National Public Radio’s Susan Stamberg holds a telephone in her office in Washington, DC, October 13, 1979.
Barry Thumma/AP
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Barry Thumma/AP
We are here – and I mean on the air with you today – because of Susan Stamberg. There were, of course, others who helped turn the idea of National Public Radio into a distinctive sound. But a little more than 50 years ago, when Susan’s voice began crackling in kitchens and cars across America, people hearing her weren’t asking, “What is NPR?” but “Who is it?”
She was the first woman to co-anchor an evening news show, and she didn’t seem like a sound anchor. Susan seemed irreverent, not official. Noisy, not boring. She was courteous and often hilarious.
Susan Stamberg gave NPR a voice, and that mic-shaking laugh.
We saluted Susan at NPR – and on this show – when she retired last month. I’m glad she was able to hear at least some of our gratitude and love before she died this week at the age of 87. Those of us who work here know that we are at the pinnacle of the partnership that Susan and a few other scrappy journalists began more than 50 years ago, with what has become millions of listeners across America.
I have tried to recount everything I have learned from Susan over the years.
She often reminded me that the most important thing you can do in an interview is listen. Journalists often try to prepare detailed questions in advance, filled with relevant facts. But sometimes we are so eager to have our questions answered that we neglect to truly hear and respond to the answers.
“You have to be willing to let all that preparation fall to the ground,” Susan once told me, “and let the interview happen elsewhere.”
She also showed us how the best questions can be as short as “Why?” ” Or as naively simple as when Susan asked a conductor, “Don’t your arms ever get tired?”
And Susan showed us that for a news program to become a companion in people’s lives, it must try to play all the notes of the human symphony, high and low; dark and light; and you play them with style. You can cram all the important facts into a story and a show, but if you don’t pique listeners’ interest, they won’t stay with you long enough to hear anything.
Back when NPR was just a collection of little-known initials, Susan Stamberg gave this place personality.
I find it telling that the voice recorded in the elevators here at NPR headquarters is Susan’s. It continues to show us the direction to take.
