Meet the WAUS Team
The voices and people behind WAUS are dedicated to bringing meaningful music and programming to our community.
Jeff Smith
General Manager
Jeff Smith is the General Manager of WAUS, where his career began as a student announcer in 1989. Over more than 25 years at the station, he has held every job title, developing deep expertise across programming, operations, engineering, and leadership. An ordained minister, Jeff brings a service-oriented approach to community broadcasting. He is also an experienced audio engineer and guitarist, combining technical skill and musical sensibility to advance WAUS’s mission and sound.
Teddy Weithers
Michiana Morning Announcer , Membership & Marketing Director
Teddy is a proud US Marine Veteran who has been with WAUS since 2008. His father is a classical music connoisseur and so he grew up listening to WAUS when his parents migrated to the USA in the late 1960s and studied at Andrews University. He still remembers sitting around the radio listening to Your Story Hour with his siblings and cousins. His favorite composer is Rachmaninov and one of his favorite piece is Beethoven's Coriolan Overture.
Chelsea Lake
Midday Classics Announcer & Program Director
Chelsea Lake has been a life-long lover of public radio. As a child, she was captivated by programs from Radio’s Golden Age on cassette tape, her grandfather’s news and talk programming from NPR, and her childhood Classical radio station. She and her younger brother spent hours trying to create their own radio program with nothing but a legal pad and a tape recorder.
Chelsea is a Michigan native, originally from Fruitport in West Michigan. A graduate of Andrews University, she holds both a BA in Music and a MMus in Choral Conducting.
Simon Luke Brown
Classical Afternoon Announcer &Music Director
Simon Luke Brown is a complete and unabashed nerd who loves
classical music, history, geopolitics, animals, international sports, and
anything that has to do with why people do what they do. He studied violin,
conducting, and composition at Andrews University (working 5 years as a student
announcer in the process) before moving on to do a master’s degree in violin at
the Tianjin Juilliard School in China. He now lives in Southwest Michigan, works
as Music Director at WAUS, and spends most of his free time obsessing over his
violin.
Carlene Roper
Account Executive/Underwriting
Carlene grew up in a big, lively Caribbean family before moving to the U.S. in the 90s and eventually coming to Southwest Michigan for college—where she met her husband and started a family. These days, she works closely with WAUS' corporate sponsors, and enjoy learning how local businesses connect with their communities. Outside of work, she enjoys art, gardening and playing board games.