Fiona Karen Ritchie MBE (born 1960) is a Scottish radio broadcaster of ''

The Thistle & Shamrock ''The Thistle & Shamrock'' is a weekly American syndicated radio program, named after the national emblems of Scotland and Ireland, specializing in Celtic music. It is heard on 380 National Public Radio (NPR) stations, and is available internatio ...

'', a weekly,

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celts (modern), Celtic people of Northwestern Europe (the modern Celtic nations). It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and ...

program for 40 years on

National Public Radio 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 ...

(NPR). She curates ThistleRadio, a 24/7 web-based Celtic music channel. She was the co-author of ''

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 ...

'' Best Seller ''Wayfaring Strangers''. The radio program has won numerous awards since its inception in 1981, offering a fusion of traditional and contemporary Celtic sounds, interwoven with interviews, in-studio performances and Ritchie's own trademark commentary in her "soft Scots" dialect.

Early years

Ritchie was born and raised in Scotland, where she went to the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...

for her undergraduate education. While there, she was invited to spend one semester in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

in the United States, which was when she first heard NPR. After graduating in Scotland, she returned to North Carolina and, she was hired by

WFAE WFAE (90.7 MHz) is a non-commercial public radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the main NPR news and information member in the Charlotte region. The station's main studios and offices are at One University Place in the Universit ...

FM, the NPR station in Charlotte, to oversee fundraising and promotion. In 1981 Ritchie began a weekly hour of

. ''The Thistle & Shamrock'' was picked up for national broadcast within two years. Ritchie visited radio stations presenting live broadcasts and events, and in 1989 and 1990, traveled to 22 US cities with The Thistle & Shamrock Concert Tour.

Return to Scotland

Ritchie re-settled in Scotland. She has visited and raised funds for NPR member stations and hosted

Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (originally known as the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts and simply known as Wolf Trap) is a performing arts center located on of national park land in unincorporated Fairfax County, ...

to Chicago's Grant Park. In the UK, Fiona Ritchie has presented programs for

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

and

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

, launching the Radio Scotland world music series "Celtic Connections" in 1993. She has produced and presented many live concert performances and broadcasts, including a musical event for Prince Charles in 2001 at

Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly known as Holyrood Palace, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood has s ...

in Edinburgh, and has acted on the Scottish advisory committee for the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

. In 2006, Ritchie launched Thistlepod, a free podcast from NPR.Her partnership with

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

gave rise to ThistleRadio in 2012, a 24/7 web-based Celtic music channel, later hosted by

SomaFM SomaFM is an independent Internet-only streaming multi-channel radio station, supported entirely with donations from listeners. SomaFM originally started broadcasting out of founder Rusty Hodge's basement garage in the Bernal Heights neighborho ...

internet radio. In 2014 her book, ''Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...

'', her book was published by

UNC Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a mem ...

. The book was co-authored by Doug Orr with a foreword by

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

. ''Wayfaring Strangers'' appeared on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list in two different categories. ''The Thistle and Shamrock'' ended in September 2024.

Awards and honours

Ritchie's awards include six World Medals from the New York Festivals International Competition for Radio Programming, and a

Flora Macdonald Flora MacDonald (1722 – 5 March 1790) is best known for helping Charles Edward Stuart evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. Her family had generally backed the government during the 1745 Rising, and MacDonald l ...

Award from St. Andrews University (North Carolina), which also conferred upon her the degree of honorary doctorate. Hundreds of ''Thistle & Shamrock'' tapes and vinyl albums, along with concert recordings, playlists, newsletters, and related materials are now part of a working archive in the Scottish Heritage Center at St. Andrews University (North Carolina). The archive is open to anyone interested in studying the rich heritage of Celtic music. Ritchie also serves on the Advisory Board of the Swannanoa Gathering folk arts workshops at

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a required course of study, work an on-campus j ...

in North Carolina. In 2003 the

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage The Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage (CFCH) is one of three cultural centers within the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. Its motto is "culture of, by, and for the people", and it aims to encourage understanding and cultural sust ...

honoured her for "creating an on-air community, serving as a musical ambassador, and connecting listeners with the best of traditional and contemporary artistry.” Ritchie was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2014 Birthday Honours The 2014 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens ...

for services to broadcasting and traditional Scottish music. In 2016 she received the

Hamish Henderson (James) Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scotland, Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier. Henderson was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk s ...

Award for Services to Traditional Music, named for the influential folklorist, poet, songwriter and scholar who died in 2002. The award is presented annually to an individual who has made a substantial difference to the Scottish

traditional music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

world. Upon receiving this honour, Ritchie was also inducted into Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. Ritchie's ThistleRadio music channel on

was awarded Best Music Show: Country/Folk/Blues in the 2017 Online Radio Awards presented by the British streaming service

Mixcloud Mixcloud is a British online music streaming service that allows for the listening and distribution of radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts, which are crowdsourced by its registered users. In April 2018, Mixcloud announced that it raised $11.5 mi ...

. In 2018,

Folk Alliance International Folk Alliance International (previously the ''North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance'') is a non-profit organization that produces an annual conference that is the world's largest gathering of the folk music industry and community. Founde ...

inducted Ritchie into their Folk DJ Hall of Fame.

References

External links

''Thistle Radio'' – official site''The Thistle & Shamrock'' via streaming audioThistle Radio
on

"Hamish Henderson Services to Traditional Music Award"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Fiona 1960 births Living people American information and reference writers American writers about music American women podcasters American music podcasters NPR personalities Scottish expatriates in the United States Scottish radio presenters Alumni of the University of Stirling Members of the Order of the British Empire 21st-century American women