Bill Siemering on radio, “a source of information and imagination”

Bill Siemering, an early organizer of National Public Radio and its first program director, looks back on his career in an email interview with University of Chicago Professor David Galenson on Huffington Post. Siemering recalls his earliest memories of radio: “In the two-room country school outside of Madison, Wis., twice a day the teacher turned on WHA, the ‘oldest station in the nation’ at the University of Wisconsin and we’d listen to programs from the Wisconsin School of the Air. Prepared with an instructor’s manual, our teacher guided us through science, nature, social studies, music and art all by radio. From first grade on, I regarded radio as a source of information and imagination.” Siemering founded Developing Radio Partners in 2004 for listeners in rural areas of developing countries, and continues that work at the age of 78.