People at WNYC

Host Bios

Kurt Andersen is author of the novel Turn of the Century, a New York Times Notable Book of 1999 that Times reviewers called "wickedly satirical" and "outrageously funny" and "the most un-clichéd novel imaginable," and that The Wall Street Journal called a "smart, funny and excruciatingly deft portrait of our age." Andersen has adapted the book into a screenplay for a film being developed by the director Curtis Hanson with Village Roadshow Pictures. He is now at work on his second novel.

Kurt Andersen began his career in journalism at Time, where he was an award-winning writer on national affairs and criminal justice, and then for eight years the magazine's architecture and design critic. Returning to Time in 1993 as editor-at-large, he wrote a weekly column on entertainment and media, and from 1996 through 1999 he was a cultural columnist for The New Yorker. His journalism and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Architectural Record, among other publications.

Andersen was a co-founder of Inside.com, and editor-in-chief of both New York and Spy magazines, the latter of which he co-founded. He joined WNYC in 2000 to become host of the weekly arts and cultural magazine, Studio 360.

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Folk balladeer, playwright, producer, musician, and host Oscar Brand premiered Folksong Festival on WNYC AM on December 10, 1945, after his discharge from the army. In 1995, on its fiftieth anniversary, the program won a prestigious Peabody Award for its contribution to American culture. Today, nearly six decades later, the show is one of the longest-running radio programs in the world. When not presenting Folksong Festival, Oscar Brand is the curator of the Songwriters' Hall of Fame, author of seven best-selling books, has recorded 90 LPs, written songs for Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belefonte, the Smothers Brothers, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He has been on the faculty of The New School, New York University, and Hofstra University. He has a BS in Psychology from Brooklyn College, a Laureate from Fairfield University, and an honorary Doctorate from the University of Winnipeg.

Visit Oscar Brand's website

Bob Garfield is a columnist, critic, essayist, pundit, international lecturer and inveterate broadcaster. In print, Garfield's Ad Review TV-commercial criticism feature of Advertising Age has made him among the more pitifully groveled-before figures in trade-magazine history. He has been a columnist for USA Today and contributing editor for Civilization and the Washington Post Magazine. He has also written for The New York Times, Playboy, Sports Illustrated and many other publications. A collection of his work, titled Waking Up Screaming from the American Dream, was published by Scribner in 1997. Before becoming co-host, with Brooke Gladstone, of On The Media, Bob was a longtime commentator/ correspondent for NPR's All Things Considered. On television, he is the advertising analyst for ABC News after stints as analyst or correspondent for CBS News, CNBC, PBS and Financial News Network.

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David Garland's collection of LP's includes lots of odd things, from Les Baxter's Music Out of the Moon to Oscar Levant playing Chopin to Jeri Southern's Jeri Gently Jumps. "I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. As a teenager, I was hungry for a means of understanding the world, which I found beautiful and shocking. The arts helped," says Garland, a musician in his own right. His Control Songs recently came out on Review Records in Germany, and a CD of his arrangements and performances of songs by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was released a few years ago in Japan. Garland, who began his radio career at WKCR, says that as a listener he "learned early on that public radio was the place to turn for really interesting music."

Visit David Garland on the web.

Brooke Gladstone joined National Public Radio in 1987, as senior editor of Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, and later assumed the same role for NPR's daily newsmagazine, All Things Considered. During this time she edited several award-winning reports and was the recipient of a Peabody Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, and an Ohio State Award, among other honors. In 1995, she became NPR's first media correspondent, examining the coverage of race, science, and politics, and reporting on the battle between Hollywood and the many guardians of American culture, media mergers, advertising trends, and journalism's evolving ethics. She joined WNYC in 2000 to become managing editor and co-host, with Bob Garfield, of WNYC's national weekly analysis program, On The Media. Gladstone's freelance articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The London Observer, The American Journalism Review, and In These Times, among others.

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Gilbert Kaplan is a leading international authority on the music of Gustav Mahler, and the author and editor of The Mahler Album (Abrams), an illustrated biography with more than 300 photographs, paintings, drawings and sculptures of Mahler. In 1997, Mr. Kaplan served as the host of a 13-week Mahler series broadcast on WNYC Radio and 350 radio stations in the United States. He is also one of the foremost interpreters of Mahler's Second Symphony (Resurrection") and has conducted the work with more than 45 international orchestras, including the opening night of the 1996 Salzburg Festival. Mr. Kaplan is a member of the faculty of The Juilliard School (Evening Division) and has also lectured at Harvard and Oxford Universities, at the Royal Academy of Music (London), Eastman School of Music and the Vienna Music Academy. His extensive writings on Mahler have appeared in publications ranging from London's musicological journal The Musical Times to The New York Times.

Brian Lehrer is host of The Brian Lehrer Show, the highly acclaimed daily call-in program, covering politics and life, locally and globally. The show airs weekdays from 10am-noon on fm93.9 and am820, WNYC New York Public Radio, and on wnyc.org.

Time Magazine has called Lehrer’s show "New York City’s most thoughtful and informative talk show." The Daily News calls it "cutting edge" and "the sane alternative in talk radio." Guests range from political figures such as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, to cultural icons such as Bill T. Jones and John Leguizamo, to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, gossip columnist Michael Musto, New York City middle school students and homeless people.

Lehrer was previously an anchor and reporter for the NBC Radio Networks, and an award-winning author and documentary producer.

On television, he hosts "Brian Lehrer Live", a weekly prime time show on CUNY-TV, and appears regularly as a commentator on NY1. He has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox Newschannel, C-SPAN and WNET.

Lehrer was a questioner in the 2006 televised campaign debates for U.S Senate and Governor of New York, and in the televised New York City Mayoral Debates in 2005, 2001 and 1997. Since 2001, he has been the moderator for the Harper’s Magazine Forum and The Nation vs. The Economist debate series.

He has written op-ed pieces for publications including The New York Times, Daily News, Newsday, The New York Sun and Slate.com. Lehrer has won many awards, including the Associated Press New York Broadcasters "Best Interview" Award three times since 2000.

Lehrer has masters degrees in Journalism from The Ohio State University and Public Health from Columbia University, and a bachelor's in Music and Mass Communications from SUNY Albany.

He lives in New York City with his wife, two sons and his trusty bicycle.

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Leonard Lopate studied painting with Mark Rothko and hosted a gospel music show in the 70's and early 80's. He also marketed records for Slim Whitman and Boxcar Willie, and knows enough Cantonese to order the best dim sum in Chinatown. As Lopate tells it, one of his most exciting guests was a mob guy in the witness protection program, who worked for both the Colombo family and the FBI. "He came in for a taping on a holiday when there weren't too many people around...I think it was Columbus Day...He was flanked by two armed bodyguards. I was fighting a terrible cough that day, and in the middle of the interview, my throat got so raspy, I pushed myself away from the mike, stood up and announced, 'Stop the tape! I've got to get some hot tea.' The mobster took my abrupt movement to be some sort of signal to an assassin and he threw himself on the floor to avoid being shot. The bodyguard in the studio reached for his gun, another guard was outside the door. Luckily, no shots were fired, otherwise I might not be here, but every so often I think about that guest, and wonder if there will ever be a time when he'll feel secure enough to stop throwing himself on the ground."

On May 8, 2006, Leonard Lopate was recognized with the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Best Radio Broadcast on Food. Fellow honorees included chefs Daniel Boulud, Dan Barber, Mario Batali, as well as Daniel Johnnes, Judith Jones and Mark Bittman...all of whom have been on Leonard's show in the past year!

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A native of West Virginia, George Preston holds music degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, New England Conservatory, and Boston University. He accidentally fell into a broadcast career 22 years ago at WXCR, Safety Harbor, Florida, a commercial classical station serving the Tampa Bay market. He worked at WBUR in Boston for 11 years as a program host and producer, Music Director, and Assistant Program Director.

New York night owls became familiar with George while he was hosting Overnight Music on WNYC from 2000 to 2003.

A frequent singer and actor, George's favorite operatic roles include Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Mercutio in Gounod's Romeo & Juliet, and Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. His theatre work ranges from Fred Graham in Kiss Me Kate to Orgon in Tartuffe.

John Schaefer is the host of WNYC's innovative music talk show "Soundcheck," which features live performances and interviews with a variety of guests. Since 1982, Schaefer has also hosted and produced the popular new music radio program "New Sounds," hailed as "The #1 radio show for the Global Village" by Billboard magazine. He was executive producer and host of the nationally-syndicated series Chamber Music New York. Since 1986, he has produced and hosted New Sounds Live, an annual series of live broadcast concerts devoted to many types of new, unusual, uncategorizable, and overlooked forms of music. Since 1991 he has produced and hosted WNYC's programs of classical performances, both in studio and in various concert halls. He has been heard regularly on the BBC, the ABC (Australia), Taipei Public Radio, and Radio New Zealand.

Schaefer's writings include New Sounds: A Listener's Guide to New Music (Harper & Row, NY, 1987; Virgin Books, London, 1990); a biography of composer La Monte Young (in Sound and Light, Bucknell University Press, 1996); and Songlines: The Voice in World Music (Cambridge Companion to Singing, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2000). He was contributing editor for SPIN and EAR magazines, and has written more articles and reviews than he cares to remember. His liner notes appear on more than 100 recordings, ranging from The Music of Cambodia to recordings by Yo Yo Ma, Bob by McFerrin, and Terry Riley.

In 2003 Schaefer joined an elite group of honorees when he was presented with the American Music Center's prestigious Letter of Distinction for his "substantial contributions to advancing the field of contemporary American music in the United States and abroad."

In May 2006, New York Magazine cited Schaefer as one of "the people whose ideas, power, and sheer will are changing New York" in its Influentials issue.

Jonathan Schwartz joined WNYC-FM in 1999. He has been a constant presence on New York radio for nearly forty years. His novels and stories have been published by Random House and Doubleday, including his recent memoir described by The New York Times as "luminous." Jonathan's stories and articles have been published in dozens of magazines. He was, for four years, the artistic director of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, and for five years appeared as the music correspondent on NBC's Sunday Today Show. His programs are extemporaneous, the music inevitably surprising. His own three CDs have been secretly released.

"Music ended for me around 1960," says Danny Stiles. Every Saturday, The Vicar of Vintage takes a trip back in time to spin oldies, including his favorite artists Artie Shaw, the Andrew Sisters, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, Dinah Washington, and Glenn Miller. A 50-year radio veteran, Stiles-also known as the Archangel of Archives, Ballaboos of Beautiful Ballads, Didactic Doctor of Dreamy Discology, Dean of Deja Vu, Great Guru of Golden Gramophones, Passionate Pasha of Peripatetic Platters, and Stiles on your Dials-combs his collection of 250,000 records for every show. Danny's favorite New York joint: The Red Blazer. "A stunning, posh place. It's the former home of John Drew Barrymore, and an excellent spot for the Lindy Hop or slow drag with a pretty girl."

People at WNYC

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