Susan Stamberg
Susan Stamberg, the first full-time woman anchor of a national nightly news broadcast, played an important role in making National Public Radio (NPR) a news organization that offered pioneering opportunities to women journalists. She broke gender barriers while presenting herself as a vital, womanly presence in a male-dominated media world. Succeeding as a pioneer news anchor, she also won acclaim as a top interviewer of a diverse array of individuals. She offered a personal feminist perspective to public radio, engaging listeners with clarity and charm in her reporting.
In her interview, Susan recounts her early years in the broadcast industry, from her on-air debut as a weather girl, to becoming the first female anchor of a national news broadcast at a time when a woman’s voice brought suspicion from affiliate station managers, who feared listeners would not take it seriously, and that it was not authoritative. Proving the doubters wrong, Susan has done over 30,000 interviews in the course of her illustrious career, winning many awards along the way. Susan also talks about the satisfactions of her job, her ongoing sense of curiosity about the world, and the future of radio.
The views expressed in these interviews are solely those of the speakers and do not reflect the positions of JWA or its affiliates.
