Mike Green takes over as host of Jefferson Public Radio’s current affairs and news talk program

By Emma Coke, Ashland.news

After a 24-year ride with Jefferson Public Radio’s Jefferson Exchange, host Geoffrey Riley, a train enthusiast, is looking forward to riding the rails to new adventures.

Riley joined the Jefferson Exchange as a backup host in 2000 at the invitation of then-host Jeff Golden, now a state senator. In 2009, Riley began hosting full-time. In the span of his JPR career he’s left a lasting impression within the community and his newsroom.

“JPR punches above its weight in public affairs,” Golden said. “And I think Geoff is one of the people who really brought it there, brought it along… Geoff had the chops to bring it up a couple notches to where it is today. It’s impressive.”

Angela Decker, Jefferson Exchange senior producer, said that, during his time as a host, Riley has served the community by making complicated topics digestible.

“He’s helped shape the way people explore topics,” Decker said. “I’ve had so many conversations, just anecdotally, with friends and neighbors who’ve heard Geoff talking about complicated topics, from wildfire management to nature conservation to politics, and they learn things.”

On air, Decker said his careful listening and genuine curiosity is admirable.

“I think that’s what puts people at ease who are being interviewed,” Decker said. “And we have people that, after the interview, they’ll write to us and say, ‘thank you’ because they were scared to be on live radio, and then Geoffrey Riley made them relaxed and gave them the opportunity to have a genuine conversation about the topic.”

While only knowing Riley since May, new Jefferson Exchange host Mike Green quickly made note of his welcoming attitude and effort to be fully present in the newsroom. 

“Anytime someone interrupts him — you don’t know that you’re interrupting Geoff,” Green said, “because his door is always open, his mind is always open, his spirit is always open to everybody.”

Green is taking over Riley’s role at the Jefferson Exchange. 

“As people transition out, it feels like a responsibility to maintain that family atmosphere, to maintain that curiosity, to maintain that public square and to grow that audience — intergenerationally, multiculturally, multiracially,” Green said, “because our communities are changing, and so we want the community to participate in the public square.”

Green said he’s of the mindset “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

“There’s no one way to do the Jefferson Exchange, as hosts have proven through the years, and it’s fun to see them grow into their roles,” Riley said. 

Riley’s first exposure to journalism was through reading the morning announcements over the radio in high school. With his newfound love for radio, he went on to the University of Missouri to study journalism, where he “got to learn how to do it for real.” 

Riley entered the world of broadcast fascinated by the technology and with a dream of working at a TV news station as “some hotshot anchor” in the big city. Radio was not something he thought he’d do. 

In 1985, Riley moved to the Rogue Valley to help establish a news department at KDRV Channel 12. He became their first anchor. After about two years, he got bumped off the anchor desk and began working as a reporter. 

“After a couple of years, I realized that anchoring is not nearly as much fun as it looks like when you’re 18 years old,” Riley said. “There’s not a lot of real substance to it. You’re just sitting there reading off pieces of paper, largely written by other people.”

“By the time I got removed as an anchor, I enjoyed field reporting a lot more — telling stories visually and with sound,” Riley added.

His transition to radio happened in 2000, when Golden was walking around his neighborhood and invited Riley to work as Golden’s backup host on the Jefferson Exchange. 

“Geoff gave me the most confidence that things would go well in my absence,” Golden said. “And I never had a moment on vacation, anywhere, on a river trip or any place else, wondering or worrying.”

In 2009, Riley began working full-time as a host. Over the course of his time at JPR, he said he’s “not had any completely dull days.”

“It’s just been a real fascinating process of just finding out what the world is like,” Riley said, “talking to scientists at Oregon State University about the things they’re working on or the things they’ve discovered, or talking to people in the medical profession about things that do and don’t work in the human body, and why.”

Thirty-two years ago, Riley spoke to a class of journalism students at the University of Missouri, offering them advice.

“I told the students, ‘Don’t get so focused on having the big job and the big place, there’s something to be said for remaining in a small town and doing this,’” Riley said. 

He said he’s enjoyed working on a local scale and he’s glad he never got to find out what it’s like to work in the big city. 

“Working through the evolution and doing different things in TV news, and then getting my hand in radio again after all those years, it took a couple of different turns and twists,” Riley said. “And I guess I never thought when I came to the Rogue Valley, I’d be sticking around for what is now close to 40 years, but it’s home… I have a lifestyle that I really enjoy.”

As he enters his first days of retirement, Riley, a train enthusiast, said he’s planning to ride trains he hasn’t ridden yet and has plenty of hobbies and New Yorker magazines to catch up on — “there’s no shortage of things to do,” he said. 

“He’s amazing,” said Angela Decker, Jefferson Exchange senior producer. “He’s one in a million, and he’s definitely going to be missed.”

Email Ashland.news reporter intern Emma Coke at [email protected].