Diane Rehm to receive honorary degree, give commencement speech at Shepherd University commencement

Diane Rehm, host of WAMU 88.5’s and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, will deliver the commencement address at Shepherd University’s 139th Commencement ceremony. Rehm will also receive an honorary degree at the ceremony, to be held Saturday, May 5, 2012, in Shepherdstown, WVa., the university announced on Nov. 28.

Shepherd University is a state-supported liberal arts institution within the West Virginia system of higher education. For more information, visit shepherd.edu.

Diane Rehm is a native Washingtonian who began her radio career in 1973 as a volunteer for WAMU 88.5. In 1979, she was selected to host WAMU 88.5’s local morning talk show, Kaleidoscope, which was renamed The Diane Rehm Show in 1984. The Diane Rehm Show has grown from a local morning talk show to a public broadcasting powerhouse. Syndicated to more than 160 NPR member stations and more than 70 HD Radio channels nationwide, and heard by overseas listeners through NPR Worldwide, the Armed Forces Network, and Sirius XM Radio, Diane now reaches an audience of more than 2.3 million listeners weekly. In 2010, she was awarded the prestigious Peabody award.

American University’s radio station since 1961, WAMU 88.5 is the leading public radio station for NPR news and information in the greater Washington, D.C., area. With more than 740,000 listeners in the Washington-Baltimore region, WAMU 88.5 is where “the mind is our medium.” WAMU also broadcasts from 88.3 Ocean City on the Delmarva peninsula and in Washington on three HD channels — the flagship frequency at 88.5–1; WAMU’s Bluegrass Country, a bluegrass and Americana station, at 105.5 FM in Bethesda, Md., and 88.5–2; and Intersection, at 88.5–3, a news and information station broadcasting international coverage from the BBC and offering public radio programs unavailable elsewhere in the Washington area. For more information, visit wamu.org.