Minnesota Public Radio's Gary Eichten Announces Intention to Retire

Aug 22, 2011

Award-winning news host to leave Midday in January 2012

(St. Paul, Minn.) August 22, 2011--Minnesota Public Radio announced today that long-time news host Gary Eichten has shared his intention to retire in early 2012. Eichten has spent more than 40 years with MPR, serving in a variety of roles including station manager, news director and his current role as host of Midday.

"I've been tremendously lucky to work with such a top-tier news organization for virtually my entire career," Eichten said. "The opportunities I've had to interview so many state and national newsmakers and to moderate so many candidate debates are the kind of opportunities that every news host dreams about."

"Gary is a terrific journalist and someone that possesses a quality tough to find these days--a fair and open mind," said Chris Worthington, MPR's Managing Director of News. "He truly believes he's an advocate for the audience and has delivered some of the best talk show journalism in the country."

Eichten began his career at Minnesota Public Radio as a student announcer at Collegeville's KSJR, MPR's first station. Among the honors Eichten has received during his career is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award for Best Local News Program. He also assisted in the development of two Peabody award-winning documentaries. In 2007, Eichten was inducted into the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting's Hall of Fame. Most recently, Eichten was awarded with the prestigious 2011 Graven Award by the Premack Public Affairs Journalism Awards Board for his contribution to excellence in the journalism profession.

"We're tremendously proud of Gary and his more than 40 years of excellent service to our audiences," said Jon McTaggart, Minnesota Public Radio president and CEO. "No one is better than Gary at facilitating civil, intelligent and insightful debate on difficult policy issues between candidates across the political spectrum. We look forward, during the coming months, to celebrate his many accomplishments and his Hall of Fame broadcasting career."

Gary Eichten will host a live broadcast of Midday from the Minnesota State Fair. Guests will include Senator Al Franken (August 25), Senator Amy Klobuchar (August 29), and Garrison Keillor (September 2 - MPR Day at the fair). The show also will be hosted live on September 5 (closing day).