ARCATA -- Station manager Terry Green is leaving Humboldt State University public radio station KHSU-FM after nine years.

Green informed staff, volunteers and community members in an e-mail message late last week that he has accepted a job as general manager of KUSP, a Santa Cruz public radio station. He will leave KHSU at the end of August.

In the message, Green spoke of his pride in what KHSU has accomplished and his apprehension about the station's ongoing changes. Green did not immediately return calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

Green wrote that he felt KHSU's "incredible audience service and support" was a decisive factor for KUSP in choosing to offer him the job.

"Excited as I am by the opportunities awaiting me at KUSP, I will leave this place and the company of you people with a measure of sadness and regret," he wrote. "In particular, I'm concerned by the turns our relationship with the HSU administration has taken in recent months, and how that has affected our internal working relationships at the station.

"I feel very deeply that in order to survive and thrive, community radio stations must have a system of governance that gives the station's many different stakeholders a proportional and genuine voice in the station's decision-making. Humboldt State University is one of any number of educational institutions having to face the challenge of reconciling its organizational structure, administrative style, and shrinking resources with the needs of its public radio station."

His announcement came just weeks after Elizabeth Hans McCrone was named interim general manager, a position which has been vacant since 1998. President Rollin Richmond, when appointing Hans McCrone to the position, said he wanted to see stronger ties between the university and the station. KHSU is in the midst of a strategic planning process expected to be complete later this fall.

"Losing Terry is very tough. He's so knowledgeable," Hans McCrone said. "He deserves this position (in Santa Cruz) so very much."

She said she plans to absorb Green's duties into her own and take the opportunity created by his departure to consider different staffing configurations. She said the station needs a volunteer coordinator, a news director and an administrative assistant, and she hopes to create one or more of these positions in the near future as funding becomes available.

Green was first hired as KHSU's chief engineer in 1994. He was assistant station manager from 1996 to 1999, when he was appointed to the station manager position. He served as chief engineer for KFMF radio in Chico from 1979 to 1994 and as technical consultant for KZFR radio in Chico from 1985 to 1994.

Throughout his letter, Green stressed his gratitude and appreciation for the team he'd worked with.

"I don't know if I can recreate the magic of what we've done together at KHSU working alongside the volunteers and staff at KUSP, but I'm sure going to try," he wrote.