''1A'' is an American radio talk show produced by

WAMU WAMU (88.5 FM) is a public news– talk station that services the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU has been the primary Nati ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and distributed nationally by NPR (National Public Radio). The show debuted on January 2, 2017, and airs on more than 340 NPR member stations in 35 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is also broadcast on

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

channel 122 several times each weekday.

Jenn White Jennifer White (born October 29, 1974) is an American journalist and radio personality. She is the host of the radio program 1A (radio program), ''1A''. She has worked in public radio since 1999, and began her broadcast journalism career as hos ...

is the current host. Journalist Joshua Johnson served as the program's host from 2017 to 2019, before leaving to join

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. Following his departure, Todd Zwillich took over as interim host in January 2020, and was later succeeded by Sasha-Ann Simons in April. Celeste Headlee also served as an interim guest host. On May 7, 2020, WAMU announced Jenn White as the new permanent host of ''1A,'' beginning in July.

Format

''1A'' is divided into two one-hour segments, each focusing on a topic for the hour, with one or more guests who are authorities on that topic. Most often, it is an issue in the news, but occasionally, it might deal with pop culture and entertainment. ''1A'' invites listeners to share their opinions and comments via texts and

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, which the host will read. The show rarely takes phone calls, although it sometimes asks in advance for vocal comments via a voice app. At the end of each week, the show presents "The Friday News Roundup". Usually, three guest journalists are invited to participate in a review of that week's major news stories. The first hour covers domestic news, and the second hour covers international stories. Several stations air a one-hour curated version of the program, produced daily, intended for broadcast in an afternoon or evening time slot. The show debuted on 169 stations in January 2017, and by March of that year, it had expanded to over 200 stations. The program's title refers to the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents Federal government of the United States, Congress from making laws respecting an Establishment Clause, establishment of religion; prohibiting the Free Exercise Cla ...

Hosts

Former host Joshua Johnson is a native of

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

, Florida. He graduated from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

and worked for WLRN and the ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...

'' between 2004 and 2010. From 2010 to 2016, he was morning news host of KQED in San Francisco, a position he left to develop a radio project series entitled ''Truth Be Told'', of which four episodes were broadcast nationally. He substituted for

Diane Rehm Diane Rehm (; born Diane Aed; September 21, 1936) is an American journalist and the host of ''Diane Rehm: On My Mind'' podcast, produced at WAMU, which is licensed to American University in Washington, D.C.. She also hosts a monthly book club se ...

for two days on her talk show in September 2016, and in November, Rehm announced that Johnson would be taking over her time slot. On November 22, Johnson announced his departure at the end of 2019 to host a show on

. Todd Zwillich served as interim host from January through the end of March 2020, leaving the program to join

Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...

. He was succeeded as interim host by Sasha-Ann Simons, who has been "reporting on issues of race, identity, and economic mobility for WAMU" since 2017. On May 7, 2020, it was announced that Jennifer White would take over as permanent host of the program beginning in July.

References

External links

* {{Authority control American talk radio programs NPR programs 2017 radio programme debuts