Presenting the Past Ep. 6: National Public Radio with Bill Siemering

Aca-Media is proud to partner with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to bring you a new special series: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.”

Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.

This series features a series of informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the more than 70 years of programming available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting collection.

FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES, CLICK HERE.

Ep. 6: National Public Radio with Bill Siemering

Bill Siemering. Credit: Kelly Moffitt; used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Wikicommons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_siemering_KWUM_2017.jpg

The sixth episode of “Presenting the Past” features Bill Siemering, a radio innovator and advocate, who was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in October 2021. As a founding member of the NPR Board of Directors, Siemering wrote NPR's original mission and goals, and as NPR’s first director of programming, led the development of All Things Considered. Siemering developed Fresh Air with Terry Gross at WHYY in Philadelphia, managed WBFO in Buffalo, NY, and KCCM in Moorhead, MN, was the executive producer of the documentary series Sound Print, worked with the Open Society Foundation, focusing on Eastern Europe, Africa and Mongolia, and founded Developing Radio Partners to enrich the programming of local stations in Africa. In this discussion, he reflects on the influences that helped shape his ideas and approaches to public radio programming throughout his career.

Presenting the Past, Episode 5: Latino empowerment through Latino Public Broadcasting

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Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.

This series features a series of informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the more than 70 years of programming available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting collection.

FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES, CLICK HERE.

EPISODE 5: Latino Empowerment through Latino Public Broadcasting

Immigration protest, Washington, D.C., from The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_507-8p5v698w0m#at_194.069211_s (MacNeil/Lehrer Productions & WETA, 2006).

The fifth episode of “Presenting the Past” explores the history of Spanish language public radio and television programming and its roots in community activism. The discussion features activists Hugo Morales, Executive Director and co-founder of Radio Bilingüe Inc., and Jesús Treviño, television director, author and creator of Latinopia.com, along with scholars Dolores Inés Casillas, Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Director of the Chicano Studies Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Gabriela Rivera Marín, a doctoral student at the University of Florida studying Hispanic Linguistics and co-curator of the AAPB Latino Empowerment through Latino Public Broadcasting exhibit.

Presenting the Past, Episode 4: Broadcasting in the Public Interest

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Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.

Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.

This series features informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the more than 70 years of programming available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting collection.

FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES, CLICK HERE.

EPISODE 4: BROADCASTING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

Image: Black-and-white photo of a smiling Newton Minow taking off his glasses, autographed by Minow.

Image: Black-and-white photo of a smiling Newton Minow taking off his glasses, autographed by Minow.

The collaboration between Aca-Media and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting continues with episode 4 of our special series “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.”

This episode of “Presenting the Past” features Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President John F. Kennedy from 1961 until 1963. Minow would become a key figure in the establishment of public broadcasting in the U.S., and in this conversation, he reflects on his early vision for public service television. 

Highlighted in this program are clips from the AAPB collection, including Minow’s famed “vast wasteland” speech to the National Association of Broadcasters in 1961, his lesser known address to the same organization the following year, as well as a panel discussion with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on the role of television in society.

Joining the discussion is Mr. Minow’s daughter, Mary Minow, Presidential Appointee to the National Museum and Library Services Board at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and current member of the AAPB Executive Advisory Council.

Presenting the Past, Episode 3: Indian Country Today

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Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.

Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.

This series features a series of informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the more than 70 years of programming available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting collection.

FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES, CLICK HERE.

EPISODE 3: INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY

Image: Mediak training from Alaska Federation of Natives: Youth and Elders Conference. Provided by Koahnic Broadcast Corporation.

Image: Mediak training from Alaska Federation of Natives: Youth and Elders Conference. Provided by Koahnic Broadcast Corporation.

The collaboration between Aca-Media and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting continues with episode 3 of our special series “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.”

In this episode, Shirley Sneve, Vice President of Broadcasting for Indian Country Today, reflects on her work with Indian Country Today, Vision Maker Media (VMM), and archiving with the AAPB. Sneve also comments on the history of Native American public broadcasting and presents excerpts from a few of the documentaries that VMM has supported that present a diversity of perspectives on traditional and contemporary Native American culture.