Karl Schmidt (died April 2016) was an American radio broadcaster from Wisconsin who created the radio drama series ''

Earplay ''Earplay'' was the longest-running of the formal series of radio drama anthologies on National Public Radio, produced by WHA (AM), WHA in Madison, Wisconsin and heard from 1972 into the 1990s. It approached radio drama as an art form with scri ...

''. Schmidt spent the majority of his career at station WHA and

Wisconsin Public Radio Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) is a network of 38 public radio radio station, stations in the state of Wisconsin. WPR's network is divided into two distinct services, the ''WPR News Network'' and the ''WPR Music Network''. History Wisconsin Publ ...

. He began his career as a

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

student at WHA in 1941, and later served in the military during World War II with

Armed Forces Radio The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two su ...

. After completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin, Schmidt pursued a career in

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the liste ...

in New York. Later, Schmidt returned to WHA to host and produce radio programs, and also served as director of the National Center for Audio Experimentation. He also held positions with the

National Association of Educational Broadcasters The National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) was a US organization of broadcasters with aims to share or coordinate educational programmes. It was founded as the Association of College and University Broadcasting Stations (ACUBS) i ...

and

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 ...

. In 1971, Schmidt created the radio drama series ''Earplay'', which broadcast original plays and won several awards during its run, including a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

and the

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international television, radio-broadcasting and web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...

. Schmidt was also a reader for the WPR series '' Chapter a Day'', appearing on the program from 1941 until his death in 2016. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2013.

External links

Oral history interview
with Karl Schmidt by the UW-Madison Oral History Program

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Karl Year of birth missing 2016 deaths American male radio actors Public radio in the United States