Jump to content

Leonard Lopate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Leonard Lopate Show)

Leonard Lopate
Lopate in 2008
Born(1940-09-23)September 23, 1940[1]
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 5, 2025(2025-08-05) (aged 84)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S
Career
ShowLeonard Lopate at Large
Station(s)WBAI
WHDD
ShowThe Leonard Lopate Show
StationWNYC
StyleTalk show host
CountryUnited States
Websiteleonardlopateatlarge.com

Leonard Lopate (September 23, 1940 – August 5, 2025) was an American radio personality. He was the host of the radio talk show Leonard Lopate at Large, broadcast on WBAI, and the onetime host of the public radio talk show The Leonard Lopate Show, broadcast on WNYC.[2] He first broadcast on WKCR, the college radio station of Columbia University, and then later on WBAI, before moving to WNYC. Lopate died in 2025 at the age of 84.

Career

[edit]

Lopate came to radio relatively late in life. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Williamsburg, he attended Brooklyn College and later Hunter College, where he trained as a painter (he studied with Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko), and worked in advertising for fifteen years.[3] He was given the chance to host his first talk show on WBAI in 1977; what began as a whim became his life's work.

Lopate's longest-running program on WBAI was Round Midnight, a weekly late-night show, which featured interviews and free-form discussion on a variety of topics with listeners who called in to the station. The show ran through the mid-1980s, ending when Lopate moved to WNYC-FM to host a midday talk show with radio veteran Pegeen Fitzgerald, which subsequently evolved into The Leonard Lopate Show.

Lopate also appeared regularly at the 92nd Street Y, where he interviewed celebrities and moderated his panel series "Comparing Notes". He appeared in a similar capacity at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Queens College, Brooklyn College, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Alliance Française, and The New School. He also created a series of discussions on literature for the writers’ organization, PEN International.[4]

The Leonard Lopate Show

[edit]
Gore Vidal with Lopate in 2009

The Leonard Lopate Show aired on WNYC from noon to 2 pm every weekday until December, 2017. Segments of the show are available as podcasts found on iTunes and on the station's website.

The show's Peabody Award-winning format typically consisted of four interviews ranging from twenty to forty minutes in length and covered a broad range of topics including current events, history, literature, the arts, including jazz and gospel music, food and wine (he won three James Beard Awards), and science. Guests were often interviewed to accompany a book release. Lopate interviewed politicians, poets, painters, novelists, filmmakers, actors, dancers, and more than a few Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. He frequently interviewed actors, playwrights, and producers to talk about their current NYC theatre productions.

Lopate introduced two ongoing features to the program. One was called "Please Explain", in which he talked with experts on a wide variety of topics that were not tied to book or movie releases and could be described as general interest. In 2006, some of the "Please Explain" topics he delved into included sainthood, nanotechnology, insomnia, infertility, and meditation.[5] The other feature was called "Underreported", in which Lopate delved deeply into political and social issues deemed not to have received sufficient media coverage.[6]

For the show's twentieth anniversary, in 2005, Tom Brokaw interviewed Lopate about the history of the show, Lopate's goals, and Lopate's interviewing style.[7]

The show was previously called New York & Company.[8]

Sexual harassment firing

[edit]
See also: MeToo movement

In February 2017, a producer discussed with human resources at WNYC multiple comments Lopate had made to her that she considered sexually provocative. While she did not consider any single comment to be "fireable", she said the comments made her feel uncomfortable. The February incident led to an investigation that "resulted in one-on-one anti-harassment training for him and a warning to Lopate that he was creating an uncomfortable work environment." In March 2017, "a second producer filed a complaint against Lopate... describing comments she felt were inappropriate."[9]

On December 21, 2017, with the "MeToo" movement in full swing across the country, WNYC fired both Lopate and Jonathan Schwartz, stating that investigations found that each individual had violated WNYC's standards "for providing an inclusive, appropriate, and respectful work environment";[10] they had been placed on leave 15 days earlier pending investigations.[11] One producer complained that, as she was preparing for a segment about a cookbook, Lopate informed her that the name "avocado" comes from the Aztec word for "testicle".[9] Another producer said that in 2009, when she wore a new dress, Lopate said, "I didn't know you were so 'bosomy'."

Lopate's former show was replaced by Midday on WNYC,[12] It had a rotating array of hosts and followed a format similar to that of The Leonard Lopate Show.[13] WNYC abandoned that show for All of It with host Alison Stewart on September 17, 2018.[14]

Leonard Lopate at Large

[edit]

On July 16, 2018, Lopate came back to the radio waves as the host of the Leonard Lopate at Large show on WBAI. Lopate stated that he intended to "pick up exactly where we left off". Lopate continued to work on the show until his death.[15][16][17]

Personal life and death

[edit]

Lopate's younger brother is the writer Phillip Lopate.[18] His mother, Frances Lopate, was an actor. She was famous for an Alka Seltzer commercial, along with her other work. Phillip Lopate wrote the book, A Mother's Tale about her. Leonard discussed his mother with Phillip on his show on February 22, 2017.[19][20]

Lopate married twice, his latter marriage being to artist Melanie Baker; both ended in divorce.[21][22]

Lopate died on August 5, 2025, of ALS at his home in Brooklyn at the age of 84.[23]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ U.S. Public Records Index, Volume 2, Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010
  2. ^ "WNYC – Lopate – Staff Bios". WNYC. Archived from the original on April 30, 2006. Retrieved April 7, 2006.
  3. ^ "Leonard Lopate, Conversational Acrobat", by Warren St. John. The New York Times, March 20, 2005.
  4. ^ "Leonard Lopate – Biography" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, The Connecticut Forum.
  5. ^ "Please Explain", Please Explain
  6. ^ "Underreported", Underreported.
  7. ^ "Role-Reversal: Leonard Looks Back." Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine WNYC – Leonard Lopate Show, March 11, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
  8. ^ WNYC home page, as archived December 2, 1998, 9:09:51 p.m., as accessed December 7, 2017.
  9. ^ a b "New York Public Radio Fires Hosts Lopate and Schwartz". WNYC. WNYC News. December 21, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  10. ^ "New York Public Radio Fires Leonard Lopate and Jonathan Schwartz", CBS News (December 21, 2017, last updated 6:15 p.m. E.S.T.).
  11. ^ "Longtime WNYC Hosts Leonard Lopate, Jonathan Schwartz Placed On Leave". WNYC. December 6, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  12. ^ Midday on WNYC (About) (New York Public Radio), as accessed December 23, 2017.
  13. ^ Marritz, Ilya and Jessica Gould. "New York Public Radio Fires Hosts Lopate and Schwartz," WNYC website (December 21, 2017).
  14. ^ "WNYC-A-F/New York Adding Alison Stewart To Lineup". AllAccess. July 23, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  15. ^ Reimers, Berthold (July 9, 2018). "Leonard Lopate Returns to Radio" (Press release). New York: WBAI. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
  16. ^ Robertson, Aaron (July 9, 2018). "Leonard Lopate, Fired WNYC Host, Returning to Radio". New York Times. p. A-19. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
  17. ^ Ho, Karen K.; Neason, Alexandria (July 17, 2018). "After WNYC, Leonard Lopate's return to WBAI is met with protest". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
  18. ^ Lopate, Phillip (April 21, 2009). "Phillip Lopate on Leonard Lopate, in Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry". Smith Magazine. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  19. ^ "Remembering Leonard's Mother, Frances Lopate | The Leonard Lopate Show". WNYC. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
  20. ^ Lopate, Phillip (2017). A Mother's Tale. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0814213315.
  21. ^ Wharton, Rachel (March 11, 2010). "Sitting Down With Leonard Lopate". Edible Brooklyn. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  22. ^ Kaufman, Joanne (November 7, 2014). "Where a Talker Sleeps". New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  23. ^ Haberman, Clyde (August 6, 2025). "Leonard Lopate, Longtime New York Radio Host, Dies at 84". New York Times. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leonard_Lopate&oldid=1304692978"