D-C Radio: Jenn White Is The New Host Of NPR's ‘1A’

Jenn White

Longtime radio host and podcaster Jenn White has been selected as the next host of 1A, the nationally syndicated weekday talk show from NPR and WAMU 88.5 FM. She will replace 1A’s founding host Joshua Johnson, who departed in December for a role at MSNBC.

Her first day will be July 6, according to NPR.

White is currently the host of WBEZ’s midday talk program Reset. She also hosted the station’s well-received podcasts Making Oprah and Making Obama, as well as a podcast about the shooting death of 17-year-old Chicagoan Laquan McDonald, 16 Shots.

White became hooked on public radio as a 16-year-old in Detroit when her sister — one of her six siblings — introduced her to Car Talk. Years later, on her first day hosting All Things Considered for Michigan Radio, she got a taste of the realities of live radio when the audio system crashed just before a newscast.

“That’s part of the joy and the fun of this work,” she says. “It’s always an adventure.”

White’s high-profile appointment comes during a period of financial turmoil for WAMU, NPR and the entire public media system.

WAMU is facing a $2-3 million revenue drop in the current fiscal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing shutdown. WAMU’s General Manager JJ Yore expects the station will bring in about 20% less revenue than projected for the next fiscal year, which starts in July. Most of the losses stem from declines in corporate sponsorships.

More than 375 public radio stations around the country have signed deals with NPR to carry 1A. NPR contributes a percentage of that revenue to WAMU.

Yore says the station still puts more money into producing 1A than it earns back from distribution deals. Over time, however, nationally syndicated midday shows can become major revenue generators and reputation builders for stations. “This 10-to-noon real estate in public radio is extraordinarily valuable,” Diane Rehm, whose Diane Rehm Show was 1A’s predecessor, told the public media podcast The Pub shortly before 1A launched.

WAMU and NPR launched 1A in January 2017 after The Diane Rehm Show ended its much-lauded 37-year run. Like its predecessor, 1A covers a wide breadth of topics ranging from of-the-minute political news to discussions of pop culture.

Temporary hosts have been filling in since Johnson’s departure last year, including 1A national correspondent Sasha-Ann Simons, NPR national correspondent Sarah McCammon, journalist Celeste Headlee, and Todd Zwillich, who is now the deputy D.C. bureau chief for Vice News.

Stepping into the host seat for a preexisting show is “a little bit like being a second wife,” says longtime radio consultant Valerie Geller. “You’re moving into the house where the old wife lived.”

Geller says she hopes the station and 1A listeners will give White the space to create her own distinct relationship with the audience. “The new host needs to have every opportunity to make it their own,” Geller says.