Dave Spizale's last day as general manager of KRVS 88.7 FM is Friday; the search continues for his replacement.
Spizale put in 31 years at the listener-supported/regional public radio station that broadcasts from the UL Lafayette campus. In November, Spizale contacted UL's Jerry Luke LeBlanc, vice president for administration and finance, about retiring. According to university records, LeBlanc officially received the letter of retirement Dec. 5.
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| Dave Spizale at a retirement party Sunday at the Blue Moon Hostel. Corey Porche is at left. Dominick Cross |
After two postings for the position, the last of which expired June 10, Tom Pears, UL director of auxiliary operations who oversees KRVS, says he'll begin reviewing resumes today. "A search committee should convene in the next week or so, given that we got a good cross section of candidates," says Pears. "Last time when we advertised, we didn't get as many as we thought, so we simply extended the posting period to see if we can get a wider, deeper group of resumes."
Pears says in addition to the search committee, he'll seek input from groups not on the search committee. "We want to make sure they have a voice," he says.
Monday afternoon Pears said he would email the names of members of the committee and groups he plans to talk with, but The Independent has not yet received the email.
When the job was first posted, the response was "somewhere in the teens," says Pears. "Which is another reason why we basically reposted it again. And we posted to the CPB [Corporation for Public Broadcasting] site, Current [a newspaper and website for public media], and in addition to what HR did, we added some public radio and broadcast sites that aren't normally part of HR.
"Frankly, if we don't have a good sample now, we'll post it another time just to make sure we have a good mix of people," he adds.
Pears says that "we would've hoped to have had it done by now, but again, instead of getting in a rush, we're going to make sure we find the right person. We took our time when we found Dave, so we're going to take our time to find Dave's replacement," he says. "Dave's a good guy. We were lucky to have him this long," says Pears. "It'll just take some time to make sure we have the right person."
Spizale has been in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP, for three years. He was eligible to retire three years ago but chose to stay on until May 31 of this year. He then decided to stay on through Friday to help with the transition.
"The philosophy we're going to work under and we've been working under is we're going to take our time, we're going to do it right, we're going to find the right person," says Pears. "We're not going to be in a hurry. It's far too important a position for us to simply not take our time. It's just that important."
Pears, a former TV executive, took over auxiliary operations Jan. 17.
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