Chicago Radio: Goli Sheikholeslami To EXIT Non-com WBEZ

Goli Sheikholesslami

Chicago Public Media CEO Goli Sheikholeslami announced Wednesday she will leave her post to assume a similar position at New York City’s public radio station, ending a record-setting run as arguably the most influential woman in Chicago journalism, according to the WBEZ 91.5 FM website.

During her five-year tenure atop Chicago’s National Public Radio affiliate, Sheikholeslami positioned WBEZ as a thriving journalism outlet, presiding over a steep growth in revenues, listenership and hiring.

In a move she characterized as “bittersweet,” Sheikholeslami will take the helm of New York Public Radio in early October, an outlet roughly three times the size of WBEZ.

But Sheikholeslami, a member of the National Public Radio board of directors, said she regards her time in Chicago, in transforming WBEZ into a financially secure media enterprise, as a professional pinnacle.

“For someone in the media business for 25 years, the past five have been the most fulfilling of my career,” Sheikholeslami said in an interview Tuesday night. “We’ve been building this vibrant, healthy, local newsroom at a time when all across the country newsrooms are shrinking and disappearing, and that’s what I’m most proud of.”

The one-time Washington Post digital executive took control of WBEZ in 2014 and immediately engineered a $2 million infusion of funds through a grant from the Pritzker Foundation. Since then, the nonprofit station grew from a $19 million-a-year budget to a roughly $31 million operation.