Public Radio: Behind the Voices - Hardcover

Perseus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1593151438 ISBN 13: 9781593151430

Publisher: Vanguard Press, 2006

Synopsis

An avid fan of public radio, Phillips was driven to know more about the people who deliver the news, the conversation, and the diverse programs that she and millions of others rely on every day. The result is Public Radio: Behind the Voices, a collection of personal stories from more than forty of the most listened to voices in public radio, including Noah Adams, Susan Stamberg, Scott Simon, Diane Rehm, and Terry Gross.

About this title

About the Author

Lisa A. Phillips is a former radio reporter who has worked at six public radio stations in five states. She teaches journalism at the State University of New York at New Paltz and has freelanced for the New York Times, NPR, Marketplace, and other publications and radio programs. Her reporting has received four regional Edward R. Murrow awards, a New York Festival award, and honors from The Communicator and the Associated Press. Phillips is also a published fiction writer who has been honored with a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts fiction award, the National Society for Arts and Letters/Pittsburgh chapter award and the Scott Turow award. She lives in Woodstock, New York with her husband, Bill Mead, and their daughter Clara.

Reviews

While commercial radio has become increasingly formulaic, Phillips says, the radio audience has established an intimate connection with public radio hosts: "This voice-to-ear relationship is a startlingly radical one in an era when image is everything." The SUNY journalism professor, who has worked at six public radio stations in five states, is passionate about her field, and her fervor is evident throughout these 43 profiles of public radio personalities, her "broadcasting heroes." Blending research with in-depth interviews, she divides the portraits into three categories. "Music" ranges from the spontaneity of Nic Harcourt (on the free-form Morning Becomes Eclectic) to "deliciously polite" Marian McPartland (on the long-running Piano Jazz). "News and Information" covers Susan Stamberg (NPR's "founding mother"), Daniel Schorr, Bob Edwards, Nina Totenberg and others. Finally, the 16 profiles in the "Talk and Entertainment" section include Tavis Smiley, Garrison Keillor and quipster Michael Feldman (Whad'Ya Know?). Phillips praises the narrative style of Ira Glass (This American Life) and the conversational approach of Fresh Air's Terry Gross, although Glass and Gross both declined to be interviewed. Phillips is a gifted journalist, able to draw out her subjects' vibrant presence on the printed page. 16-page b&w photo insert not seen by PW. (Apr. 18)
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Phillips, a former public radio reporter with six stations in five states, brings her own considerable fascination to this look at the personalities behind the voices heard on a variety of public radio programs from news to music. Drawing on interviews or secondary research, Phillips offers a glimpse at the personalities and paths to public radio of figures from "Founding Mother" Susan Stamberg to unabashedly Afrocentric Tavis Smiley to the Car Talk Magliozzi brothers, who break the mold of expectations for high-brow intellectual fare. Phillips notes the now celebrated women reporters, including Cokie Roberts and Nina Totenberg, who joined in the early days when the pay at public radio was modest. The section on news and information also includes portraits of Bob Edwards, Daniel Schorr, and Robert Siegel. Part 2 focuses on talk and entertainment shows, including Ira Glass, Terry Gross, and Garrison Keillor. Part 3 focuses on music, featuring portraits of Marian McPartland, Nick Spitzer, and Korva Coleman, among others. Public radio fans will enjoy this personal look at their favorite personalities. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Vanguard Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1593151438
• ISBN 13: 9781593151430
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 334