After months of speculation within public radio over the appointment of a leader for Public Radio International's new international news program A New World, the network announced its choice last week: Neil Curry, an editor of the BBC World Service for Africa.
Hailed by those who hired him as an energetic rising star within the BBC, the 40-year-old Curry has been BBC's editor for morning current affairs and features in Africa since 1988. In that position, he manages a $1.2 million budget, oversees as staff of 23, and coordinates a network of freelancers that covers every African country. The team puts together a two-hour daily morning news program, as well as weekly sports, culture, education, documentary and drama programs.
Prior to 1988, Curry produced the global current affairs program 24 Hours, and two major series: a global phone-in program It's Your World, and Six Cities, ''radio photographs'' of Bombay, Lagos, Los Angeles, Jakarta, Paris and Cairo. For his African coverage he has won Peabody, New York Radio Festival, Sony and Ohio State awards.
The BBC will be a major source of material for the new program and is a coproduction partner with PRI and WGBH-FM.
PRI released Curry's name Dec. 7. Jim Russell, producer of Marketplace and coordinator of early planning for A New World, sent his response from Germany: ''The white smoke has risen from PRI's offices in Minneapolis. Neil Curry is an energetic and very bright fellow who really understands what PRI wants to do because in many ways he has been doing it all his professional life. 'It' is allowing the world to speak for itself in many voices and from peoples of many colors.' ''
Marita Rivero, manager of WGBH, Boston, the domestic production site for World, said she was impressed by Curry's extensive experience in broadcasting, the quality of his radio work in Africa, and by comments from Curry's staff, who say he is as an accessible manager who really listens and works at ''developing people.''
Many in public radio had said Russell, who helped start All Things Considered as well as Marketplace, would have been the ideal developer of World. Russell repeatedly denied that he was interested in the job, however. Melinda Ward, PRI's head of programming, says Russell probably will continue to be involved in the program, though that is up to Curry.
PRI plans a $5 million annual budget for the program and a 4 p.m. (Eastern) feed hour that puts it up against All Things Considered. World aims to put international and domestic events into a global context, and rely heavily on the voices of native peoples to interpret and discuss events.
Skeptics expect the program will not be as revolutionary as PRI claims, and will sound much like the BBC. ''We've had a lengthy discussion about that,'' says Ward. ''This is a unique agreement for the BBC. They've never before given this kind of control to a coproduction partner. They do not want the program to be [similar to] any other program. Neither do we, and neither does Neil. There has been a very conscious effort to break the mold of ... BBC journalism--not in terms of quality, but in terms of style and format.''
Web page posted Dec. 19, 1995
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