| For immediate release August 3, 2000 |
Jessamyn Sarmiento, NPR 202-414-2300 jsarmiento@npr.org |
NPR® Announces New Host for Weekend All Things Considered®
Lisa Simeone to Begin on October 14, 2000
Washington, DC-National Public Radio® (NPR®)
has named Lisa Simeone as the new host for the highly acclaimed weekend
newsmagazine, Weekend All Things Considered. Intelligent and charismatic,
Simeone brings tremendous energy and experience to Saturday and Sunday
afternoons on public radio stations nationwide. Weekend All Things
Considered plays a special role in the NPR schedule by serving its audience
not only with the top news of the day but a rich offering of features and
interviews shaped to challenge, surprise and entertain the weekend afternoon
listener.
"Lisa is the perfect choice for this job,
especially teamed with the top-notch staff that is in place on the show,"
said Bruce Drake, Acting Vice President for News. Weekend All Things
Considered has always had a very personal bond with its listeners, which is
a tremendous responsibility for a host. The warmth, vibrancy and
intelligence that Lisa brings to the air will ensure that this special
relationship continues."
Lisa Simeone brings almost twenty years of
hosting and news experience to Weekend All Things Considered. For the last
three years Simeone has worked as both host and producer for Soundprint, a
public radio documentary series covering the sciences, humanities and public
affairs. This year she also served as a guest host for NPR's Weekend Edition
Sunday® and since 1998 has been the principal guest host for NPR's
Performance Today®. Simeone has also produced feature stories for NPR's
premiere newsmagazines, Morning Edition® with Bob Edwards and All Things
Considered®.
For ten years, from 1986 to 1996, Simeone
served as host, reporter and producer for NPR member station WJHU in
Baltimore, where she researched, conducted and produced daily interviews on
a wide variety of political issues, public affairs and cultural topics.
While at WJHU, she also produced and hosted a weekly public affairs call-in
show during and after the Gulf War, and programmed and presented live daily
shows that included classical music, folk, jazz and spoken word recordings.
From 1986 to 1999, Simeone hosted Baltimore Symphony Casual Concerts, a
nationally syndicated weekly series. Simeone also spent one year as a
reporter and producer for the weekly program Rodricks for Breakfast on
WMAR-TV in Baltimore.
Since 1984, Simeone has appeared as an
on-camera host and announcer for radio and television programs and live
performances on PBS, the Discovery Channel and NPR. She began her career in
1983 as an announcer for NPR member stations WETA-FM in Washington and
WBJC-FM in Baltimore.
Simeone holds a 1980 Bachelor of Arts degree
from St. John's College, Annapolis and a 1997 Master of Arts in the writing
seminars at Johns Hopkins University.
During the national search for a permanent
host, NPR senior correspondent and alternate host Jacki Lyden has been
Weekend All Things Considered's most reliable and regular presence. Lyden
has covered the mix of breaking news, human interest stories and the show's
most popular monthly segment, The National Story Project with writer Paul
Auster, which presents real life stories sent in by listeners. Lyden is also
author of the memoir Daughter of the Queen of Sheba. She continues to host
the program until mid-October when Lisa Simeone joins the show.
For over two decades, Weekend All Things
Considered has delighted listeners with its unique mix of in-depth news,
compelling interviews and features, as well as social, political, and
musical commentary. Each weekend, over 875,000 people tune-in to the
one-hour program, heard nationally over approximately 450 NPR member
stations.
Renowned for its journalistic excellence and
standard-setting news, information and cultural programming, NPR serves a
growing audience of nearly 15 million Americans each week via more than 644
public radio stations. NPR also distributes programming to listeners in
Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa via NPR Worldwidesm, to military installations overseas via American Forces Network, and throughout Japan via
cable.
