After nearly four years as a reporter and the local host of NPR’s Morning Edition on Aspen Public Radio, Eleanor Bennett is leaving and the station is welcoming in a new voice: award-winning journalist and long-time local, Megan Tackett.
Bennett will be heading to Vermont for a summer-long Spanish intensive program to bring more diverse language skills into her reporting. Her last day on the air is Friday, May 10.
"Eleanor's departure is a great loss to the station,” says Aspen Public Radio’s news director Kelsey Brunner. “She comes with a lifetime of knowledge of the Roaring Fork Valley, with so many deep connections throughout our community, and has been the voice of local Morning Edition programming for years.”
Brunner continued, “However, it also comes with a lot of pride that she's going on to improve her Spanish and enhance her reporting skills after spending a lot of time covering the stories of Venezuelan immigrants in Carbondale with her colleagues. Eleanor has focused a lot of her reporting and storytelling work here in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys within the Spanish-speaking community and this is a wonderful next step in her own journey as a journalist.”
“It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience to be a reporter in the community I grew up in,” says Bennett, “and I’m excited to pass the Morning Edition torch to a local journalist who cares so deeply about this place.”
Bennett and Tackett share a passion for Aspen and the valley, and for making local news more accessible to the Spanish-speaking community within our coverage area.
Megan Tackett is the former editor of the Aspen Daily News where she spearheaded the launch of el Sol del Valle, the valley’s weekly Spanish-language newspaper which Aspen Public Radio helps produce in collaboration with seven other local newsrooms here in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Tackett first moved to Aspen in 2008. In 2017, she became the first staff reporter at The Sopris Sun in Carbondale. Her radio experience began at KDNK in Carbondale, where she was the voice of the weekly arts show, Express Yourself, as well as hosting the public affairs program, Everything Under the Sun, and NPR’s All Things Considered broadcast on Friday afternoons. In 2019, Tackett joined the Aspen Daily News as their senior courts and crime reporter until the pandemic hit, and then she shifted to the responsibility of reporting on public health. In 2020, she took over the role of editor-in-chief at ADN.
“Although we will really miss Eleanor, we're also so excited to be bringing on another long-time local as Morning Edition host in her stead,” Brunner said. “Megan joins us after an extensive history covering Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley and we couldn't be happier that she's joining our team to keep morning listeners informed with local, regional, and national news as they begin each weekday. Megan brings an infectious excitement to any room and a love for this area that’s palpable.”
Aspen Public Radio is ecstatic to be bringing Tackett back on air.
"I am thrilled to join the Aspen Public Radio team as the host of Morning Edition, and I’m especially excited to be working alongside such a remarkably talented group of journalists,” shared Tackett. “One of my favorite aspects of living in the Roaring Fork Valley is our genuine appreciation of local news as a community value. One of the things I don’t love is the congested morning commute, so if I can inspire a smile or bring a bit of insight to our listeners’ drives – even when the traffic gods aren’t playing nice –all the better."
“We have high hopes for the future of our station and the continued legacy of amazing journalists under our roof," Brunner expressed.
Tackett joins an impressive newsroom at Aspen Public Radio, including news director Kelsey Brunner, All Things Considered host and reporter Halle Zander, Edlis Neeson Arts & Culture reporter Kaya Williams, and reporter Caroline Llanes. Her first day on the air is Monday, May 13.