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Christopher Lydon (born 1940 in
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
) is an American media personality and author. He was the original host of '' The Connection'', produced by WBUR and syndicated to other
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
stations, and created ''
Open Source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
'', a weekly radio program on WBUR.


Education

Lydon is a graduate of Boston's Roxbury Latin School and
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
.


Journalistic history

Lydon is a former journalist with ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', and anchored '' The Ten-O'Clock News'' on WGBH in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
. After WGBH cancelled its nightly news program, he moved to WBUR, where in 1994 he became host of ''The Connection''. In 2001, he and his longtime producer Mary McGrath were fired after a high-profile contract dispute with WBUR. McGrath's and Lydon's claim, rejected by the station, was that they, not WBUR, were the true creators of ''The Connection'' - moving it far beyond the initial WBUR template to become the successful, widely syndicated program. During his tenure on ''The Connection'', Lydon frequently discussed Internet topics, and his ''Radio Open Source''
blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
became a launchpad for international broadcasts and other activities. While a fellow at
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
's
Berkman Center for Internet & Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...
in 2003, Lydon began recording in-depth interviews focused on blogging and politics, posting the downloadable audio files as part of his blog.
Dave Winer Dave Winer (born May 2, 1955, in Queens, New York City) is an American software developer, entrepreneur, and writer who resides in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web service ...
, also a Berkman Fellow, created an
RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...
enclosure feed for Lydon's MP3 interview files, an event credited with sparking the growth of
podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
ing. Lydon is credited with creating the first podcast ever recorded in July 2003. He also launched the political site ''Bopnews'' (for "Blogging of the President") during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. On May 30, 2005, Lydon returned to the air on
University of Massachusetts Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell and UML) is a Public university, public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of M ...
's radio station WUML and Boston's WGBH with a new show called ''Open Source'', syndicated through
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 programmi ...
. Including a blog and podcast, the program promised to "use blogs to be a show about the world." On October 16, 2006, the Lowell, Massachusetts newspaper ''
The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...
'' announced that "Radio personality Christopher Lydon's lucrative and controversial contract with
UMass Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell and UML) is a Public university, public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of M ...
to broadcast an hourlong radio show will not be renewed when it expires in December." Upon notice of the UMass Lowell discontinuance, Lydon began actively seeking new funders for the program. In November 2007, Lydon partnered with Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies to continue producing Radio Open Source. In 2013, Lydon was often a guest commentator on Thursdays on WGBH Radio's "Boston Public Radio" show. In 2014, Lydon returned to WBUR with a weekly radio program, ''Open Source''.


Politics

Lydon was a candidate for mayor of Boston in
1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
. He finished sixth out of eight candidates in the nonpartisan primary.


References


External links


Radio Open Source

Christopher Lydon Interviews...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lydon, Christopher 1940 births Yale University alumni Living people American bloggers American talk radio hosts Berkman Fellows Radio personalities from Boston Roxbury Latin School alumni