''The Takeaway'' is a morning

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

program co-created and co-produced by

Public Radio International Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States. PRI was one of the main providers of programm ...

and

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

. Its editorial partner is

WGBH-FM WGBH (89.7 MHz; branded as GBH without the " W" since August 31, 2020) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts. WGBH is a member station of National Public Radio (NPR) and affiliate of Public Radio Exchange (PRX), which me ...

; at launch the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' were also editorial partners. In addition to co-producing the program, PRX also distributes the program nationwide to its affiliated stations. The program debuted on

in New York, WGBH in Boston, and

WEAA WEAA (88.9 FM) is a non-profit, National Public Radio affiliate station that serves Baltimore, Maryland. It is licensed and owned by Morgan State University. WEAA is located on campus, with studios at the School of Global Journalism and Communica ...

in Baltimore. To date, the program has approximately 280 carrying stations across the country, including markets in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Portland, Boston, and more. The host is

Melissa Harris-Perry Melissa Victoria Harris-Perry (born October 2, 1973), formerly known as Melissa Victoria Harris-Lacewell, is an American writer, professor, television host, and political commentator with a focus on African-American politics. Harris-Perry hoste ...

Mission

The program's stated intent is to deliver "national and international news and cultural stories through a conversational and unprecedented personality-driven format." The program launched on April 28, 2008, initially airing in two separate live feeds—from 6am to 7am on WNYC 93.9FM and from 8 to 9am on AM820. On January 25, 2010, as part of WNYC-FM's new schedule the show was moved to WNYC-AM, a later hour, and expanded to four hours. On September 3, 2012, the show was reduced to one hour. The program has received major philanthropic support from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

, the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

, and the

Skoll Foundation The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 1999. The total assets of the foundation (includi ...

Presenters

The show initially launched with Nigerian-American broadcaster Adaora Udoji and

John Hockenberry John Charles Hockenberry (born June 4, 1956) is an American journalist and author. He has reported from all over the world, on a wide variety of stories in several mediums for more than three decades. He has written dozens of magazine and newsp ...

as co-hosts. Udoji left the show after eight months. Over the course of several months in 2009, The Takeaway featured various guest co-hosts, including African-American journalist

Farai Chideya Farai Chideya (; born July 27, 1969, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States) is an American novelist, multimedia journalist, and radio host. She produced and hosted ''Pop and Politics with Farai Chideya'', a series of radio specials on politics fo ...

, WDET news director Jerome Vaughn; television presenters

Daljit Dhaliwal Daljit Dhaliwal (born 8 September 1962) is a British newsreader and television presenter. Dhaliwal is a former news presenter for the Al-Jazeera English news service that broadcast from Washington DC. Previously, she was the anchor chair of ...

and

Lynn Sherr Lynn Sherr (born March 4, 1942) is an American broadcast journalist and author, best known as a correspondent for the ABC news magazine ''20/20''. Life Sherr was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Lower Merion High School in Ar ...

; and broadcast journalists

Katherine Lanpher __NOTOC__ Katherine Lanpher (born 1959) is an American writer, journalist, broadcaster, and podcaster, who came to national prominence as the co-host of the Air America Radio program ''The Al Franken Show'' in 2004 and 2005. Early life and educ ...

and

Celeste Headlee Celeste Headlee (born December 30, 1969) is an American radio journalist, author, public speaker, and co-host of the weekly series ''Retro Report on PBS.'' In her 20-year career in public radio, Headlee has served as the host of the Georgia Publi ...

. In addition, staffers

Femi Oke Femi Oke ( ; born 30 June 1966) is a British television presenter and journalist. Early life and education Femi Oke was born in London, England, to Nigerian parents of the Yoruba ethnic group. She is a graduate of Birmingham University, where ...

and

Todd Zwillich Todd or Todds may refer to: Places ;Australia: * Todd River, an ephemeral river ;United States: * Todd Valley, California, also known as Todd, an unincorporated community * Todd, Missouri, a ghost town * Todd, North Carolina, an unincorporated ...

also guest-hosted. After several stints as guest co-host,

Headlee Headlee is a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Celeste Headlee (born 1969), journalist * Richard Headlee (1930–2004) * Russell Headlee (1908–1987), member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1951–1968) See also * Head ...

joined the show as permanent co-host September 21, 2009 until her departure August 17, 2012. Hockenberry anchored until August 2017, stepping down without an appointed replacement. Todd Zwillich served as an interim host. On March 27, 2018, it was announced that

Tanzina Vega Tanzina Vega is an American journalist. After reporting for the ''New York Times'' and CNN, she served as the weekday host of ''The Takeaway'', a public radio show broadcast, until July 2021. Background, education and early career Vega was born i ...

, formerly of CNN and ''The New York Times'', would be the new host of ''The Takeaway''. Vega started hosting the program on May 7, 2018. Later that year,

Amy Walter Amy Elizabeth Walter (born October 19, 1969)"Profile: Amy Walter"

, of the Cook Political Report, joined as Friday host. On July 23, 2021, Vega announced her departure from ''The Takeaway'' and WNYC. Melissa Harris-Perry was named as interim host following Tanzina Vega's departure. On October 18, 2021, Harris-Perry was named permanent host and managing editor of the program.

Format

With the program's debut, public radio had more than one program available throughout the morning drive across time zones for the first time. The format of the program was influenced by discussions at the

Stanford Joint Program in Design The Joint Program in Design (officially Stanford Graduate Program in Product Design, colloquially Stanford Design Program) was a graduate program jointly offered by the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Art Department at Stanford Universit ...

. It has a different tone and approach from NPR's ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ...

'', delivering national and international news and cultural stories through a conversational and personality-driven format rather than a magazine, packaged pieces format like ''Morning Edition''. The web presence of the program allows listeners to respond immediately to news and participate in editorial decision-making, as well as building a significant online community around the content. Effective September 2012, with an expiration of a

grant and limited uptake at public radio stations, ''The Takeaway'' was reduced to one hour, feeding at 9am Eastern with an updated hour feeding at 12 noon Eastern for the

Pacific Time Zone The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00) ...

and midday Eastern markets. WGBH Boston airs the program every weekday at 10am and 2pm Eastern. The difference between the expectations of public radio listeners and the tone of the program initially led to a negative response from some listeners. However, a 2012 study noted that the program had succeeded in attracting a more diverse audience, with

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

listenership exceeding public radio averages by 60%. The show also received multiple awards, including The

's Community Lifeline Award (shared with WNYC for coverage of

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

in 2012) and the 2011 Radio and Television Digital News Association/UNITY Award (for their series "Fluid Identities").

Controversies

In 2011, ''The Takeaway'' dismissed part-time freelancer Caitlin Curran, after she had participated in the

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest Social movement, movement against economic inequality and the Campaign finance, influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial District, Manhattan, Wall S ...

protests. According to WNYC's company guidelines: "Individuals may not participate in an advocacy manner in events involving causes or issues that

New York Public Radio New York Public Radio (NYPR) is the owner of WNYC (AM), WNYC-FM, WNYC Studios, WQXR-FM, New Jersey Public Radio, and the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. Combined, New York Public Radio owns WNYC (AM), WNYC-FM, WQXR-FM, WQXW, WNJT-FM, WNJP ...

covers or may cover." At the time, ''The Takeaway'' was covering the protests extensively. The dismissal was widely criticized. On December 1, 2017, ''

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 * '' ...

'' magazine published journalist Suki Kim's story alleging that John Hockenberry had created a toxic work environment for his co-hosts and lower-level co-workers and had even crossed the line of sexual harassment. In WNYC's own reporting about the story, journalist Ilya Marritz stated that four women had "approached WNYC News to say they recently filed harassment complaints with the station and have been dissatisfied with the response from human resources." In the wake of these revelations former host Adaora Udoji published an editorial in U.S. online edition of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', describing her experience as "an excruciating, painful ride that would haunt me nearly 10 years later." Five days after the Hockenberry story was published in ''New York'' magazine, WNYC suspended two of their best known hosts,

Leonard Lopate Leonard Lopate (born September 23, 1940) is an American radio personality. He is the host of the radio talk show ''Leonard Lopate at Large'', broadcast on WBAI, and the former host of the public radio talk show ''The Leonard Lopate Show'', broad ...

and Jonathan Schwartz pending investigations into "inappropriate conduct". Two weeks later WNYC announced that both hosts had been fired for violating WNYC's "standards for providing an inclusive, appropriate, and respectful work environment." On January 26, 2018, WNYC announced that Chief Content Officer Dean Cappello would no longer oversee WNYC News and WNYC Studios, nor would he oversee any direct reports.

References

External links

*
''Public Radio International''''New York'' magazine interview with Hockenberry and UdojiThe best of John Hockenberry. WNYC.org#MeToo Hits Home: John Hockenberry Accused of Harassment, BullyingHarassment and Bullying Allegations Rock WNYC After Departure of Celebrated Host''The Takeaways own coverage: John Hockenberry Accused of Sexual HarassmentHow New York Public Radio Is Dodging Accountability for Its Sexual Harassment Problem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Takeaway, The American news radio programs British news radio programmes Public Radio International programs WNYC Studios programs

Takeaway A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

2008 radio programme debuts