Company Profile

Company Description:

90.9 WBUR-FM and wbur.org is Boston's NPR news station and the home of nationally syndicated programs, including On Point, Here & Now, Only A Game and Car Talk, which reach millions of listeners each week on NPR stations across the country and online. WBUR provides listeners with thorough coverage of local, national and international news from NPR, Public Radio International and the BBC, in addition to its own locally produced content. WBUR has a dedicated newsroom reporting original, local content throughout the day, as well as Radio Boston, a daily news magazine examining issues, news, people and places through a distinctly Boston lens.

Through a dynamic exchange of ideas, WBUR serves and engages the local community as a source of news and information, providing insight and cultural context that unites a diverse, complex and changing world.

Other WBUR highlights:

• Produces more hours of national programming every week than any other public radio station in America
• Reaches approximately 500,000 listeners weekly
• Generates visual, text and audio for radio stories online — in addition to live streaming and podcasting
• Engages thousands of fans on social medi

As Executive Director of News Content at WBUR, Richard Chacón oversees all aspects of local radio and digital news content for WBUR, Boston’s leading public radio station. His responsibilities include editorial and strategic leadership of the WBUR news department, staffing, budgeting and story development for daily news programs and special projects.

As a journalist, Richard has worked at The Boston Globe, where he covered Boston City Hall and higher education and was the Latin America bureau chief, based in Mexico City. He also served as deputy foreign affairs editor and as ombudsman. In addition, he has worked at New York Newsday, WCVB-TV in Boston and KTSM in his native El Paso, Texas.

In 2006, Richard served as director of communications for Deval Patrick’s gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts, and later served in the governor’s office as director of policy and then as executive director of the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants. He also served as a speechwriter in the New York City mayor’s office under David Dinkins and later as deputy media director for the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York City.

Richard received a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University in 2004 and an Eisenhower Fellowship in Brazil and Germany in 2008. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston University’s College of Communication and master’s degrees in public administration and in journalism from Columbia University.