Mary Lucia has returned to radio, although this time she’ll be working behind the scenes.

On May 6, Lucia began her new job as the program advisor at the University of Minnesota’s Radio K. It’s one of three paid, full-time positions at the college radio station, which is otherwise staffed by students. Her job entails training the volunteer DJs, coaching the station’s weekly “Real College Podcast” and advising the student-run programming.

A native of Massachusetts and the younger sister of the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg, Lucia began her Twin Cities radio career in the early ’90s on REV 105. She went on to host on Zone 105 and KSTP 1500.

When St. Paul-based Minnesota Public Radio launched its music station The Current in January 2005, Lucia was hired as afternoon drive host. She quickly became one of The Current’s most popular DJs and was voted best FM radio personality by the late alt-weekly City Pages 12 times.

In April 2022, Lucia surprised listeners when she said she was leaving the station. In a Facebook post she wrote that she was “concerned with equity and fair treatment of all of my sisters at the station.” She took several shots at management during her final on-air shift, soon after which the station fired program director Jim McGuinn.

In the time since, Lucia wrote a column for the local arts and culture publication Dispatch, which went on hiatus last year. She also wrote a memoir, “What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To,” which will be published in the spring of 2025 by the University of Minnesota Press. In it, she addresses the stalker who harassed her to the point that she took a seven-month leave of absence from The Current in 2015. The same man later went on to stalk Lucia’s coworker Jade Tittle, who left the station in October.

During her career, Lucia has interviewed everyone from Johnny Rotten to Tori Amos to Trent Reznor and is known for her warm, personable on-air charm. She has appeared in commercials, local theater and in the films “The Last Word” and “Tuscaloosa.” She also was the narrator for the audiobook of Bob Mehr’s acclaimed biography “Trouble Boys: The Story of the Replacements.”

Lucia also “likes cats and dogs more than people,” according to a Radio K news release.

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