WMUH General Manager Joe Swanson to retire after 36 years

Joe Swanson, part-time professor and General Manager of Muhlenberg’s on-campus radio station WMUH, will retire at the end of this year, ending a 36-year career at Muhlenberg.

“I started as a volunteer community staff member in 1981,” Swanson said of how he got his start at Muhlenberg. WMUH’s Student Program Director at the time, Neil Hever, invited Swanson to join the station’s community staff and help keep WMUH on the air over winter and summer breaks.

Swanson’s interest in radio began at the age of 12, when he made his first recordings on reel-to-reel tape recorders. He has since worked as a print journalist in the Midwest before moving to radio production and management in Chicago and Indiana.

Swanson’s skills range from writing to sales and production, but his main interest in radio is management.

“I was really interested in creative exploration,” Swanson says. “I felt college radio was an important part of improving the quality of life in the Lehigh Valley.”

Constant work and future planning are how Swanson has kept WMUH running efficiently. He’s tasked with keeping up with federal and state regulations for radio stations, as well as organizing his team and the community to deal with breaks and respond to crises.

Swanson and WMUH’s numerous accomplishments over his 36-year tenure are a point of pride for him. His team has received the Spirit of Humanity award from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Outstanding Service and Human Relations Awards from the City of Allentown and theatre awards from the Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop. His team was also included in a live National Public Radio theatre broadcast that was syndicated to over 150 stations.

For Swanson, community and public service are essential. “The diversity and exchange of ideas from all the wonderful people at Muhlenberg has been a great life experience,” he says.

He’s seen his daughter graduate from Muhlenberg and go on to graduate school, watched his students go on to become leaders in their fields and witnessed the intellectual and social growth of our campus for decades.

“It often feels like family,” he said. “I’m proud to represent Muhlenberg.”

After his retirement, Swanson is looking forward to working on his four-acre garden and finishing a number of sound and video projects, as well as learning how to use new software like iMovie.

“I’d like to do more nature recording and posting to SoundCloud,” he says. “I want to continue to learn something new every day.”