Youngstown State University classical WYSU Youngstown, OH (88.5) Director of Broadcasting Gary Sexton has decided to end his 36-year run at the station where he’s served as Program Director, Executive Director, and in his current position for the past 25 years.

Sexton, who also hosts a classical music morning show on WYSU, hasn’t yet decided if he’ll continue on the air.

Effective Jan. 1, YSU telecommunications professor Adam Earnheardt, who worked in radio prior to teaching, will take over as interim director for at least six months.

The past year, Sexton’s last on the job, presented new challenges following Congress’ defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, resulting in lost money for WYSU, which was founded in 1969 and is a charter member of National Public Radio.

“I never felt totally comfortable that we’re all just cruising along,” Sexton tells the Business Journal Daily. “We have to dig and dig all the time, but we’ve always gotten through the rough spots.” As it turned out, 2025 was no exception. “After [the recission], we had the best fund drive ever,” he says, “and we have other things going on to pursue stable funding sources. We’re going to make up that gap.”

One of Sexton’s secret weapons for fundraising has been using his skill as a long-distance runner to bring in revenue for WYSU, starting with a 50-mile race to finance the station’s new transmitter, and more recently a 100-miler to benefit its fall fund drive, with listeners sponsoring his mileage in each race. “Running is just a part of who I am, and it sort of evolved into something I did that I thought would inspire people,” he says. Over the years, Sexton also completed runs for 65 miles when he reached that age, and for 88.5 miles to correspond with the station’s position on the radio dial.

Looking back at his time with WYSU, which he refers to as “a jewel of the community,” Sexton says, “The business has changed so dramatically in all those years, but a lot of things haven’t changed. You know who we are, what we represent, what we do. And the audience and the members who help support us are passionate about what we do. I’m leaving with a really good feeling about that. I feel like we were doing really good work, and there’s a bunch of people who appreciate that.”

Sexton, who is himself a classical musician and one-time member of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, values his time on air at WYSU. “The part of the job that I came to love so much is hosting a classical music program, which was pretty cool because I came here because of my classical music background, not my radio background,” he says, “but for a lot of years, it was the [operational duties] that occupied me more than anything. In the last 10 or so years, my being more present with the audience became a bigger and bigger deal, especially after our main announcer for many, many years, Barbara Krauss, passed away about eight years ago. I kind of took over that part of it. It’s been really fun. I love that part.”

Prior to his academic career, Earnheardt, who takes over as interim director, worked in promotions for WDVE Pittsburgh and at college stations in Rochester, NY and Clarion, PA. While at YSU, he launched the college’s student-run streaming station RookeryRadio.