An “engrossing and entertaining…major work of media history” (TheNew York Times Book Review) that reveals the unlikely story of one of America’s most celebrated but least understood media empires.
Founded in 1970, NPR is America’s most powerful broadcast news network. Despite being overshadowed by the larger and more glamorous PBS, public radio has long been home to shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life that captivate millions of listeners in homes, cars, and workplaces across the nation. NPR and its hosts are a cultural powerhouse and a trusted voice, and they have created a mode of journalism and storytelling that helps Americans understand the world in which we live.
In On Air, a book fourteen years in the making, journalist Steve Oney tells the dramatic history of this institution, tracing the comings and goings of legendary on-air talents (Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Ira Glass, Cokie Roberts, and many others) and the rise and fall and occasional rise again of brilliant and sometimes venal executives. It depicts how NPR created a medium for extraordinary journalism—in which reporters and producers use microphones as paintbrushes and the voices of people around the world as the soundtrack of stories both global and local. Featuring details on the controversial firing of Juan Williams, the sloppy dismissal of Bob Edwards, and a $235 million bequest by Joan B. Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonald’s, On Air also chronicles NPR’s daring shift into the digital world and its early embrace of podcasting formats, establishing the network as a formidable media empire.
Fascinating, revelatory, and irresistibly dishy, this is a riveting account of NPR’s chaotic ascent, cultural triumph, and imperiled future.
About the Author
Steve Oney is a longtime journalist who worked for many years as a staff writer for TheAtlanta Journal-Constitution Magazine and Los Angeles magazine. He has also contributed articles to many national publications, including Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine. His history of the lynching of Leo Frank, And the Dead Shall Rise, won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award and the National Jewish Book Award. Oney was educated at the University of Georgia and at Harvard, where he was a Nieman Fellow. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Madeline Stuart.
Praise For…
“A lively and engaging new history of the organization . . . Oney’s account of how all this developed has plenty of color and sweep.” —Washington Post
“Steve Oney’s excellent history . . . does full justice to the considerable accomplishments of NPR, and [Oney’s] own skills at vivid storytelling make events both inside NPR and the events it covered come alive. As for gossip, NPR is up there with community theater, so those itching to know what NPR brass thought of Ira Glass will not be disappointed.” —Air Mail
“Engrossing and entertaining . . . A major work of media history.” —New York Times Book Review
“A raucous history . . . Oney’s fleet-footed storytelling and immersive prose bring to life the network’s colorful personalities. The result is an entertaining window into the creative but rancorous scene at one of journalism’s most hallowed institutions.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A warts-and-all account that’s full of surprises, and with plenty of insight into the world of nonprofit media.” —Kirkus Reviews
“In this brash, swear-y backroom history, a decade and a half in the making, Oney shows how a loose network of radio stations called NPR struggled to stay on the airwaves and became a singular force in American life.” —New York Times
