Chris Hastings has taken the leadership reins as WXXI's president and CEO.
On Monday, he succeeded Norm Silverstein, who held that role for more than 28 years.
Hastings most recently served as an executive producer and editor-in-chief of the World Channel at GBH, a major public media organization based in Boston.
In an earlier interview with WXXI News, Hastings talked about the need for public media to serve their communities with reliable information.
“When we think about how public media has been funded and how it was originally funded, it was about making sure that you are connecting with those people who are out in the community,” he said.
Hastings said he hopes that public media like WXXI can help to connect diverse communities.
“Public media is a huge umbrella, right? It's got to be inclusive of everybody,” he said. “Sometimes, with commercial media, they only serve certain sects. But I think public media has an obligation to really serve all communities in unique ways.”
Hastings began his journalism career at Black Entertainment Television as part of the original team behind the award-winning news talk show “BET Tonight.”
After BET, Hastings joined GBH in Boston, where he spent more than 20 years in various roles, including working on programs that worked to address the needs and interests of local communities.
Hastings also led the WGBH Lab, a platform designed to experiment with new forms of storytelling and engage with audiences in creative ways.
Hastings' work has earned numerous awards, including the Peabody Award, the duPont-Columbia Award, the News & Documentary Emmy Award, and the International Documentary Association Award. Beyond his professional achievements, Hastings is a champion of independent film distribution through the public media system.
