Some radio careers end with a surprise phone call, a disappearing biography and coworkers wondering what just happened. LaDonne Craig gets a different ending — and after two decades helping lead Townsquare Media’s Evansville and Owensboro operations, we’re glad she does. Craig plans to retire from full-time leadership on December 31, closing an extraordinary run as one of Townsquare’s longest-serving local market leaders. But don’t call this a goodbye just yet. Beginning in 2027, Craig intends to remain connected to the company as a consultant while finally creating more room for family, travel and life beyond the office.
That’s not getting pushed out. That’s getting to choose the exit ramp.
And after watching how brutally this industry sometimes handles people who’ve given it decades, there’s something genuinely wonderful about that.
Twenty Years Means She Helped Build the Place
Craig isn’t merely somebody who occupied the Market President office for a couple of ratings books.
She’s been part of this operation for two decades.
Townsquare’s own materials still identify Craig as Market President overseeing its Evansville operation, while the company’s Owensboro properties identify her in the same leadership role there.
That’s a substantial collection of brands and people.
In Evansville, the Townsquare operation includes stations such as 103GBF, WKDQ, WJLT and WGBF-AM, while its neighboring Owensboro operation includes WBKR and WOMI.
Rock.
Country.
Adult Contemporary.
News/Talk.
Different audiences.
Different advertisers.
Different personalities.
Different communities.
And somewhere above all of those moving pieces sat LaDonne Craig.
Here’s Something Else We Like About Her Story
She grew into the job.
Craig is a University of Southern Indiana graduate, and university records show that by 2011 she had been promoted to General Manager of what was then described as Townsquare’s seven-station Owensboro operation.
Years passed.
Responsibilities grew.
The radio business transformed around her.
And Craig remained.
That kind of leadership longevity has become increasingly rare.
There is institutional knowledge accumulated over twenty years that simply cannot be downloaded onto somebody else’s laptop on January 2.
She knows the advertisers.
She knows the broadcasters.
She knows the communities.
She knows which ideas worked.
She probably remembers which ideas everybody was absolutely convinced would work and spectacularly did not.
That’s leadership experience earned the expensive way:
By actually being there.
And She Was Leading Through One of the Strangest Transformations in Radio History
Consider what happened during Craig’s tenure.
Radio companies stopped being simply radio companies.
Websites became essential.
Social media arrived.
Smartphones changed consumption.
Streaming exploded.
Podcasting exploded.
Digital advertising became a central business line.
Search marketing entered the conversation.
Traditional sellers had to become multimedia strategists.
And Townsquare aggressively embraced that transition.
Today, the company’s Evansville operation markets not merely terrestrial radio advertising but targeted digital, mobile, social, video, web design and search services alongside its broadcast brands.
Craig wasn’t simply managing radio stations through those changes.
She was managing a local media business while the definition of local media was being rewritten underneath everybody’s feet.
That’s considerably harder.
The Alternative Perspective Is That This Is Exactly How Radio Should Handle Institutional Knowledge
Here’s what particularly catches our attention:
Craig isn’t completely leaving.
She’s transitioning.
That matters.
Radio has a terrible habit of allowing decades of knowledge to walk out the front door carrying a cardboard box.
Thirty years of relationships?
Gone.
Twenty years of market intelligence?
Gone.
Institutional memory?
Gone.
Then six months later everybody is sitting in a conference room asking:
“Does anybody remember why we don’t do that promotion anymore?”
Yes.
The person you eliminated remembered.
This is different.
By moving Craig into a consulting relationship, Townsquare retains access to some of that knowledge while allowing its longtime leader to finally reclaim some of her time.
That is succession planning with some common sense attached.
And Don’t Underestimate the Relationships
Market leadership isn’t glamorous every day.
It’s revenue meetings.
Budgets.
Forecasts.
Hiring.
Firing.
Advertisers.
Community organizations.
Events.
Personnel problems.
Technical problems.
Programming disagreements.
Weather emergencies.
Sales emergencies.
And the occasional emergency that nobody knew existed until 4:47 on Friday afternoon.
Do that for twenty years and you become part of the market’s business ecosystem.
Craig’s presence extends beyond the station walls, too. Community records have identified her with local organizations in the Evansville area, while industry organizations have included her among prominent radio leaders participating in management and leadership discussions.
That’s what local radio leadership should look like.
Not merely operating in a community. Being part of it.
Now Comes the Question Townsquare Has to Get Right
Who follows her?
That’s the next story.
Because replacing a twenty-year market leader isn’t the same thing as filling an open office.
The successor inherits relationships.
Expectations.
Culture.
Revenue responsibilities.
Multiple radio brands.
Digital operations.
Employees who’ve worked under Craig for years.
Advertisers accustomed to calling her.
And two communities that don’t need somebody arriving with the attitude that Evansville and Owensboro are interchangeable dots on a corporate map.
They’re not.
The next leader needs to understand that.
But Townsquare Has Time
And that’s another reason this transition feels refreshingly different.
Craig isn’t disappearing tomorrow morning.
Her full-time tenure continues through the end of 2026.
That creates an opportunity for an actual handoff.
Imagine that.
In radio!
A transition where the outgoing leader and incoming leader can potentially occupy the same building at the same time.
What a concept.
Use it.
Transfer relationships.
Introduce clients.
Explain the history.
Talk about the people.
Explain why certain community partnerships matter.
Explain the personalities.
Explain the market quirks.
Pass along everything that doesn’t appear on a spreadsheet.
Because that’s the stuff a successor usually discovers six months later after stepping on it.
And Then LaDonne Gets to Do Something Radio Executives Sometimes Forget Exists
Live.
Travel.
Family.
Wake up without immediately wondering what yesterday’s revenue looked like.
Take the trip without checking email every eleven minutes.
Have lunch without somebody saying:
“While I’ve got you…”
After twenty years?
Go.
Enjoy it.
Radio will still find a way to manufacture an emergency without you.
We promise.
But We Love That She’s Keeping One Foot in the Building
Consulting may be the perfect next chapter.
Craig gets freedom.
Townsquare keeps experience.
The next generation gets access to somebody who’s already navigated the situations they’re encountering for the first time.
Everybody wins.
And perhaps that’s the larger lesson here.
Retirement doesn’t have to mean disappearance.
The radio industry is filled with people carrying enormous amounts of knowledge.
Use them.
Mentor younger managers.
Coach sellers.
Advise market presidents.
Help with community strategy.
Help companies avoid repeating mistakes somebody already made in 2009.
Institutional wisdom has value.
Treat it that way.
Congratulations LaDonne
Twenty years.
Thousands of meetings.
Hundreds of employees.
Countless advertisers.
Multiple stations.
Two states.
One industry that changed almost beyond recognition while you were helping lead through it.
That’s a career worth celebrating.
And there’s still plenty of 2026 remaining before the office door closes on the full-time chapter.
So we’ll save the complete farewell for December.
For now, we’ll simply say:
Well earned.
Enjoy these final months leading the team.
Help prepare whoever gets the privilege — and enormous responsibility — of following you.
Then go travel.
Spend time with family.
Sleep late occasionally.
And when Townsquare calls in 2027 asking for your opinion?
You can answer from somewhere with a considerably better view than the conference room.
An On The Dial Perspective
There is something refreshing about covering a veteran broadcaster leaving full-time management on her own terms. LaDonne Craig has spent two decades helping guide Townsquare’s Evansville and Owensboro operations through one of the most dramatic periods of change the media business has ever experienced. More importantly, Townsquare isn’t allowing that experience to simply disappear. Craig’s move into consulting creates continuity while giving a longtime leader the opportunity to enjoy the life she spent years working to build. Radio could learn something from transitions like this: honor longevity, preserve institutional knowledge, plan succession carefully and remember that the people who built these operations deserve more than a hurried goodbye.
Congratulations, LaDonne.
Twenty years helping run the market.
Now comes the promotion nobody can put on an organizational chart:
More time to actually enjoy it.
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