Ex-Denver Post editor hired as KUNC news director

GREELEY — Colorado media-industry veteran Linda Carpio Shapley has been hired as KUNC’s news director as the Northern Colorado public radio station dials up a merger with Rocky Mountain Public Media and a move from Greeley to Fort Collins. 

“Along with her deep connections to Northern Colorado — she was raised on a dairy farm northeast of Greeley — Shapley brings a wealth of expertise to the role. Her background includes positions at her alma mater, Colorado State University, where she has been an adjunct journalism instructor and was Interim CEO/President of CSU’s Rocky Mountain Student Media,” RMPM said in a news release. “Shapley was also publisher and director of editorial and audience at the suburban newspaper network Colorado Community Media, and before that was managing editor at both the trade publication Colorado Politics and at The Denver Post.”

RMPM’s release said that Shapley will begin her new role with KUNC this month. 

“I am honored to join the talented team at KUNC and build on its legacy of trusted journalism,” Shapley said in the release. “I believe deeply in the power of Local News to foster understanding and create stronger communities. My goal is to empower our journalists to produce insightful, inclusive reporting that truly serves Northern Colorado, and to ensure our work is accessible and relevant to our audience on every platform they use.”

As first reported by BizWest in March, officials with Community Radio for Northern Colorado, which owns news-talk KUNC 91.5 FM and KJAC 105.5 FM, known as The Colorado Sound, had been in discussions since last year with Rocky Mountain Public Media, which owns Rocky Mountain PBS, anchored by KRMA-TV Channel 6, plus jazz station KUVO 89.3 FM and low-power urban contemporary-formatted K284CI 104.7 FM, nicknamed The Drop. 

An asset purchase agreement was signed June 30, and RMPM applied to the Federal Communications Commission on July 2 to acquire CRNC’s full-power radio stations and nearly a dozen low-power translators around the state. The FCC approved the transaction Aug. 13.

The CRNC stations now lease a space at 1901 56th Ave. in Greeley but soon will move into a new $3.5 million facility under development at 300 E. Mountain Ave. in Fort Collins.

The Bohemian Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Fort Collins and founded by billionaire philanthropist Pat Stryker, will provide a new space for the KUNC and KJAC studios and community gathering areas as part of a new 7,000-square-foot, three story building that its real-estate arm, the Bohemian Cos., is building as an expansion of the Armory music venue.

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