27 Facts About Bill Siemering

William H Siemering was born on October 26,1934 and is a radio innovator and advocate.

Bill Siemering was a member of the founding board of NPR and the author of its original "mission statement," the National Public Radio Purposes.

Bill Siemering changed from listener to active participant when he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and worked his way through school at WHA as a board operator, announcer, and newscaster.

In 1963, William Bill Siemering became the first professional general manager of WBFO, the student radio station at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Bill Siemering was hired by Richard Siggelkow, a former faculty member at UW, who was now the dean of students.

Shortly upon his arrival in 1963, Bill Siemering canvassed the community and produced a radio series titled To be Negro, but the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 prompted a different approach.

Bill Siemering argued for authenticity, depth and the thoughtful exchange of diverse perspectives and ideas.

In late 1969, Bill Siemering joined Joe Gwathmey of KUT, Benard Mayes of KQED, Karl Schmidt of WHA and five other educational radio station managers to comprise the founding board of directors for National Public Radio.

Bill Siemering was to develop the station, feed local news and features to MPR and get the station CPB-qualified.

Bill Siemering kept true to his pattern of hiring energetic and capable people despite their lack of radio experience.

Bill Siemering was elected to NPR's Board as a petition candidate and participated in policy-making decisions over a ten-year period.

Bill Siemering then moved to Philadelphia to take on a different kind of challenge.

Bill Siemering helped develop a successful local show, Fresh Air, hosted by Terry Gross, into the third most listened program on NPR and created Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coanne.

William Bill Siemering incorporated music, sound and compelling storytelling into radio programming since his days at WBFO and played a key role in crafting NPR's distinctive sound.

Bill Siemering further nurtured the medium's possibilities when he served as the first executive producer of and driving force behind Soundprint.

That same year, Bill Siemering received the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

Bill Siemering returned to South Africa the following year, this time with the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, and in 1995 as a Knight International Journalism Fellow.

Bill Siemering continued his collaboration with the Open Society Institute through 2003 with projects in several eastern European countries, Mongolia, Mozambique as well as South Africa.

In 2003, William Bill Siemering founded the nonprofit Developing Radio Partners with the expressed purpose of using radio to improve the flow of information to those who need it the most and are the hardest to reach.

William Bill Siemering, left Developing Radio Partners at the end of 2017.

Bill Siemering is currently Senior Fellow with the Wyncote Foundation.

Bill Siemering knew it would throw me, and he had tremendous confidence in me, and he didn't want it to affect my performance.

Bill Siemering felt if I were given a chance and just allowed to go, that people would change their minds toward it, and happily, they did.

Bill Siemering reached out to the city's black ghetto to give voice to the unheard.

Tune around the radio dial and I guarantee you will hear Bill Siemering talking to you.

Bill Siemering is why I am standing here, and why each of you, too, have a job in something called public radio.

Bill Siemering has helped nurture the seeds of this new generation.