(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Bill Siemering is 90 years old today. You may not know his name at first, but we hope his life's work is heard in just about every minute we put on the air. Bill was one of the founding members of NPR's board of directors and wrote its first mission statement, which declared National Public Radio will serve the individual. It will promote personal growth. It will regard the individual differences among men with respect and joy rather than derision and hate. It will celebrate the human experience as infinitely varied. Bill Siemering was NPR's first director of programming. He helped create All Things Considered in 1971 and...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: ...Made Susan Stamberg a host and created a show with Terry Gross, which she hosts to this day. He received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, one of those genius grants. He traveled the world to help new democracies from South Africa to Mongolia and Eastern Europe open up free, fair and informative public broadcast services. It has been our honor to hear from Bill now and then over the years, and especially in these times of what I'll call narrow-casting, where platforms look to slot audiences according to various characteristics. Bill always reminds us that the first definition of broadcasting, way before radio, was to sow seeds. We thank Bill Siemering on his 90th birthday for the chance we get each day to try to do just that here.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
