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Douglas Walker Named Executive Director Of KAMU At Texas A&M

Veteran collegiate marketing and media relations administrator Douglas Walker takes the helm with a vision to expand public broadcasting with PBS member station KAMU-TV and NPR affiliate KAMU 90.9 FM at the university.
By Texas A&M University Division of Marketing & Communications Staff April 4, 2019

Douglas Walker Texas A&M headshot
Douglas Walker has been named executive director of Educational Broadcast Services at Texas A&M University.

Photo courtesy of Douglas Walker

Douglas Walker — a veteran administrator with extensive experience in management, organization and successful audience engagement — has been named executive director of Educational Broadcast Services at Texas A&M University.

In his new role, Walker will work in coordination with the Division of Marketing & Communications to help guide strategic planning, visioning and management of the university’s TV and radio station, while improving its support for the educational mission, as well as its statewide and regional mission in public service.

KAMU-TV, which began broadcasting 49 years ago, is the sole PBS member station for the Bryan-College Station and Waco-Killeen markets. Educational Broadcast Services also oversees KAMU’s radio station — 90.9 FM — which is a public station launched in 1977, and is affiliated with National Public Radio.

Walker joins the team at a time of transition as the division plans to launch more local programming, including capitalizing on the expertise of Texas A&M faculty and showcasing A&M’s research.

Kelly Brown, associate vice president for Marketing and Communications, said Walker is a great fit for the position.

“Throughout his administrative career, Doug has earned an impressive reputation as a collaborative leader who changes cultures for the better,” Brown said. “Over the course of our search, the professional respect he has earned from widely diverse colleagues made him an ideal candidate for this position. His approach and ability to see the ‘big picture’ are critical as we continue to enhance Texas A&M’s effectiveness and reputation in public broadcasting.”

Walker transitions to this new role after a 30-year career in collegiate marketing and media relations, during which he served on the administrative management teams at several high-profile universities including TCU (1998-2000), The University of Miami (Fla.) (2000-04), The University of Notre Dame (2004-06), The University of Alabama (2006-17) and Texas A&M University (2017-19). Most recently, Walker served as senior associate athletics director of external affairs at Texas A&M.

“I’m grateful and excited for the opportunity to enhance public broadcasting’s visibility and impact on Texas A&M’s brand throughout the state of Texas and the nation,” Walker said. “Throughout my career, on-campus broadcasting enhanced our storytelling and branding efforts. This opportunity offers a chance to build on that experience in a much broader space.”

Steve Diorio, associate director of news and sports at the University of Alabama’s television station, WVUA, worked closely with Walker on various content creation endeavors in Tuscaloosa.

“I think the most significant benefit that Doug brings is the vision he shared with me when we collaborated on a variety of content creation and storytelling ventures at Alabama,” Diorio said. “Not only does he have a deep understanding of the complexities and opportunities of current media, but he also has a compelling vision for storytelling in broadcasting that really invigorated our approach in that area.”

Walker, a 1989 Texas A&M graduate with a degree in journalism, also holds a master’s degree from The University of Alabama.

Wayne Pecena served for three years as interim executive director at KAMU. He returns to his position as assistant director.

“We appreciate Wayne’s leadership, and are proud of the work he’s accomplished and will continue to do here at KAMU,” Brown said of Pecena, who has won numerous TV and radio engineering awards over his 45-plus year career.

Media contact: Lesley Henton, lshenton@tamu.edu.

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