, an influential public radio pioneer, producer, radio station manager and industry executive, died Dec. 16.
Creagh passed away peacefully at his home in Blowing Rock after a brief illness associated with treatment of a cancer diagnosis he received in November.
He was one of the first, and youngest, employees at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., in the early days of the network in the 1970s.
Creagh died a few months after his 60th birthday.
Creagh rose to become executive producer of National Public Radio’s flagship evening news program “All Things Considered” after his start as a technical director.
He served on NPR’s board of directors and was centrally involved with various aspects of system development, including the launch of new programs and concepts, including “Morning Edition,” “Soundprint” and others. Creagh hired many of today’s nationally admired on-air talents, developed, ran and nurtured major market stations and other industry assets during his important 22-year public radio career.
“In the days when we often began ATC unsure of exactly how it would end 90 minutes later, Dave’s was the steady hand on the tiller,” said Rick Lewis, a newscaster in NPR’s early days and successor to Creagh in other jobs. “There might have been pandemonium behind the scenes, but the precision of NPR’s sound was already emerging,” he said.
John Dimsdale, Washington bureau chief for American Public Media’s Marketplace and former colleague at NPR, said, “Dave was in the vanguard of public radio pioneers who laid the foundations for a vital communications network. Over his career, he established high standards for engineering, journalism, production and station management. We are all in his debt.”
Creagh built and managed Baltimore’s WJHU-FM (now WYPR-FM) for its initial licensee, Johns Hopkins University, and during that time created and incubated the long-running radio documentary series Soundprint.
“He appreciated the art of radio,” said independent public radio producer Jay Allison. “He was open to the new, and he encouraged talented young producers and their unlikely ideas. Not every skilled manager is willing to take that risk. We all still benefit from the people and ideas Dave ushered into public radio.”
Creagh left Baltimore to serve as general manager of KLON-FM, the Los Angeles-area jazz station in Long Beach (now KKJZ), where he pioneered expansion of the station’s annual fundraising blues festival into the now-famous Long Beach Jazz Festival.
Creagh was a huge jazz fan throughout his life.
In the 1980s, Creagh managed the public radio Satellite Program Development Fund, which provided seed money for innovative public radio programs.
Skip Pizzi, longtime friend and colleague of Creagh’s on that project and others, remembers Dave as “a broadcast tech who never forgot his roots. And although tragically short, his life’s work was extremely influential to public radio. He will be greatly missed.”
John Stark, general manager of Arizona’s KNAU, remembers Creagh from the earliest days of NPR.
“As a young, station-based reporter in the 1970s, everything about NPR was intimidating. Except Dave Creagh. He was encouraging. Dave’s Satellite Program Development Fund was a safe haven, a welcoming portal within NPR for rookies like me. SPDF set the precedent for the expanded National Desk, the Local News Initiative and subsequent spin-offs like Impact of Government. Dave Creagh’s legacy is everywhere in the public radio system.”
Creagh returned East in the early 1990s to become executive producer of Boston-based Monitor Radio, the acclaimed daily news service of the Christian Science Monitor, an early public radio alternative to NPR news programming.
He later led the Monitor’s development of its online news service, one of the first news organizations in the nation to do so.
“I always thought of Dave as a modern day Tom Sawyer,” said Ernest T. Sanchez, a noted public broadcasting attorney and friend for more than 35 years. “When there was serious work to be done, Dave was capable of recruiting anyone to help with the work, and convincing them they would have fun. Dave always delivered on the fun, along with serious imaginative results.”
In the mid-1990s, as public broadcasting faced recurring assaults on government funding, along with increased resistance to perpetual pledge drives, Creagh helped launch and later served as senior vice president at the nonprofit Alliance for Public Broadcasting, which pioneered use of transaction-based fundraising for the industry.
“We’ve lost a valuable man, a formidable professional, a fine mind, great heart and a honed wit. Dave had a journalist’s mind and a broadcaster’s heart and was dedicated to straight talk and loyalty to friends and family,” said Dave’s close friend and colleague Walt McRee, founder and president of the Alliance for Public Broadcasting.
On-air host Bob Edwards, who Creagh helped position as host at the start of NPR’s Morning Edition, said, “He was a guy who really cared — a professional who wanted us to execute flawlessly each day. We absolutely needed that in those early years.”
Other notables expressed their appreciation for Creagh’s personal style: Jay Kernis, a former senior vice president of programming for NPR, said, “(Dave was) a great guy, great engineer and producer. The classic cock-the-arm and then straighten it to point “go” signal between director and host may be his — at least he perfected it and passed it on. (He) projected a tough image, but had a wicked sense of humor. He will be missed.”
Former NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin said, “He exemplified those best qualities of truth telling, moral clarity and wry rumor that I found to be widespread at NPR when I came on board a few years later. His spirit is still there.”
His marriage to Katherine (Roe) Creagh of Boston was one of NPR’s first matrimonial unions while they were young co-workers in Washington, D.C. “Dave was a loving husband and a wonderful dad to Mary and Charlie. He filled our home with radios and the kids grew up on public radio recognizing on-air talents and programs from D.C. to California. … Dave had a lasting impact on public radio programming and he was so proud of that. We miss him terribly,” she said.
He is survived by two children, Mary Dolores Creagh and Charles Randall Creagh of Boston; one sister, Elizabeth (Creagh) Martin of Virginia; and a number of nieces and nephews.
Creagh passed away peacefully at his home in Blowing Rock after a brief illness associated with treatment of a cancer diagnosis he received in November.
He was one of the first, and youngest, employees at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., in the early days of the network in the 1970s.
Creagh died a few months after his 60th birthday.
Creagh rose to become executive producer of National Public Radio’s flagship evening news program “All Things Considered” after his start as a technical director.
He served on NPR’s board of directors and was centrally involved with various aspects of system development, including the launch of new programs and concepts, including “Morning Edition,” “Soundprint” and others. Creagh hired many of today’s nationally admired on-air talents, developed, ran and nurtured major market stations and other industry assets during his important 22-year public radio career.
“In the days when we often began ATC unsure of exactly how it would end 90 minutes later, Dave’s was the steady hand on the tiller,” said Rick Lewis, a newscaster in NPR’s early days and successor to Creagh in other jobs. “There might have been pandemonium behind the scenes, but the precision of NPR’s sound was already emerging,” he said.
John Dimsdale, Washington bureau chief for American Public Media’s Marketplace and former colleague at NPR, said, “Dave was in the vanguard of public radio pioneers who laid the foundations for a vital communications network. Over his career, he established high standards for engineering, journalism, production and station management. We are all in his debt.”
Creagh built and managed Baltimore’s WJHU-FM (now WYPR-FM) for its initial licensee, Johns Hopkins University, and during that time created and incubated the long-running radio documentary series Soundprint.
“He appreciated the art of radio,” said independent public radio producer Jay Allison. “He was open to the new, and he encouraged talented young producers and their unlikely ideas. Not every skilled manager is willing to take that risk. We all still benefit from the people and ideas Dave ushered into public radio.”
Creagh left Baltimore to serve as general manager of KLON-FM, the Los Angeles-area jazz station in Long Beach (now KKJZ), where he pioneered expansion of the station’s annual fundraising blues festival into the now-famous Long Beach Jazz Festival.
Creagh was a huge jazz fan throughout his life.
In the 1980s, Creagh managed the public radio Satellite Program Development Fund, which provided seed money for innovative public radio programs.
Skip Pizzi, longtime friend and colleague of Creagh’s on that project and others, remembers Dave as “a broadcast tech who never forgot his roots. And although tragically short, his life’s work was extremely influential to public radio. He will be greatly missed.”
John Stark, general manager of Arizona’s KNAU, remembers Creagh from the earliest days of NPR.
“As a young, station-based reporter in the 1970s, everything about NPR was intimidating. Except Dave Creagh. He was encouraging. Dave’s Satellite Program Development Fund was a safe haven, a welcoming portal within NPR for rookies like me. SPDF set the precedent for the expanded National Desk, the Local News Initiative and subsequent spin-offs like Impact of Government. Dave Creagh’s legacy is everywhere in the public radio system.”
Creagh returned East in the early 1990s to become executive producer of Boston-based Monitor Radio, the acclaimed daily news service of the Christian Science Monitor, an early public radio alternative to NPR news programming.
He later led the Monitor’s development of its online news service, one of the first news organizations in the nation to do so.
“I always thought of Dave as a modern day Tom Sawyer,” said Ernest T. Sanchez, a noted public broadcasting attorney and friend for more than 35 years. “When there was serious work to be done, Dave was capable of recruiting anyone to help with the work, and convincing them they would have fun. Dave always delivered on the fun, along with serious imaginative results.”
In the mid-1990s, as public broadcasting faced recurring assaults on government funding, along with increased resistance to perpetual pledge drives, Creagh helped launch and later served as senior vice president at the nonprofit Alliance for Public Broadcasting, which pioneered use of transaction-based fundraising for the industry.
“We’ve lost a valuable man, a formidable professional, a fine mind, great heart and a honed wit. Dave had a journalist’s mind and a broadcaster’s heart and was dedicated to straight talk and loyalty to friends and family,” said Dave’s close friend and colleague Walt McRee, founder and president of the Alliance for Public Broadcasting.
On-air host Bob Edwards, who Creagh helped position as host at the start of NPR’s Morning Edition, said, “He was a guy who really cared — a professional who wanted us to execute flawlessly each day. We absolutely needed that in those early years.”
Other notables expressed their appreciation for Creagh’s personal style: Jay Kernis, a former senior vice president of programming for NPR, said, “(Dave was) a great guy, great engineer and producer. The classic cock-the-arm and then straighten it to point “go” signal between director and host may be his — at least he perfected it and passed it on. (He) projected a tough image, but had a wicked sense of humor. He will be missed.”
Former NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin said, “He exemplified those best qualities of truth telling, moral clarity and wry rumor that I found to be widespread at NPR when I came on board a few years later. His spirit is still there.”
His marriage to Katherine (Roe) Creagh of Boston was one of NPR’s first matrimonial unions while they were young co-workers in Washington, D.C. “Dave was a loving husband and a wonderful dad to Mary and Charlie. He filled our home with radios and the kids grew up on public radio recognizing on-air talents and programs from D.C. to California. … Dave had a lasting impact on public radio programming and he was so proud of that. We miss him terribly,” she said.
He is survived by two children, Mary Dolores Creagh and Charles Randall Creagh of Boston; one sister, Elizabeth (Creagh) Martin of Virginia; and a number of nieces and nephews.