Torey Malatia

Without Torey Malatia, there would not be “This American Life,” and there would not be "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me.”  There also wouldn’t be this blog.

I can’t speak for Ira Glass or Peter Sagal, but I know I have Malatia to thank for the opportunity that changed my life and redefined my career as a digital journalist.

As president and CEO of Chicago Public Media and general manager of WBEZ FM 91.5 for almost 20 years, Malatia transformed the organization and encouraged people and ideas to flourish.

That’s not to say his tenure wasn’t controversial. Some critics never forgave him for dropping jazz and turning the station’s format entirely to news and public affairs. Others faulted his management style, questioned his business acumen or dismissed his Vocalo initiative as a boondoggle. (The former Vocalo website launched this blog in 2009.)

But until he lost the confidence of the board of Chicago Public Media, which abruptly dismissed him in 2013, the visionary Malatia always was an intensely committed and nationally respected creative force in public radio.

So it was good to see he’s back in business — as president, CEO and general manager of Rhode Island Public Radio, based in Providence and encompassing three stations.

For the past year Malatia, 64, has been working as a communication innovator for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a nonprofit network of social entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C. Over a long dinner last Fourth of July (when I took the photo that accompanies this story), he talked about the remarkable innovators he’d met who are working to solve the world's problems solely for the benefit of others. It clearly was a transformative experience for him.

“I will never cease being grateful to Ashoka for what I have learned here in the past year,” he said Tuesday when we reconnected. “It truly has enriched me and deepened my understanding of what public service should be.”

Of his new job with Rhode Island Public Radio, where he inherits a tiny staff and an even tinier budget, Malatia simply called it “a delicious challenge.”