Terry Gross, EdM '75 & BA '72

Host of NPR's Fresh Air 

Nationally known radio host Terry Gross, Ed.M’75, B.A.’72, who got her start at the University at Buffalo’s National Public Radio station affiliate WBFO, was awarded the celebrated 2003 Edward R. Murrow Award at the Public Radio Conference in New Orleans in May. 

The Murrow Award, the most prestigious honor bestowed annually on a public radio professional, is named after the legendary broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, who championed responsible, courageous and imaginative uses of the electronic media during his distinguished 30-year career.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting recognized Gross for her “outstanding contributions to public radio.” Specifically, she was honored because her work over a quarter century has “fostered the growth, quality and positive image of public radio.”

Gross, one of public radio’s most enduring success stories, appeared at UB’s Center for the Arts in November. She is the host of Fresh Air with Terry Gross, now in it’s 17th year as a daily national program on NPR. She has been called “arguably one of the most thought-provoking interviewers working in media today – a working rival of Ted Koppel and Larry King,” by The Los Angeles Times, and “certainly the best cultural interviewer in America, and one of the best all-around interviewers, period. Her smart, thoughtful questioning pushes her guests in unlikely directions,” by The Boston Phoenix.

Fresh Air is produced by WHYY in Philadelphia and is the third-most listened to program on NPR, carried on 435 stations nationwide and heard by more than 4 million people each week. Her thought-provoking conversations are also broadcast in Europe and Japan via satellite.

She has earned numerous awards, including the prestigious Peabody Award. Her work has been cited for its “probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insights.” A variety of top publications count Terry among the country’s leading interviewers. The show is often praised for its ability to give interviewees as much time as needed to answer questions and complements those interviews with comments from well-known critics and commentators.

Today, Fresh Air is known for its interviews with prominent cultural and entertainment figures as well as distinguished experts on current affairs and news. “If you want to understand a political conflict, it helps to understand the culture in which that conflict is taking place,” Gross says. “When there is a crisis in a foreign country, we sometimes call up that country’s leading novelist or filmmaker to get that cultural perspective.” Fresh Air’s interviews have helped listeners understand the roots of religious fundamentalism, meet doctors who care for war victims, understand the difficulties facing education reformers and much more.

Of course, the people behind the most interesting books, films and music continue to be a primary subject for Fresh Air. “I try to show the connections between the person’s work and their life that led to that work,” Gross says.

Other Murrow award winners include Susan Stamberg, special correspondent for NPR, Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition, and Cokie Roberts, NPR senior news analyst.

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