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