In a note to newsroom staff, Edith Chapin, NPR Senior Vice President, Editor in Chief and acting Chief Content Officer, made the following announcement:
Hi all, Susan Stamberg, one of NPR’s founding mothers, has decided it is time to hang up the microphone and retire. She began her nationally renowned career at NPR in 1971 and has been a guide and companion to millions of listeners from NPR’s first fledgling days through every iteration and evolution since. She hosted All Things Considered for 14 years, where she was the first woman to anchor a national evening news program. She later went on to host Weekend Edition Sunday. Most recently, Susan has served as a Special Correspondent covering the arts. Who better to bring visual art to life through sound? She is in the Broadcast Hall of Fame, the Radio Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has won nearly every journalism award for broadcasting. She succeeded in convincing generations of listeners to try — sometimes even to profess love for, and at least once to rap about — a Pepto-Bismol pink concoction involving cranberries, sour cream, and horseradish, that remains a tradition in her family. Scott Simon, who has worked with Susan for decades, had this to say: “Susan Stamberg is the voice of NPR: quizzical, curious, respectful, and engaging, as she goes from sober assessments of important events into a full-out, ear-ringing belly-laugh, while taking listeners along, like friends on a journey. Susan has been our franchise. Everyone who has ever worked for NPR and its member stations has Susan to thank for making those three letters mean something special to millions of Americans. She is one of the great figures in American broadcast history, and we have her to thank for the work we so proudly continue today. However, her recipe for cranberry relish is something else entirely.” The impact of Susan’s work will be lasting. Throughout NPR’s history, through thousands of interviews and stories, she set the standard for so much of what we do. She has been a quiet and consistent force for good at NPR as well as a tireless advocate for Member stations around the country. Susan also deserves credit for expanding the scope and sound of NPR. She stubbornly pushed for NPR to take a shot on a couple of mechanics from Cambridge, Massachusetts, because they brought people joy and reflected America, and wasn’t that the point after all? I have long valued her wisdom and insights. Generations of journalists, especially women, have benefited from her standards, her advocacy, and her unflappable determination to model what professional success and generosity look like. We stand on your shoulders, Susan. Thank you. We will celebrate Susan’s remarkable career in Studio 1 on Friday, September 5, at 3:30pm. Please join me in congratulating Susan and thanking her for her extraordinary contributions to making NPR what it is today. Her official last day will be September 1. –Edith
A note from Susan is below:
EASY COME EASY GO. LOVE YOU ALL. -SUSAN
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— Susan Stamberg
The earliest photo of Susan Stamberg at a microphone, age 25. Later, as the host of All Things Considered, she was the first woman to be a full-time anchor of a U.S. national nightly news broadcast.
/ NPR
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— Susan Stamberg co-hosted All Things Considered from 1972 until 1986 — she's the first woman to anchor a daily national news program in America.
Susan Stamberg co-hosted All Things Considered from 1972 until 1986 — she's the first woman to anchor a daily national news program in America. She is now an NPR special correspondent.
/ NPR
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— George GeeseyNPR.jpg
George Geesey/George Geesey / NPR
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— Stamberg star.jpg
Susan Stamberg, a renowned public radio host and correspondent for NPR, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2020.
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