- Leonard Lopate
Infobox Radio Presenter
name = Leonard Lopate
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caption = Lopate at the 2008Brooklyn Book Festival
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show = The Leonard Lopate Show
station =WNYC
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style =Talk show host
country =United States
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web =Leonard Lopate (born c. 1941) is host of the
public radio talk show "The Leonard Lopate Show", broadcast onWNYC [cite web|url=http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/bios.html|accessdate=2006-04-07|title=WNYC - Lopate - Staff Bios|publisher=WNYC ] . He first broadcast onWKCR , the college radio station ofColumbia University —where his brother Phillip was a student—then later atWBAI , before ultimately moving to WNYC. Fact|date=February 2007Biography
Lopate came to radio relatively late in life. Born in
Brooklyn and growing up in New York, he attendedBrooklyn College and laterHunter College , where he trained as a serious painter (he studied withAd Reinhardt andMark Rothko ), and worked in advertising for fifteen years. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/fashion/20LOPATE.html "Leonard Lopate, Conversational Acrobat"] , by Warren St. John. "New York Times", March 20, 2005.] But when he was given a chance to host his first talk show on WBAI in 1977, he was hooked, and what began as a whim has become his life's work. Arguably, Lopate's background in art and literature (as well as in the commercial world) has been a major factor in his success.Lopate's longest running program on WBAI was "Round Midnight", a weekly late-night show, which featured interviews and free-form discussion on a variety of topics with listeners who called in to the station. The show ran through the mid-1980s, ending when Lopate moved to WNYC-FM to host a midday talk show with radio veteran
Pegeen Fitzgerald , which evolved into his present-day show.Lopate appears regularly at one of New York’s most prestigious cultural venues, the
92nd Street Y , where he interviews celebrities and moderates his ongoing panel series "Comparing Notes". He has also appeared in a similar capacity at theBrooklyn Academy of Music ,Queens College , Brooklyn College, theNew York Public Library , theBrooklyn Public Library , theAlliance Française , andThe New School ; and he has created a series of discussions on literature for the international writers’ organization, PEN [ [http://www.ctforum.org/popups/bio.asp?event_bio_image_id=3617 "Leonard Lopate - Biography"] , "The Connecticut Forum.] .His brother is the writer,
Phillip Lopate .The Leonard Lopate Show
Lopate's talk show airs on
WNYC from noon to 2 pm every weekday, as well as onXM Satellite Radio Channel 133 every weekday from 4 pm to 6 pm (EST). Segments of the show are available aspodcasts found oniTunes and on the station's website.The show's format typically consists of four interviews ranging from twenty to forty minutes in length and covers a broad range of topics including
jazz andgospel music , food and wine (winner of two ), literature, the arts, science and history. Lopate has interviewed politicians, poets, painters, novelists, filmmakers, actors, dancers and more than a few Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. Lopate introduced two ongoing features to the program. One is called "Please Explain", in which he talks with experts on a wide variety of topics. The topics are not tied to book or movie releases and can be described as general interest. In 2006, some of the topics he delved into includedsainthood ,nanotechnology ,insomnia ,infertility andmeditation . [ [http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/explain.html"Leonard Lopate - Links"] , "Please Explain"] The other feature is called "Underreported", in which Lopate delves deeply into political and social issues. [ [http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/underreported.html"Leonard Lopate - Links"] , "Underreported"]For the show's twentieth anniversary, in 2005,
Tom Brokaw interviewed Lopate about the history of the show, his goals and his interviewing style. [ [http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2005/03/11 "Role-Reversal: Leonard Looks Back."] WNYC - Leonard Lopate Show, March 11, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.]The show was originally called "New York & Company".
Notes
External links
* [http://mediasearch.wnyc.org/search?q=lopate&x=0&y=0 Access to recent Lopate shows]
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