He's the co-founder, with Ira Glass, of 'This American Life,' and former head of Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- At the end of nearly every episode of public radio favorite "This American Life," host Ira Glass goofs on some guy named Torey Malatia.

In 1998, Glass asked, "Does Torey Malatia have the electronic nose?" In 2004, Glass said Malatia insisted on being called "The Cooler." And just a few weeks ago, Glass told his audience that Malatia was always confused by the show, while a high-pitched voice squealed, "What do you mean by what you're saying?"

There is a very real Torey Malatia, co-founder of "This American Life," and former CEO of Chicago Public Media Inc., the corporate parent to Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ. Since September, he's been president, general manager and CEO of Rhode Island Public Radio.

In a phone interview, Glass said Malatia was "utterly instrumental" in the founding of "This American Life." He said Malatia came to him in 1994 or 1995 and said he thought he could get funding for a show. Did Glass have any ideas?

And in the early years of "This American Life," when the show was still trying to find its footing, Malatia was heavily involved.

"No decisions were made without him," Glass said. "He was my partner. We decided on things together."

In the world of public media, Malatia is a well-known figure. In addition to "This American Life," Malatia's 20-year tenure in Chicago included the launch of another radio hit, "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!"

"General managers [in public radio] are generally not rock stars. There are very few who are rock stars," said Adam Ragusea, journalism professor at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and host of "The Pub," a weekly podcast for public radio trade journal Current. "And Torey is definitely a rock star."

Rock star or not, Malatia was forced out at WBEZ in 2013 after a disagreement with the board of directors over the direction of the company.

The obvious question is why Malatia, 64, took a job in Rhode Island after running a national powerhouse like WBEZ.

"If he was just looking for a cushy retirement gig, this wouldn't be it," said Ragusea. "He's clearly made a decision he wants to try this, he wants to do some things. He still has some gas left in the tank."

Immediately after leaving WBEZ, Malatia worked for Ashoka, a nonprofit network of social entrepreneuers, before coming to Rhode Island.

Glass, a Brown University graduate, said he was glad to hear Malatia was back in radio.

"I know the depth of what he can do," Glass said. "He likes a fixer-upper. He's ambitious. He likes building things."

Interviewed in his office at Rhode Island Public Radio, Malatia said he saw an opportunity in Rhode Island.

"Because here was a state that has a tremendous amount of self-awareness," he said. "People really care in Rhode Island about Rhode Island. Even people who are fed up with it. That's still caring to me. It's apathy you have to worry about ...

"Every single [public] radio station is a community resource. Each place is different. Each state is different. Each one is rooted in a community. At this moment in history in Rhode Island, there's a need for a public voice."

Malatia said Rhode Island Public Radio has a core of listeners and supporters who strongly believe Rhode Island needs its own, distinctive public radio station.

So Malatia said he has a chance here to test some of his ideas about the future of public radio in a rapidly changing media landscape.

But Malatia was also candid about the challenges he faces.

Two of the best public radio stations in the country, WBUR and WGBH, broadcast out of Boston, and both can be heard in the Rhode Island market, while RINPR has what Malatia called a "subprime signal." (The station needs three different frequencies, 88.1 FM, 91.5 FM and 102.7 FM, to try to cover the state.)

The station's website is a rented template that doesn't allow it to take full advantage of the Internet. Malatia said he wants to change that, so the station can develop new online initiatives.

The staff, which wins high praise from Malatia, is relatively small, and the station's $2.7-million annual budget doesn't have a lot of wiggle room.

"It's not like there's a lot of mad money sitting around, so we can't do a lot of things at once," Malatia said. "We have to do things incrementally and in a logical progression."

Two things he's thinking about are in-depth local reporting and increasing listener engagement, whether that's on the web, over the air, or both.

"We are already focusing on deep-dive, major-topic reporting, which is where I think we can really add value," he said, ticking off the environment, education, health care and politics as beats where the station is already producing long-form reporting. He'd like to add additional beats, such as the economy or the arts, but that would entail hiring more reporters.

Malatia is also considering the best way to present the station's work.

"There's a need for us to take some of the real estate of the broadcast day to showcase some of the material that we're currently producing, and hope to produce in the future," he said. That could mean a local news and public affairs show.

If there's a timetable for these new plans, Malatia is not revealing it yet.

"There are challenges that Torey is thinking about, that the board is thinking about," said James E. "Ted" Long Jr., chairman of the Rhode Island Public Radio Board of Directors. "I would be surprised if Torey, and the board, rolls out something radical. I wouldn't be surprised if he rolls out something ambitious."

But another national show is not part of Malatia's plans. As a matter of fact, Malatia said the worst way to come up with a successful national show is to set out to make one. If you try to do that, you inevitably look at what's already successful, and you end up by imitating, not innovating.

"We want to do something here that's very Rhode Island, very quirky," he said. "It wouldn't be a cookie-cutter thing someone dreams up in a lab somewhere."

Malatia grew up in the Chicago area and went to college at Arizona State University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English literature. He joined Chicago Public Media in 1993 as vice president of programming. In 1996 he was named general manager at WBEZ and CEO of Chicago Public Media. He is married to artist Elizabeth Carson Manley.

In 1995, he cofounded "This American Life." In early 1998, "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" debuted on WBEZ. Malatia doesn't take any credit for creating "Wait, Wait," but he did guide it through an early, rocky period.

"That show was terrible in the beginning," Ragusea said. "And he just stuck by it."

But in the summer of 2013, Malatia was rather abruptly out at Chicago Public Media.

"Twenty years is a very long time to run a world-class institution, in Chicago or anywhere else," said Robert Feder, a former media columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, whose independent media blog now appears in the Chicago Tribune. "There was a complete turnover on the board. The people who had brought him in were gone. The people who replaced them were not as invested in his leadership."

When the Great Recession hit in 2008, corporate donations and foundation money for the station went down, as they went down almost everywhere. WBEZ was hit hard. By 2013, Feder said, Malatia had lost the confidence of his board of directors.

Malatia said the new board was not enthused about some of his innovations, such as a combined Internet and broadcast project called Vocalo that was designed to attract younger, more diverse listeners to public radio.

"The new board members were more classic banker, business types," Malatia said. "They knew the commercial world, and in that world those things that get to be successful were the things you maximized."

For them, it was foolhardy to go after millennials of color when there was no proof they would ever become WBEZ members and support the station, Malatia said. Better to build on the base the station already had.

Some Chicago reporters, such as Lynne Marek, writing in Crain's Chicago Business, cited sources who said the board was unhappy over what it considered WBEZ's lackluster ratings. (In 2014, shortly after Malatia left, the Chicago Tribune reported WBEZ ranked 23rd in the Chicago market, with a 1.7 share of the radio audience.)

Feder, who briefly worked for Malatia writing a media blog for Vocalo, said Malatia will need to adjust to not having the resources in Rhode Island he was used to in Chicago.

"Radio and broadcasting are still a passion for him," Feder said. "It did surprise me when I heard he went to Rhode Island. But that's great luck for you guys.

"You're getting a world-class radio guy."

— asmith@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @asmith651