WBUR host Rupa Shenoy to leave Morning Edition

WBUR plans to find a new local host for its flagship morning news program.

The Boston NPR affiliate confirmed Monday that Morning Edition host Rupa Shenoy will leave the show in the coming months, nearly three years after succeeding longtime host Bob Oakes in the fall of 2021.

In a note to the newsroom, WBUR Executive Editor Dan Mauzy said Shenoy “will be stepping away from the show later this summer.”

“We’re tremendously grateful for all that Rupa has accomplished in her time in the anchor chair,” Mauzy wrote. “We are working on a transition timeline and will have more to share soon.”

Morning Edition is an NPR show carried by more than 600 affiliates across the country, including WBUR. Major stations like WBUR typically have their own host, in addition to the national hosts, to handle interviews, read headlines and introduce features throughout the program. WBUR airs Morning Edition from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. on weekdays.

Shenoy, 44, a daughter of Indian immigrants who grew up in Iowa, spent eight years at GBH, Boston's other major NPR member station, before joining WBUR. She also worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio, the Associated Press, the Daily Herald in Illinois and The Chicago Reporter.

Both Shenoy and the SAG-AFTRA union, which represents her, declined to comment Monday.

Shortly after Shenoy joined WBUR, rival GBH shook up its own version of Morning Edition by bringing on two new local co-hosts, Paris Alston (formerly of WBUR) and Jeremy Siegel, starting in February 2022.

WBUR’s audience held steady in the first year Shenoy hosted the program and then began to rise starting in late 2022. Overall, WBUR has surpassed 1030 WBZ-AM to become the top-rated news station in Boston. Among all Boston-area stations, it trails only 98.5 the Sports Hub and adult contemporary station Magic 106.7, according to Nielsen ratings.

“Listeners have come to rely on Rupa to understand this region and the world,” Mauzy said in his email to the newsroom.

The change comes shortly after WBUR decided to let go of as many as 31 employees, or about 14% of its staff, through a combination of buyouts and layoffs, to help offset a steep decline in on-air sponsorship revenue. Some of the seven people scheduled to be laid off could still find other jobs at the station. WBUR has said the job cuts will help save about $4 million in expenses and narrow its ongoing deficit.

Shenoy's departure from Morning Edition is unrelated to the budget cuts, according to a WBUR spokeswoman, Kristen Holgerson. Shenoy's contract was slated to expire this summer.

It's unclear whether Shenoy will remain with the station in some other capacity. Holgerson said station managers were "still in conversation with Rupa about her next steps."

WBUR’s Todd Wallack reported this story, and WBUR’s Beth Healy is the story editor. Under standard practices for reporting on WBUR, no other BU or WBUR staff were allowed to review the story before publication.