It’s official — WAMU has announced a new host to succeed Matt McCleskey as the voice of Morning Edition. The station’s own Esther Ciammachilli will take over the host chair beginning October 1.

Ciammachilli joined WAMU in March 2018 and is a familiar voice on the station’s airwaves, often filling in for McCleskey and other hosts as part of her role as a host/reporter. Ciammachilli has written and produced a range of stories, tactfully covering the eccentric characters and news of the region. Highlights include her award-winning story on women who wrestle men professionally in D.C.; her coverage of D.C. United’s proud fanbase; and her dive into Mount Vernon’s efforts to highlight more stories of enslaved people.

Oh, and there was that time she mowed the lawn on the National Mall for a story. Ciammachilli hopes to bring this same versatility and reporter’s savvy to her new role — joining daily newsroom meetings and contributing original reporting to the broadcast.

“This is this house that [McCleskey] built, and the foundation is really strong, and the bones are really, really strong. There are so many aspects of this home that he created that are just important to the structure [that I] don’t necessarily want to change,” Ciammachilli says. “That said, I’m moving into this home and it’s very important to make sure that I make it my own, but also show respect to the legacy that Matt McCleskey has built … It’s a challenge that I am so thrilled to be able to accept.”

Before joining WAMU, Ciammachilli was a reporter and host of All Things Considered for WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama. Originally from San Diego, she graduated from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, and was the afternoon host at Reno Public Radio while getting her degree.

Ciammachilli is no stranger to the spotlight. Before returning to college in 2009, Esther sang and acted in an improvisational dinner show and worked as a singing gondolier in Las Vegas. She says her background in live performance has proven useful over years as a hybrid host/reporter. While she no longer “sings for her supper,” she maintains a love for connecting with a live audience.

“While I loved singing and I miss it to this day, I do feel a sense of performance that comes with being on the radio,” she says.

Ciammachilli, 42, lives in Prince George’s County with her wife Jennifer, her dog Delilah, and her cats Dear Prudence and A Boy Named Sue (her pets are all named after songs.) Before the pandemic, she loved going for hikes across the region, frequenting her favorite breakfast spots like Ted’s Bulletin and Rip’s Country Inn, and visiting vineyards in Leesburg. She’s been getting through the changes to her routine by going for walks around her neighborhood and saying hi to neighbors (from a distance), while also providing her Twitter followers with stories about the things lying around her basement “studio.”

McCleskey, for his part, is moving to Ann Arbor to raise his family in his wife’s hometown. The decision, he says, has been years in the making and was finalized before the pandemic. He spent 16 years at WAMU, serving as Morning Edition host for 12 years.

During most of McCleskey’s tenure, WAMU’s Morning Edition has ranked number 1 in the market, as thousands in the D.C. region woke up to his voice to get their days started. McCleskey got his start in public radio in San Francisco at KQED in the 1990s and moved to D.C. to be an assistant producer for NPR’s Newscast unit in 2002. He started at WAMU in 2004 as a board operator and technician, helped create the mid-day hosting position a year later, and in 2008, took over for Bill Redlin as Morning Edition host.

McCleskey has become an indispensable voice in local news coverage, and once even recorded an entire show from the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol during President Obama’s second inauguration. He came to enjoy the region’s deep history, and the connections he made at church, local events, and baseball games at Nationals Park.

“I’ll miss the people that I’ve worked with over the years and, particularly, the people [at WAMU] now,” McCleskey says. “I also will miss that sense of connectedness with the community via the broadcast. You know, it’s a funny thing when you’re sitting in the studio — or at home in your room, basement, or closet — and you’re talking into a microphone; but there’s always the knowledge that you are connecting with folks. And I’ll miss that.”

Once the front-man of a rock band in San Francisco, McCleskey still writes and plays music in his free time — he plans to continue working on music as his schedule changes, among other creative projects. He hasn’t ruled out being on the radio again in the future, but after more than a decade of waking up before 4 a.m., he says he’s most looking forward to having a normal sleep schedule and spending time with his wife and three kids.

During his time at WAMU, McCleskey enjoyed walking to work when weather permitted, and when it didn’t, cross-country skiing to work during major D.C. snowstorms. He says he’ll be taking the skis with him to Ann Arbor, where there will likely be more snow.

The change in hosts comes during a tumultuous year for WAMU, underscored by a DCist investigation into the station’s and American University’s handling of sexual harassment claims against a former reporter. (American University holds the license for WAMU, DCist’s parent company.)

The station has had a reckoning of sorts, as staff called out a toxic work environment that led multiple women of color to leave the newsroom, in addition to diversity issues surfaced by staffers and Morgan Givens, a now-former producer of WAMU’s national show, 1A. The layers of upheaval ultimately resulted in JJ Yore stepping down as general manager as well as changes in the newsroom. Andi McDaniel, WAMU’s former chief content officer, also withdrew from her new position as CEO of Chicago Public Media, a role in which she was set to begin in the fall.

Monna Kashfi, WAMU’s new chief content officer, says the plans to hire a new Morning Edition host began months before this summer’s changes. She hopes Ciammachilli will bring something fresh to the morning airwaves, with her empathetic delivery and genuine curiosity.

“I think there is the stereotypical, traditional, ‘public-radio voice’ that we all like to talk about, and she’s not that. She’s a very different and unique voice, and I’m a big fan of that,” says Kashfi.

“I’m looking forward to her taking ownership of that time slot … She has very big shoes to fill with Matt [leaving], but she and I have had several conversations about her having the capacity to put her own mark on Morning Edition.”

Morning Edition has been a staple in NPR’s lineup for more than four decades. Ciammachilli says she’s looking forward to ushering in a new era of the local iteration.

“I am incredibly excited for this opportunity,” she says, “and I cannot wait to start.”

This story was reported under the guidance of editor Carmel Delshad. WAMU and American University senior executives did not review this story prior to publication.