Behind the Scenes: With Holly Kernan of Nashville Public Radio

In May 2025, Nashville Public Radio announced that veteran journalist and fourth-generation Californian Holly Kernan would move from KQED-FM in San Francisco to serve as president and CEO, overseeing the local news and NPR station WPLN-FM 90.3, the music discovery station WNXP-FM 91.1, and the classical music streaming service 90.3 HD-2,  starting in August. Then in July, before Holly and her husband, Mike Woitalla, touched down in MetroCenter, federal funding cuts eliminated approximately $400,000 from the Nashville stations’ budgets, raising the challenge — and the opportunity — for Nashville Public Radio and its new leader.

Fluent in English and Spanish, with degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara and New York University, KQED’s former chief content officer now brings her decades of public media leadership and a résumé of innovation and growth in broadcast journalism to this pivotal moment in Nashville Public Radio’s 63-year history.

What attracted you to Nashville and Nashville Public Radio after decades in California?

My husband, Mike, and I are so excited to become part of this community. Nashville is such a vibrant city, full of magic and dreams and possibility and such kind and friendly people — it’s a place where people give back and step up to make things happen. And you can’t beat the music here, but you can move to it!  

Why is public radio important to the Nashville community?

Public radio supports an informed and connected community. It’s a place to bring people together, so we can [connect with] our neighbors in rural Tennessee, listen to new music together, examine what makes Nashville magical and what needs to be fixed, and imagine our shared future together.

What are the top challenges and priorities as you settle in?

Over the summer, we lost federal funding for public broadcasting, which is almost half a million a year in annual support for Nashville Public Radio. I came here on a mission to revitalize public radio at a time of crisis, and to turn [that crisis] into an opportunity to build on the six decades of community service of Nashville Public Radio.

What opportunities are you most excited about for listeners of Nashville Public Radio?

There are so many! WNXP, our music discovery station, is celebrating its fifth birthday. We are also expanding community events. Bringing people together in real life in a time of so much technological change is exciting — combining what we do on air and also offering opportunities for people to meet and share conversation. We want to help retain that small-town feel in a growing village of 2 million people.

Coming from a public radio community with a supporter base many times that of Nashville Public Radio, how can you build a broader subscriber base here?

Nashville has all the ingredients already, and Nashville Public Radio has an impressive record of six decades of service. We just have to get the word out about this community jewel and remind people that our strength is in joining together to build on our anchor institutions and increase our service together. Now, all of our support comes directly from our community.

How can the Nashville community engage with and support this media resource?

Please come to an event, listen in, follow us on Instagram, download our app, contact me to collaborate, and do become a member. 

Where might we bump into you in your free time?

My husband and I rescue greyhounds. We lost our beloved boy Cody over the summer ... but we hope to adopt a greyhound again here in Nashville. 

We love hiking and riding bikes, and the Nashville area is great for that. I like to take dance classes and look forward to having time to do that again soon. I love history and am enjoying the many museums here.  

My husband is a soccer writer and the executive editor of Soccer America, so we like to attend the SC Nashville games. What a great crowd!