Lisa Simeone (born July 11, 1957) is an American freelance radio host and writer. She is best known for hosting
public radio
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
shows such as ''World of Opera'' and the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...
weekly broadcast series.
Early life and education
Simeone was born and raised in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, Pennsylvania. She attended
St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, where she graduated in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts. Later on, studying at the
Writing Seminars at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
, she received a master's degree in 1997.
Career
Simeone began her radio career as a classical music host at
WBJC
WBJC (91.5 MHz) is a non-commercial, public FM radio station licensed to Baltimore, Maryland. The station is owned by Baltimore City Community College and it airs a classical music radio format. WBJC holds periodic fundraisers on the air to pay ...
in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, moving on to
WETA in Washington, D.C., and then to
WJHU
WJHU is a radio station based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins University owns the station, a community radio station with student volunteers, who are mainly on-air deejays and other program hosts. Programming blocks are divided into for ...
in Baltimore. In 1996, after ten years at WJHU, where her programming included classical, folk, and jazz music, plus a wide variety of reports, interviews, and call-in programs on intriguing topics,
[Lisa Simeone]
– Profile on ''World of Opera'' site. Retrieved September 29, 2017. she left to pursue a graduate degree in writing.
From 1998 to 2000, she was a regular host of
NPR
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 ...
's ''
Performance Today
''Performance Today'' is a Peabody Award-winning classical music radio program, first aired in 1987 and hosted since 2000 by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million liste ...
'' and ''
Weekend Edition Sunday
''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...
''. She became full-time host of
NPR
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 ...
's ''
Weekend All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'' in 2000. She left the show in March 2002 to return to freelancing, and shortly afterwards began hosting NPR's ''World of Opera''. She also returned to hosting and writing for the independent radio documentary series ''Soundprint'', which she had done before she was hired at ''Weekend All Things Considered''. In 2007, she also began hosting the weekly
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...
broadcast series, produced and syndicated by the Chicago radio service
WFMT
WFMT is an FM broadcasting, FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk music, folk. The station is managed by Window to the World Communications, In ...
.
In October 2011, Simeone became involved in the
Occupy movement
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
. Because of this activity, she was fired from ''Soundprint'' on October 19, 2011. The firing was for alleged NPR ethics code violations, which prohibit political activism by journalists, though she was not working for NPR at the time in any capacity nor receiving any salary or payment from the network, and ''Soundprint'' was not an NPR program. She was also not a news reporter. According to
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
:
Simeone, who lives in Baltimore, said she has been serving with about 50 people on a steering committee for an occupation protest on Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a diagonal street in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, that connects the White House and the United States Capitol and then crosses the city to Maryland. In Maryland it is also Maryland Route 4 (MD 4) ...
n Washington, D.C.">Washington,_D.C..html" ;"title="n Washington, D.C.">n Washington, D.C.that's known as the October 2011 Movement. She said it is not connected to the Occupy Wall Street movement, but that they share similar philosophies.
Following Simeone's firing from ''Soundprint'', NPR also stopped distributing ''World of Opera''. WDAV, which produces the show, immediately began distributing the program itself. Simeone remained as host until the show ended in 2016.
Simeone has written for the ''
Baltimore City Paper
''Baltimore City Paper'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1977 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch. The most recent owner was the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which purchased the paper in 2014 from Ti ...
'', ''The Urbanite'', and ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'',
[ and is the beauty editor and a columnist at ''Baltimore Style''. She has also done voice-overs, narrations, and hosting for the ]Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
, PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
, and other networks.[
]
Personal life
Simeone lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a lifelong political activist. One of her volunteer activities is running the civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
watchdog site ''TSA News'', which tracks the abuses committed by the Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...
.
References
External links
Lisa Simeone
– Profile on ''World of Opera'' site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simeone, Lisa
1957 births
Living people
American public radio personalities
Classical music radio presenters
American broadcasters
NPR personalities
American women radio journalists
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists
Radio personalities from Pittsburgh
Journalists from Pennsylvania
St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) alumni
Johns Hopkins University alumni
20th-century American women
21st-century American women