Thank you, Dan DeVany

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After 35 years of service to WETA, Vice President and General Manager of WETA Classical, Dan DeVany, is retiring. From our programming to the infrastructure that brings classical music to Washington and beyond, Dan's years of dedication and passion are embedded in every nook and cranny. Many of us depend on WETA Classical to get through our days and to cultivate our love of classical music, and we have Dan to thank for his vision and leadership in making our mission a reality. The hosts and staff of WETA Classical have worked with Dan for years, many for decades, and his kindness, passion, and leadership stand the test of time. Below, we share our favorite memories and words of gratitude. 

It's difficult to overstate the importance of Dan's advocacy for classical music and its impact on the future of WETA Classical. Under Dan's decades of leadership, WETA Classical has had a significant presence in the DMV radio market and beyond. And in the past few years, thanks to Dan's support and guidance, we've expanded our public service offerings to include a classical music blog and a popular classical music podcast. We'll greatly miss Dan's wisdom, enthusiasm, and good cheer, but we wish him all the best in his retirement. Thank you, Dan!

Jim Allison, Program Director

I met with Dan twice before I signed on with WETA. In those prior occasions, and in every moment since, he has treated me with nothing less than the greatest kindness, respect, and collegiality. Watching him interact with fellow staffers, with visitors, with donors, and especially with listeners, I realized that that's just the way he treats everybody. To paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan, he is the very model of a modern major manager. Listening to him on the air (as I have had the pleasure of closing out many on-air fund-drives with him), his laser-like focus on the individual listener he was speaking to at any given moment was inspirational. I will miss that, but that's just one of the many ways he will be missed around here. It was one of the greatest pleasures and privileges of my life to have worked with him.

Godspeed, and may Good Fortune follow you, Dan DeVany. Your work here will not be forgotten.

Bill Bukowski, Midday Host

The WETA Classical staff was always confident, with good reason, that Dan DeVany is an ideal leader — confident of our purpose, unwavering supporter of our mission and a strong advocate of Classical music and the benefits it brings to our community.  Dan always acted with wisdom, compassion, courtesy and kindness, the marks of a true leader.  Dan has a thorough understanding and commitment to radio, from his on-air work to managing a multi-faceted station.   When Dan looks back at his life and career, I trust he will be pleased with the important mark he made in making WETA Classical a strong leader of Classical music.

Linda Carducci, Morning Host

You don’t know what you got till it’s gone,” wrote Joni Mitchell in her song “Big Yellow Taxi.” But that’s never been the case with Dan DeVany as our leader at WETA Classical. A leader who treated us with respect and created a safe and supportive workplace. A leader who protected us during a dramatic format change and led us back to doing the work we all love best. I believe that the best results come when workers feel free to express themselves and to pursue their passions in a positive environment and share a commitment to an important mission and a respect and liking for one’s co-workers. I am deeply grateful to Dan for his vision and am confident his legacy will carry on, no matter how many “parking lots” people try to impose on us.  

Nicole Lacroix, Afternoon Host

My first solo broadcast production was with Dan when I was on air in the evenings. He put a lot of trust in me as we produced a very Irish 2 hour program called "Poets and Patriots" (I can still hear the exact way he said it!) He also surely put in a lot of patience with me as he was in the studio and I was trying to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to do! I also appreciated his positive comments and support when I started producing Front Row Washington, which gave me confidence as I was working in an entirely new field. Dan's support and knowing how to uplift the talents around him has made WETA Classical the strong station it is today, and one that weathers all of these storms. 

John Banther, Host and Producer

Wishing you all the best today,
Joining a chorus of fare thee well.

Celebrating with good stories 
and maybe some tears,
Looking back on so many years.

An amazing journey of finding one's druthers,
Challenge, success, above all, Service to others.

To step away from such life's work, 
I'd rather call "graduation" than retire.

Looking ahead, no doubt you will continue to inspire
As you proceed to your heart's desire.

So, fare thee well, as you journey on ...
Chip Brienza, Host

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I've known and with Dan since the 80s. I remember very well that he was always listening to everyone and everything that was on the air. By always I mean all the time. Two things come to mind: one was a Saturday afternoon shift I had and he was in the building and came down to say how he enjoyed my recent break. That was a nice surprise and encouragement for someone new to the station at that time.  The other memorable time was a Sunday morning when I was to be in at 6:00 and overslept, arrgh.  He called me and said calmly the fire music had even stopped and it was indeed dead air. He calmly said, "I think you should get in here quickly.", which I did. After some 30+ years, we can laugh about it, but it took a while for me to get over that. I now use several alarms. 

Rich Kleinfeldt, Host

Much can be said about Dan DeVany’s very distinguished, decades-long career in broadcasting; those that have known him far longer that the five years he and I have been acquainted can surely give better testimony than I can about his innumerable and very impressive accomplishments.

What I would add to that is that Dan is a seeker of truth. Even his car’s license plate (if you know, you know) attests to how deeply he directs his mind and heart toward the wisdom of the ages.

Like Dan, and like my colleagues at WETA Classical, I appreciate and enjoy many different genres of music. Yet an exceptional characteristic of this frankly ill-defined “classical” body of aural experience is the breadth of time it traverses. I love to hear recordings of Count Basie’s band from the 1930s, I have an enthusiasm for barbershop harmonies that first became popular before World War I, and I love a good folk tune that may have originated many generations ago, but when we are listening to WETA Classical and WETA VivaLaVoce, we might hear dances compiled in the early sixteenth century by Tielman Susato, or mystical chants composed by the Sybil of the Rhine, Hildegard von Bingen, who died in 1179. And of course, we get sumptuous earfuls of music from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Classical music challenges us, as few other musical styles do, to contemplate our place in the expanse of time. I have encountered few people in my own journey through time who more embody the wonder, humility and gratitude this evokes than Dan DeVany.

With a gentle, unassuming spirit, and an insatiable yearning for discovery coupled with deep understanding, Dan has led Washington’s classical music radio station with wisdom, passion and insight. If you want to understand any organization, any group of people, look to the leadership. WETA Classical is one of the most creative and constructive environments I have ever encountered in my working life, and while many factors surely contribute to this (our fantastic listeners and supporters being among the most important and vital), Dan’s leadership certainly must be the most salient reason WETA Classical is such a positive force in the nation’s capital and beyond. He understands in a profound way that these sounds are not merely entertainment, but expressions of a centuries-long search for truth. I can’t help but believe that this outlook has guided him as he has guided our organization, and I will always be inexpressibly grateful to him for the kindliness and dedication with which he has done so.

Evan Keely, Host

I have worked with and for Dan for about thirty years. At first, we were “mere” colleagues, as he had returned to WETA following a period of personal pursuits. He hosted the afternoon classical music as well as the drive-time news/information block. To transition from music to news, Deborah Lamberton used to produce “The PM Program” which included interviews with musicians, authors, and other people WETA listeners might find interesting. I engineered and edited many of those interviews which allowed me to appreciate Dan’s sharp intellect and delightful sense of humor.

I remember an occasion when a local author was coming into the station and Dan was presented with the book to be discussed only about an hour before the interview! He laughed uproariously when sheepishly told how little time he had to prepare, but he dove right in, making quick notes as he went. When the author arrived, Dan was thoroughly versed with the contents of the book and conducted a wonderful, friendly, and hilarious interview, making it sound as if he and the writer had both known each other for years. Dan had picked out the best and most entertaining bits to feature and, as the author left, he told us that this had been the best interview he could remember.

On other occasions, when I was repairing or installing some equipment in the studio where Dan was working, we would have some lengthy and deep conversations about wide-ranging subjects, and it became very clear to me very quickly that he should actually be running the place…which he had been doing a couple of years before my arrival. I was very happy, indeed, when he was reappointed to the general manager position some years later.

As a manager, Dan has always put WETA listeners first and has done everything he can to see to it that we have all we need to serve them best. Tight budgets have not made this easy, but he has almost always found a way to do it…even if it has meant writing out grant proposals himself. Because of Dan’s advocacy and tireless efforts to keep WETA Classical up-to-date and competitive where we need to be, I am as well equipped as anyone in the industry to do my current job recording and presenting concerts for WETA listeners.

As a boss, Dan is exactly the kind you want. He recognizes the talents and capabilities of his staff members, assigns them projects best suited to those capabilities, and then gets out of the way to let them accomplish the tasks with a minimum of interference and micromanaging. Even on those occasions when we have disagreed about what we should do or how we should do it, I always felt as though my perspective was well considered and analyzed, even if I eventually lost the argument. This is extremely rare, in my experience, and we should all be so lucky to have a career overseen by such a person.

On a more personal level, there have been a couple of times during my time at WETA when personal or professional conflicts have arisen and forced me to make a major choice. Dan has offered sterling advice in these circumstances, and time has always borne out that the decision I made based on his advice was the right one at the time. This is something that extends well past being a “boss” and makes me consider Dan a real friend.  Again, we should all be so lucky.

Charles Lawson, Recording Engineer

Dan was the perfect choice to lead WETA-FM through the years. Being sensitive to this Washington DC area with all of its nuances in the classical music community, he was the perfect fit to drive classical music forward. He knew how to balance WETA and the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Washington Concert Opera, Minnesota Public Radio, NPR, The Phillips Collection, A Prairie Home Companion, and every other entity that I can't think of right now.

I've worked with him as an announcer, as Program Director, and as Sr Vice President & General Manager. He filled all those roles impeccably and with poise & precision. I felt especially proud of him and of FM as a whole, right after the horror of September 11 and WETA helped produce a special "Concert for America" at the Kennedy Center where we honored those affected by this terrible tragedy and offered music as a way to find healing. He joked that the security was so tight, that when he & another WETA employee attempted to reenter the concert hall after going out for a moment, that the guards wouldn't let him in. He had to explain & prove (I think), while dressed in his tuxedo I might add, who he was and why he was there before they agreed to let him back in. 

I will miss his wise counsel & leadership. Thanks, Dan for the memories.

Cynthia Cotton, Operations Manager