An Education and a Joy: A Guest Post by Steve Oney
NPR listeners look no further — this is the full and sometimes unbelievable story of the successes and scandals of a public radio juggernaut. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Steve Oney on writing On Air.
Hardcover
$30.00
$35.00
On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR
On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR
By Steve Oney
In Stock Online
Hardcover
$30.00
$35.00
An epic, decade-long reported history of National Public Radio that reveals the unlikely story of one of America’s most celebrated but least understood media empires.
An epic, decade-long reported history of National Public Radio that reveals the unlikely story of one of America’s most celebrated but least understood media empires.
On Air, my book about public radio, grew out of just a couple, simple questions: Who are the smart, articulate hosts and reporters on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life, and how do they do what they do? It took me fourteen years of research and writing to find the answers. Along the way, I got to spend time with many NPR talents, among them Susan Stamberg (the first woman to front a national news program), Anne Garrels (the sole broadcast journalist to remain in Baghdad during the aerial bombardment that launched the Iraq War), and Ira Glass, who worked at the network for seventeen years before premiering This American Life. I was also able to spend time with Bill Siemering, who essentially created NPR in 1970 and remains a guiding light. All told, I interviewed more than 150 people connected to the network.
I’ve always been a fan of the historian David McCullough, who dedicated his career to writing about the nation’s great projects. The Path Between the Seas, his account of the building of the Panama Canal, is a particular favorite. NPR is also one of the nation’s great projects. My goal in On Air was to celebrate the network’s triumphs without ignoring its failings or the internal rivalries inherent in journalism. The news business has always been a tough one – it is not a safe space. The news business has likewise always faced financial obstacles; that is especially so now, as outlets offering objective reporting confront opposition from social media driven by algorithms that confirm the biases of their audiences and partisan cable channels. Public radio takes a more even-handed approach, wedding fairness to that most American tradition: storytelling. Upon finishing On Air, I hope readers better understand public radio while better appreciating the miracle of its programming. Day in, day out, NPR provides listeners the information and insights to participate in democracy and navigate the world. It has also played a pioneering role in podcasting. Working on my book, I tuned into both NPR’s latest efforts and to ones stretching back more than half a century. It was an education and a joy.
