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Lamberson Warren is California-bound

Durango ‘creation’ is returning to her passion: Radio

She’s taking her rescue dogs and her canning equipment. The 110-year-old baby grand piano is too fragile and will be stored.

Beth Lamberson Warren is off to a new gig in Chico, California, after 33 years in Durango. The former executive director of KSUT-FM public radio will take over the role of general manager at North State Public Radio on Oct. 5.

“Durango created me,” she said. “I started as a cocktail waitress at Yesterday’s at the Holiday Inn, and I had a college degree. Then I worked for the Forest Service and in accounting for Purgatory (Ski Area) before starting at Adaptive Sports (Association).”

Lamberson went on to an almost 18-year career with KSUT before opening her consulting firm, Lamberson Capital: Success Strategies for Non-Profits, in 2010. She has worked short stints in interim positions at the public radio stations in Telluride and Flagstaff, Arizona. But this move is more long term.

“This move is great for her, and she may be there for five years or 10 years, or she may fall in love and stay, who knows?” said Susan Lander, a fellow consultant to nonprofits, who has frequently collaborated with Lamberson Warren on projects. “Her passion is radio. And she wasn’t looking; they found her.”

Lamberson laughs and says she was head-hunted.

“We all have LinkedIn accounts and don’t really know why,” she said. “But now I do. In March, a former colleague from (National Public Radio), who’s now a recruiter, contacted me and said she had this job to fill and thought I’d be perfect.”

The timing was also perfect. Over the last nine months, Warren has lost both a beloved friend, Melissa Dunn, and her sister, Page Stockdale, and she found herself taking stock of her life, she said.

“It’s been a tremendously challenging year,” she said. “They say to grow, you have to move out of your comfort zone, and while public radio is in my comfort zone, California’s not.”

Her new home

The station covers 10 counties with a potential listenership of 500,000, Lamberson Warren said. Chico, population 86,000-plus, is located at the northeast edge of the Sacramento Valley and is home to California State University, Chico, and its 17,000 students.

“The radio station is associated with the university,” Lamberson Warren said, “but it’s a little bit different. It’s as if KDUR (public radio) were under Charles Leslie at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.”

Warren’s undergraduate degree was in agriculture, while her master’s is in nonprofit management. The move to California will allow her to revisit her earlier interests.

“The ag aspects are so enticing,” she said. “They have a farmers market 52 weeks a year, and every day I’m reading about something like a lavender farm, a vineyard, a fig grower. I can’t wait to buy my first organic fig to make chutney.”

She’s quick to note that while she’s moving to California, she’ll be keeping her home in Durango and renting it out. Her children are settled elsewhere in Colorado – Kathrine in Telluride and Chris in Boulder – which gave her the freedom to make a big change, she said.

“I did have a moment,” she said, “where I said, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to have to switch my Colorado license plates for California license plates. But I’m not moving to Outer Mongolia, although I do have to learn my new ZIP code. I think it’s 98-something.”

It’s 95-something, actually, but if Lamberson Warren is as involved in Chico as she has been in the Four Corners, central California will have an experienced voice in tough times.

“I was on air for 9/11, I was on air for Columbine (high school shooting), I was on air for the Oklahoma City bombings and the (Missionary Ridge) fire,” she said. “I was even on air when Jerry Garcia died.”

North State Public Radio is also getting a talented fundraiser, Lander said.

“Beth is amazing,” she said, “and she’ll be even better in this new position because it’s her passion.”

Lamberson Warren had to admit that’s how her mind works.

“I stopped for lunch at the Sierra Nevada Brewing (Company),” she said, “and picked up this publication that’s like Edible (Southwest Colorado) here. It’s food porn, but all I could think was that all those advertisers should be underwriting the station.”

Hasta la vista, not adiós

“I’ll be back for visits,” Lamberson Warren said, “and all of Durango’s welcome to come visit. But I wouldn’t recommend coming in July, when it gets toasty.”

Before the move, she’s cleaning out the home where she’s lived for 16 years.

“People should keep an eye out for my garage sale,” Lamberson Warren said. “It’s going to be epic.”

abutler@durangoherald.com



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