Ben Manilla is an American broadcaster, audio producer, and teacher. He has produced and directed award-winning radio programs. His work in the late 1970s included the alternative news features, ''News Blimps'', and music documentaries for

WLIR WLIR was a radio station that played a new music/modern rock format on the frequencies 92.7 FM, 98.5 FM, and 107.1 FM from the 1980s into the 2000s. Bob Wilson, longtime WLIR employee and historian, created the website WDARE (Dare FM), which m ...

, where he was production director and on-air personality. In the 1980s, Manilla created news documentaries for

WOR-AM WOR (710 AM) is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, inclu ...

, and helped develop programs at Radio Today,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, including ''Flashback'', ''Rock Stars with Timothy White'', and ''Radio MTV''. In 1991, he moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and started Ben Manilla Productions which created national radio series including ''The House of Blues Radio Hour'' with

Dan Aykroyd Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, producer, musician and writer. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979). During his tenure on ''SNL'' ...

(with whom Manilla co-wrote the book ''Elwood's Blues: Interviews with the Blues Legends & Stars''), ''

Philosophy Talk Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

'' with

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, ''The Loose Leaf Book Company'' with Tom Bodett (syndicated to 227 stations with an audience of 250,000), and ''The Sounds of American Culture'' on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

's ''All Things Considered''. Manilla's awards include

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Edward Howard Armstrong Award, the 2003 International Radio Festival Grand Award,

Billboard magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

's Best Syndicated Radio Show, and the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award. In 2003, he formed the multi-platform production and consulting company Media Mechanics with broadcast veterans Mike Henry and Paul Marszalek. Since 2005, Manilla has been an instructor at

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is a graduate professional school on the campus of University of California, Berkeley. It is among the top graduate journalism schools in the United States, and is designed to produce journalists wi ...

where he teaches Radio News Reporting. Manilla was born in 1952 to James Nicholson Manilla and Margarita Fernandez Manilla. He grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, where he graduated with a drama degree. He now lives in San Francisco.

References

External links

Ben Manilla ProductionsMedia MechanicsThe Sounds of American CultureThe Bluesmobile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manilla, Ben 1952 births American broadcasters Living people