Julianne Welby

WFUV's News & Public Affairs Director is also your weekday morning co-host, weekdays from 6-10am.

News sense plus musical passion

Julianne and friends

Award-winning journalist Julianne Welby has a conflict.

She loves her job as WFUV's News & Public Affairs director and weekday morning co-host, but she also loves to catch live music in the evenings. Late in the evenings. Very late in the evenings. Which makes getting up at 4:15am to be at the station by 5:00am a bit challenging at times.

"Morning drive is not really compatible with the lifestyle that I lead," Welby confesses, "but somehow I make it work with a lot of napping in between."

Exactly when she naps is a mystery, as Welby is a dedicated newshound who sees lunch breaks as a luxury. She and Assistant News Director George Bodarky oversee a busy, "unconventional" newsroom populated by Fordham University students, many of whom go directly on to careers in the competitive New York City radio market. Welby obviously relishes the teaching part of her multifaceted job. "We're really happy about the options our students have," she shares. "We're hoping to give them a tool kit to go and get the job they want, whether it's radio or not."

Welby herself began her broadcast career as a Fordham student at WFUV in the early 1990s, first recording satellite-delivered programs such as World Café and Mountain Stage, then later as public affairs manager and morning host. "It was the first time that I saw radio as an art form," she recalls of her early days at WFUV. "It also taught me that it's more about presenting voices and ideas than about being a voice and being an idea."

Infused with a newfound passion for public radio, after graduating from Fordham in 1993 Welby went on to a position as local host of Morning Edition at WSCL-FM in Salisbury, MD. Yet it was her first "dream job" at Washington D.C.'s public radio station WAMU that really honed her skills as a broadcaster. There Welby earned a number of professional awards for her coverage of local issues ranging from politics to economics to sports.

"The seeds were planted at WFUV and grew at WAMU," Welby says of her blossoming career. In the fall of 2000, Welby returned to WFUV to co-host the station's new morning show with veteran broadcaster Claudia Marshall. The morning duo became the only all-female morning drive team in the New York City market.

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About: FUV Weekday Music
Julianne's posts on the 'FUV Blog