EXAMINER PROFILE: Kojo Nnamdi, of WAMU-FM's "Kojo Nnamdi Show" - 'The best interviewer in town'

06Dec'05 - Enjoys "battle of ideas"

By Karen De Witt
Examiner Senior Correspondent
Published: Monday, December 5, 2005 11:02 PM EST

Since 1998, the mellifluous voice of WAMU-FM radio's Kojo Nnamdi has initiated conversations about everything from Helle Nice - France's first female Grand Prix racecar driver - to the mindset of ancient warriors and the future of classical music in the 21st century. Five days a week, for two hours, his popular "Kojo Nnamdi Show" airs news, social trends, cutting-edge technology and the nitty gritty of local politics.

Urbane, always civil, Nnamdi has been described as "maybe the best interviewer in town." But an equal draw for listeners is the eclectic nature of the show and its often unusual angles on news topics - a California teenager's impressions of Afghanistan after his expatriate Afghan father takes a job in the new government or an examination of competing visions of civil rights after the death of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.

"Reading excites me probably more than anything else," Nnamdi once said. And he is an inveterate reader, culling books, magazines, periodicals and newspapers as well as others minds for topics, but credits the diversity of his staff ("different demographic profiles, different ages, different ethnicities") and its interests for the uncommon smorgasbord the show dishes up each week. "Every idea, including mine, has to pass the 'So what? Who cares?' test," he says.

For 20 years, Nnamdi has also hosted "Evening Exchange," a public affairs program broadcast by Howard University's WHUT-TV. Nnamdi began his broadcast career there in 1973 at Howard's WHUR-FM, where as news editor and news director he produced award-winning local news program "The Daily Drum." In an age of fast-mouth, hurry-up-so-I-can-speak interviewers, Nnamdi relishes a noncombative style that gives scope to opposing voices, once noting that he preferred the "battle of ideas instead of the battlefield."

Q: What's the appeal of radio?

A: Besides not having to dress up for it, it's the intimacy of radio. I grew up in Guyana, South America, in British Guyana, at a time when there was no television. Radio was all there was. And when we came home from school for lunch at midday and we walked through the front door, and said "Hello" to my mother, she'd would go: "Shush, I'm listening to the radio," because her soap operas came on the radio at noon. ... And when people listened to the radio in Guyana, they listened to the radio. It was not background to their conversations.

Q: But now we've got multimedia, so what's so singular about the power of radio for you?A. When I was news editor at Howard University radio, WHUR-FM, a young man came into the office one day, parked his bicycle outside "Nighthawk" Bob Terry's office, went inside - and then afterward, one police officer came in and a second police officer and then a higher-up like a police lieutenant walked into the office, and then Nighthawk came out of the office sweating profusely. I said, "Hawk, what happened?" He said, "A man just walked into my office and confessed to four murders." And the reason he confessed to Nighthawk was because he said from listening to Nighthawk on the radio he sounded like the kind of person who he would want to talk to. And that, for me, captures the intimacy and power of radio.

Q: Did you always want to be in radio?

A: I got into radio by accident. When I left Guyana and went to McGill University in Montreal, I wanted to be an actor. I had objected to leaving Guyana - my mother really wanted me to go to college - but I'd already started a little acting career in Guyana and the year when I left, I was voted by somebody or the other the most promising young actor, so I thought I had a career there. When I came to Washington in 1969, I got involved with a group of actors and activists, a number of old Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee people, and we were doing street theater out of the civil rights, black power movement. We received a request from WOL Radio - and in those days they had to do public affairs programs on the weekend as requirements for their license and they sought to do that as inexpensively as possible - so they asked us if we would do some radio plays for them. ... After doing that for about a year, the same station said, "Well, we'd also be interested in you doing a weekly newsmagazine," and since we were actors we thought we could act as news people. We started putting together weekly newsmagazines and that's when I fell in love with news. I was the editor and the commentator. ... WHUR Radio had advertised in 1973 for a news editor. And at that time, I was really impressed with its news department - Milton Coleman [now with The Washington Post] was there, Jean Wiley [a civil rights activist] was there. So I applied for the job, got it and I've been broadcasting ever since.

Q: What would your parents say about your career?

A: My father died in 1967. He used to always upbraid me, used to lecture me, because he said I got away with stuff with my mother because I had the gift of gab. And he bemoaned this quality in me. And if he found out that I am actually making a living as a talk show host, he would realize that he should have allowed me to talk.

Q: Tell me about your name, since that's not the one you were born with.

A: It was the 1960s and everyone had a radio identity so I picked Kojo Nnamdi. Kojo means born on a Monday. Nnamdi Azikiwe is the father of Nigerian independence.

Q: What's the most important quality for being a talk show host?

A: ... "Talk show host" is in some respects a misnomer, because this is really a listening business. I listen more than I talk.

Q: Who do you admire in the business?

A: Ted Koppel, Gil Noble of ABC's "Like it Is" and my colleague Diane Rehm. Koppel's the best interviewer in the business because he listens. I call him the great interrupter because he listens very carefully and if a guest is not answering the question asked, he always interrupts to put the guest back on track. From Noble I learned how to ask direct questions pleasantly. I think that if you ask somebody a direct question without grandstanding, they appreciate it. For example, If I'm interviewing Louis Farrakhan, I look him straight in the eye and say, "Does the Nation of Islam still believe that white people were created by a mad black scientist named Yacub?" And he will answer the question.

Statistics

• Born Rex Orville Montague Paul in Guyana, South America, on Jan. 8, 1945
• Attended McGill University in Montreal and Howard University in Washington
• Married and has five sons
• Lives in the Shepherd Park-Brightwood area of Washington
• Chaired the board of the Public Access Corporation since 1997
• Active in Guyaid, an organization devoted to the welfare of children in Guyana

Kojo's Favorites

• Music: Blues and jazz, especially John Coltrane
• Book: "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" by Walter Rodney
• Sports: Basketball (he's a Wizards season ticket holder), jogging
• Clothing: Berets and cowboy boots
• Hobby: Reading, playing dominoes
• Restaurant: Hitching Post, a soul food restaurant (200 Upshur St. NW); I Ricchi, 1220 19th St. NW
• Vacation: The Caribbean, London and Paris