Ben Donnelly

PRE's General Manager Ben Donnelly joined the team in August of 2018. He brings nearly 2 decades of public radio experience and enthusiasm for the future of the organization. 

Ben hails from the small town of Versailles, Ohio where his parents were both teachers. He earned a BS in Mass Communication from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with an emphasis in production. 

Ben started his professional radio career at Texas Public Radio in San Antonio as a classical music announcer and  producer for the weekly opera program. He got the job due to the sound of his voice and his ability to pronounce most composers' names correctly. He worked as an announcer, manager, and teacher at Trinity University's KRTU in San Antonio. He served as music director and morning drive announcer for classical KTPB in Kilgore, Texas for several years before landing at Winston-Salem State University's jazz station WSNC in 2006 where he served as announcer, instructor, and operations manager.

While working at WSSU, he earned a Master's Degree in Technology and Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill through their distance learning program. This led to his appointment as Interim General Manager at WSNC in 2016 and his eventual move to PRE in New Bern.