Sandi Freeman-Geller is an
American journalist and cable television pioneer. She hosted ''Freeman Reports'' on
CNN for five years. Previously, she won an Emmy for her work at
WLS-TV. At the height of her career at CNN, she was often referred to in the press as the "best interviewer" on television at a time when there were few female hosts.
Early life
Raised in St. Louis, Freeman attended
Webster College
Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri. It has multiple branch locations across the United States and countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs ...
. She worked for the
WLS-TV, the
ABC owned-and-operated television station from 1973 to 1980. Freeman co-hosted ''AM Chicago'' for WLS-TV alongside (at various points)
Steve Edwards,
John Barbour and
Robb Weller.
Career
Ted Turner hired her for a daily evening program that reached large audiences as one of the pioneers of the then nascent
CNN. Her program, ''The Freeman Report'', aired on CNN from 1980 to 1985. During that time, she interviewed many famous personalities, including
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
,
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
,
Hosni Mubarak,
Yitzhak Shamir and others.
[Witbeck, Charles. (January 2, 1985)]
Sandi Freeman calls the shots on her show
'' Times-News''. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
In 1985, the show was replaced by ''
Larry King Live''.
Awards
Freeman won the ''On Cable'' magazine Outstanding Talk Show Personality Award three times from 1982 to 1984.
Personal life
Freeman married Alfred Geller (1932–2011) in 1983 and later retired from journalism.
References
Further reading
*Rothenberg, Fred. (January 7, 1985)
Sandi Freeman: From Ornament to a Legitimate TV Interviewer ''The Dispatch''. Associated Press. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
*Schechter, Danny. (1999). ''The More You Watch, the Less You Know: News Wars/(sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures''. Seven Stories Press. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Sandi
Living people
American women journalists
CNN people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women