Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets who's primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.

Public broadcasting may be nationally or locally operated, depending on the country and the station. In some countries, public broadcasting is run by a single organization. Other countries have multiple public broadcasting organizations operating regionally or in different languages.

Historically, in many countries (with the notable exception of the US), public broadcasting was once the only form or the dominant form of broadcasting. Commercial broadcasting now also exists in most of these countries; the number of countries with only public broadcasting declined substantially during the latter part of the 20th century.

The biggest public broadcaster worldwide by budget (6.3 billion euros in 2009) and employees (23,000) is the German ARD followed by the British BBC. Other large public broadcasters are China National Radio and China Central Television.

Defining public broadcasting

The primary mission of public broadcasting that of public service, speaking to and engaging as a citizen. The British model has been widely accepted as a universal definition. The model embodies the following principles:

universal accessibility (geographic)

universal appeal (general tastes and interests)

particular attention to minorities

contribution to sense of national identity and community

distance from vested interests

direct funding and universality of payment

competition in good programming rather than numbers

guidelines that liberate rather than restrict programme-makers

While application of certain principles may be straightforward, as in the case of accessibility, some of the principles may be poorly defined or difficult to implement. In the context of a shifting national identity, the role of public broadcasting may be unclear. Likewise, the subjective nature of good programming may beg the question of individual or public taste.

Within public broadcasting there are two different views regarding commercial activity. One is that public broadcasting is incompatible with commercial objectives. The other is that public broadcasting can and should compete in the marketplace with commercial broadcasters. This dichotomy is highlighted by the public service aspects of traditional commercial broadcasters.

Economics

Public broadcasters may receive their funding from an obligatory television licence fee, individual contributions, government funding or commercial sources. Public broadcasters do not rely on advertising to the same degree as commercial broadcasters, or at all; this allows public broadcasters to transmit programmes that are not commercially viable to the mass market, such as public affairs shows, radio and television documentaries, and educational programmes.

One of the principles of public broadcasting is to provide coverage of interests for which there are missing or small markets. Public broadcasting attempts to supply topics of social benefit that are otherwise not be broadcast by commercial broadcasters. Typically, such underprovision is argued to exist when the benefits to viewers are relatively high in comparison to the benefits to advertisers from contacting viewers. This frequently is the case in undeveloped countries that normally have low benefits to advertising.

Cultural policy

Additionally, public broadcasting may facilitate the implementation of a cultural policy (an industrial policy and investment policy for culture). Some examples include:

The Canadian government is committed to official bilingualism (English and French). As a result, the public broadcaster, the CBC employs translators and journalists who speak both official languages and it encourages production of cross-cultural material. Quebec separatists argue that this is also a policy of cultural imperialism and assimilation.

In the UK, the BBC supports multiculturalism and diversity, in part by using on-screen commentators and hosts of different ethnic origins. There are also Welsh-language programmes.

In New Zealand, the public broadcasting system provides support to Maori (native New Zealander) broadcasting, with the staed intention of improving their opportunities, maintaining their cultural heritage and promoting their language. In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is legally required to 'encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia' and 'broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national identity' with specific emphasis on regional and rural Australia'. As well as the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is still encourage and provides through the spirit and sense of multicultural richness and the unique international cultural values within the Australian society.

Vested interests

Public broadcasting, unless its independence is vigorously upheld, can become a tool of government. Similarly, private networks can promote the policies of their owners and suppress other viewpoints, alleging it is in the public interest. Conflicts are common: the state alleges that private broadcasters are attacking it in the interests of the owners, and controls them or takes them over.

History

Implementation of public broadcasting around the world

The model, established in the 1920s, of the British Broadcasting Corporation – an organization widely trusted, even by citizens of the Axis Powers during World War II – was widely emulated throughout Europe, the British Empire, and later the Commonwealth. The public broadcasters in a number of countries are basically an application of the model used in Britain.

Modern public broadcasting is often a mixed commercial model. For example, the CBC has always relied on a subsidy from general revenues of the government, in addition to advertising revenue, to support its television service. This means they must compete with commercial broadcasting. Some argue that this dilutes their mandate as truly public broadcasters, who have no commercial bias to distort their presentation.

The rest of this section looks at some specific implementations of public broadcasting around the world.

Asia

India

In India, Prasar Bharati is India's public broadcaster. It is an autonomous corporation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Government of India and comprises the Doordarshan television network and All India Radio. Prasar Bharati was established on November 23, 1957 following a demand that the government owned broadcasters in India should be given autonomy like those in many other countries. The Parliament of India passed an Act to grant this autonomy in 1990, but it was not enacted until September 15, 1997.

Nepal

Public Service Broadcasting in Nepal

Pakistan

In Pakistan, the public broadcaster is the state owned PBC which is short for "Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation." It consists of PTV (Pakistan Television) and Radio Pakistan. In the past PBC was funded publicly through money obtained from television, radio and VCR licensing. Pakistan entered into Television Broadcasting age with a small pilot TV Station established at Lahore from where transmission was first beamed in Black & White with effect from 26 November 1964. Television centres were established in Dhaka, Karachi and Rawalpindi/Islamabad in 1967 and in Peshawar and Quetta in 1974. PTV has various channels trasmitting throughout the world including PTV National, PTV World, PTV 2, PTV Global, PTV Bolan etc. Radio Pakistan has stations covering all the major cities, it covers 80% of the country serving 95.5 Million listeners. It has world service in seven languages daily.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the sole public service broadcaster. Although a government department under administrative hierarchy, it enjoys editorial independence. It operates seven radio channels, and produces television programmes and broadcast on commercial television channels, as these channels are required by law to provide time slot for RTHK television programmes.

RTHK would be assigned a digital terrestrial television channel within 2013 to 2015, when the new broadcasting building is completed in Tseung Kwan O.

Japan

In Japan, the main public broadcaster is the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), sometimes informally referred to as Radio Tokyo by English speakers. The broadcaster was set up in 1926 and was modelled on the British Broadcasting Company, the precursor to the British Broadcasting Corporation created in 1927. Much like the BBC, NHK is funded by a "receiving fee" by every Japanese household, with no commercial advertising and the maintenance of a position of strict political impartiality. However, rampant non-payment by a large fraction of households has led the receiving fee to become something of a political issue. NHK runs two national terrestrial TV stations (NHK General and NHK Educational) and three satellite only services (NHK BS-1, BS-2 and the hi-definition NHK Hi-Vision services). NHK also runs 3 national radio services and a number of international radio and television services, akin to the BBC World Service. NHK has also been an innovator in television, developing the world's first high definition television technology in 1964 and launching high definition services in Japan in 1981.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, the public broadcaster is the state owned RTM which is short for "Radio Televisyen Malaysia" (Malaysian Radio and Television). RTM was previously funded publicly through money obtained from television licensing, however it is currently state subsidised as television licences have been abolished.

At present, RTM operates 8 national, 16 state and 7 district radio stations as well as 2 national terrestrial television channels called TV1 and TV2. RTM has also done test transmissions on a new digital television channel called RTMi. Tests involving 2000 residential homes in the Klang Valley began in September 2006 and ended in March 2007.

KOREA

Korean Brocasting System KBS, Munwha Brocasting Corporation MBC, Education Brocasting System EBS,

Europe

In most countries in Europe, state broadcasters are funded through a mix of advertising and public money, either through a licence fee or directly from the government.

Croatia

Croatian Radiotelevision (, ''HRT'') is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. , 70% of HRT's funding comes from broadcast user fees with each house in Croatia required to pay 79 HRK, kuna, per month for a single television), with the remainder being made up from advertising.

Estonia

ERR (Estonian Public Broadcasting) organizes the public radio and television stations of Estonia. ETV (Estonian Television), the public television station, made its first broadcast in 1955, and together with its sister channel ETV2 has ca. 20% audience share.

France

Following World War II, the RTF (Radiodiffusion-télévision française - French television and radio broadcasting) was created to operate the only two channels of television in France. The RTF was transformed into ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française - French television and radio diffusion office), a more independent structure, in 1964. The ORTF saw the birth of a third channel in 1972, two years before the dissolution of the structure in 1974. From this date to 2000, each channel had its own direction structure. The first channel (TF1) was sold to the private sector in 1987 (in these years, the channel which had the most audience was the other public channel Antenne 2). In 1986 a French/German public channel was created, ARTE, originally broadcast on cable and satellite, the fall of the private channel La Cinq freed some frequencies that it had used each day after 19:00. In 1994 a new public channel, La cinquième was created to use the remaining time on the same frequencies. La cinquieme and ARTE subsequently shared the same channels with the exception of satellite, cable, and internet channels where both could be broadcast all day long. In 2000 all the public channels were united into one structure, France Télévisions.

Germany

Following World War II, when regional broadcasters had been merged into one national network by the Nazis to create a powerful means of propaganda, the Allies insisted on a de-centralised, independent structure for German public broadcasting and created regional public broadcasting agencies that, by and large, still exist today. In addition to these nine regional radio and TV broadcasters, which cooperate within ARD, a second national television service—actually called Second German Television (, ZDF)—was later created in 1961 and a national radio service with two networks (Deutschlandradio) emerged from the remains of Cold War propaganda stations in 1994. All services are mainly financed through license fees paid by everybody who keeps a radio, TV set, PC or mobile phone with internet access "ready for use", and are governed by councils of representatives of the "societally relevant groups". Public TV and radio stations spend about 60% of the ~10 Bil. € spent altogether for broadcasting in Germany per year.

Ireland

In Ireland a system of TV licencing and advertising to fund public services operates. RTÉ the incumbent offers a range of free to air services on TV and Radio. The Sound and Vision Fund is operated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, this fund receives 5% of the licence fee. The fund is used to assist broadcasters to commission public service broadcast programming. It is open to all independent producers provided they get a free to air or community broadcaster's backing, including TV3, Today FM, BBC Northern Ireland, RTÉ, Channel 4, UTV etc. An off-shot of RTÉ, TG4 is an independent Irish language broadcaster that is funded by the government through subsidy, and through advertising revenue.

Italy

The Italian national broadcasting company is RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana, born as URI in 1924. RAI transmits on analogue television on three channels, named Rai Uno, Rai Due and Rai Tre, but also broadcasts via satellite and is involved in radio, publishing and cinema. RAI has the largest audience share (45%) of any Italian television network. Proceeds derive from a periodical standing charge and from advertising. The main competitors of RAI are Mediaset, the biggest national private broadcaster, divided in three channels, and La7, owned by Telecom Italia.

Montenegro

RTCG (Radio Television of Montenegro) is the public broadcaster in Montenegro.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands a different system is used from most other countries. Public-broadcasting associations are allocated money and time to broadcast their programmes on the publicly owned television and radio channels. The time and money is allocated in proportion to their membership numbers. The system is intended to reflect the diversity of all the groups composing the nation.

Poland

The main public broadcasters are Telewizja Polska (TVP) television and Polskie Radio. TVP operates three nationwide channels: TVP 1, TVP 2 and TVP Info. It also broadcasts couple of digital channels via satellite and 16 regional affiliates. Polskie Radio operates four radio stations available throughout the country. There are also 17 state-owned radio stations broadcasting in particular regions.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has a strong tradition of public service broadcasting. In addition to the BBC, established in 1922, there is also Channel 4, a commercial public service broadcaster, and S4C, a Welsh language broadcaster in Wales. Furthermore, the two commercial analogue broadcasters ITV and Channel 5 also have significant public service obligations imposed as part of their licence to broadcast.

In the UK there are also community broadcasters, there are now 228 stations with FM broadcast licences (licensed by OfCom) Community radio stations typically cover a small geographical area with a coverage radius of up to 5km and run on a not-for-profit basis. They can cater for whole communities or for different areas of interest – such as a particular ethnic group, age group or interest group. Community radio stations reflect a diverse mix of cultures and interests. For example, you can listen to stations which cater for urban or experimental music, while others are aimed at younger people, religious communities or the Armed Forces and their families.

Scandinavia

National public broadcasters in the Scandinavian countries were modelled after the BBC and established a decade later: Radioordningen (now DR) in Denmark, Kringkastingselskapet (now NRK) in Norway, and Radiotjänst (now Sveriges Radio and Sveriges Television) in Sweden (all in 1925), and YLE in Finland in 1926. All four are funded from television licence fees costing (in 2007) around () per household per year.

Spain

In Spain, being a highly decentralised country, two public broadcasting systems coexist: a national broadcasting television, Radio y Televisión Española (RTVE), that can be watched all around Spain, and many autonomic TV channels, only broadcasted within their respective Autonomous Community. Televisión Española was founded in 1956, during Franco's dictatorship. It broadcasts two different TV-channels: TVE1 (a.k.a ''La Primera'' or ''La uno''), that is a wide-range audience general channel; and TVE2, (a.k.a ''La dos''), that tends to offer cultural programation, as well as sport competitions. Till 2008, RTVE was founded both with public funding and with private advertising; however, the Spanish government has recently decreed that starting in September 2009, RTVE's channels shall be founded with taxpayer's money and with private founding raised from the rest of Spain's private TV stations, thus removing advertising from the broadcaster. A TV licence fee has been suggested, but with little popular success.

Moreover, each of the autonomous communities of Spain have their own public broadcaster, usually consisting in either one or two public channels that tend to reproduce the model set up by Televisión Española: a general channel and a more cultural related one. In the Autonomous Communities that have their own official language besides Spanish, those channels may broadcast not in Spanish, but in the other co-official language. For example, this occurs in Catalonia, where Televisió de Catalunya broadcasts mainly in Catalan. In the Basque Country, Euskal Telebista (ETB) has three channels, two of which broadcast only in basque (ETB 1 and ETB 3), whereas the other (ETB 2) broadcasts in Spanish. In Galicia, the Television de Galicia and the G2. All the autonomic networks are publicly founded, and also admit private advertising.

North and South America

Argentina

State presence in television had a strong history, not in the way of European style public service radio or television. The private sector has taken an active role in the development of television in Buenos Aires. In opposition, state broadcasters tend to be federal and technical inovative, such as the Argentinian Canal 7, the first 60 years old national tv station.

Canada

In Canada, the main public broadcaster is the national Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (the CBC), which operates two television networks (CBC Television and Télévision de Radio-Canada), four radio networks (CBC Radio One, CBC Radio Two, Première Chaîne and Espace musique) and two 24-hour news channels (CBC News Network and RDI) in both of Canada's official languages. CBC's television operations are funded in part by advertisements, in addition to tax dollars from the federal government (Newsworld and RDI are funded entirely by commercials). CBC's radio operations are commercial-free. In recent years, the CBC was frequently battered by budget cuts and labour disputes.

In addition, several provinces operate public broadcasters; these are not CBC subentities, but distinct networks in their own right. These include the English-language TVOntario and the French-language TFO in Ontario, Télé-Québec in Quebec, SCN in Saskatchewan, public radio station CKUA in Alberta, and Knowledge in British Columbia. Some of the provincial broadcasters operate through conventional transmitters, while others are cable-only channels.

Alberta also has a semi-public television network, Access, which is licensed to provide some public service programming but is owned and operated by a commercial broadcaster. The network, formerly a public broadcaster operated by the provincial government, was sold to CHUM Limited in 1995. CJRT-FM in Toronto also operated as a public government-owned radio station for many years; while no longer funded by the provincial government, it still solicits most of its budget from listener and corporate donations and is permitted to air only a very small amount of commercial advertising. One television station, CFTU in Montreal, operates as an educational station owned by the Université de Montréal. Some other universities have dedicated cable channels to broadcast educational programming, but no other university in Canada operates a conventional broadcast television station.

Some local community stations also operate non-commercially with funding from corporate and individual donors. In addition, cable companies are required to produce a local community channel in each licensed market. Such channels have traditionally aired community talk shows, city council meetings and other locally oriented programming, although it is becoming increasingly common for them to adopt the format and branding of a local news channel.

Canada also has a large number of campus radio and community radio stations.

Chile

The closest model to the British BBC is that of Chile's Televisión Nacional, an open channel which serves the entire country (including Easter Island and Antarctica bases). Televisión Nacional, popularly known as channel 7 because of its Santiago frequency, is governed by a seven-member board appointed by the Chilean Senate. It is meant to be independent of political pressures, although accusations of bias have been made, especially during election campaigns.

United States

Public broadcasting in the United States is as old as broadcasting itself. Most early public stations were operated by state colleges and universities, and were often run as part of the schools' cooperative extension services. Stations in this era were internally funded, and did not rely on listener contributions to operate; some accepted advertising. Networks such as Iowa, South Dakota, and Wisconsin Public Radio began in this way.

The concept of a "non-commercial, educational" station ''per se'' does not show up in U.S. law until the 1940s, when the FM band was moved to its present location; the part of the band between 88.1 and 91.9 MHz is reserved for such stations, though they are not limited to those frequencies. For example, WFIU-Bloomington, Ind. has its FM frequency at 103.7 MHz. Houston's KUHT was the nation's first public television station, and signed on the air in 25 May 1953 from the campus of the University of Houston. This phenomenon continued in other big cities in the 1950s; in rural areas, it was not uncommon for colleges to operate commercial stations instead (e.g., the University of Missouri's KOMU-TV, an NBC affiliate).

In the United States, public broadcasting is decentralized and is not government operated, but does receive some government support. Some of the funding comes from community support to hundreds of public radio and public television stations, each of which is an individual entity licensed to one of several different non-profit organizations, municipal or state governments, or universities. Sources of funding also include on-air and online pledge drives and the sale of underwriting "spots" (typically 15–30 seconds) to sponsors. Public radio and television stations often produce their own programs as well as purchase additional programming from national producers and program distributors such as National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Public Radio International (PRI), American Public Television (APT), American Public Media (APM), and Public Radio Exchange (PRX). U.S. federal government support for public radio and television is filtered through a separate organization, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Public broadcasting is sometimes also referred to as ''public media'', in an effort to capture the expansion of public broadcasting content from radio and television into digital technologies, in particular the web and mobile platforms. While some consider public media to be analogous to public broadcasting, others use the term more broadly to include all noncommercial media.

Individual stations and programs rely on highly varied proportions of funding. Program-by-program funding creates the potential for conflict-of-interest situations, which must be weighed program by program under standards such as the guidelines established by PBS. Donations are widely dispersed to stations and producers, giving the system a resilience and broad base of support but diffusing authority and impeding decisive change and priority-setting.

Television

In the United States, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (formerly National Educational Television) television network operates on a largely viewer-supported basis (see telethon), with commercial sponsors of specific programs. Over time, sponsorship announcements ("underwriting") have slowly transformed into something resembling regular (commercial) TV advertisements, though they are usually shorter and have a more muted tone than what normally appears on commercial and cable TV, and many organizations still only receive a short thanks for their contributions. Underwriting may only issue declarative statements (including slogans) and may not include "calls to action". Most communities also have Public-access television channels on local cable television systems, which are generally paid for by Cable television franchise fees and sometimes supported in part through citizens donations.

US public broadcasting for television has, from the late 1960s onward, dealt with severe criticism from conservative politicians and think-tanks, which allege that its programming has a leftist bias.

Radio

A public radio network, National Public Radio (NPR), was created in 1970, following the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 which established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This network is colloquially though inaccurately conflated with ''public radio'' as a whole, when in fact ''public radio'' includes many organizations. Independent local public radio stations buy their programming from distributors such as NPR; Public Radio International (PRI); American Public Media (APM); Public Radio Exchange (PRX); and Pacifica Radio, most often distributed through the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS). Around these distributed programs, stations fill in varying amounts of local and other programming. Some stations and producers receive no federal funding.

Public radio stations in the U.S. tend to broadcast a mixture of news and talk radio programming along with some arts, culture, and music. Some of the larger operations split off these formats into separate stations or networks. Public radio's music stations are probably best known for playing classical music, although other formats have been used, including the time-honored "eclectic" music format that is rather freeform in nature common among college radio stations; jazz is another public radio programming staple.

Local stations derive some of the funding for their operations through regular pledge drives seeking individual and corporate donations, and corporate underwriting. Some stations also derive a portion of their funding from federal, state and local governments and government-funded colleges and universities (in addition to receiving free use of the public radio spectrum). The local stations then contract with program distributors and also provide some programming themselves. NPR produces some of its own programming. PBS, by contrast, does not create its own content. NPR also receives some direct funding from private donors, foundations, and from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Venezuela

Recently, under the initiative of the Venezuelan government of president Hugo Chávez, and with the sponsorship of the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua, the news and documentary network teleSUR was created with the intended to be an instrument toward the "concretizing of the Bolivarian idea" through the integration of America, and as a counterweight to what the governments that funds it consider a "distorted view of Latin American reality by privately run networks that broadcast to the region". There is an ongoing debate on whether teleSUR will be able become a neutral and fair news channel able to counter the huge influence of global media outlets, or whether it will end up as a propaganda tool of the Venezuelan government, which owns a 51 percent share of said channel.

Oceania

Australia

In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is owned by the Australian Government and is 100% taxpayer funded. The multicultural Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), another public broadcaster, now accepts limited sponsorship and advertising. Imparja is an Aboriginal community broadcaster in Australia that receives funding from the Federal Government. Most of its programs are bought from Australia's commercial broadcasters, and it only airs a small amount of local content.

In addition, there is a large Australian community broadcasting sector, funded in part by Federal grants via the Community Broadcasting Foundation, but largely sustained via subscriptions, donations and business sponsorship. As of June 2005, there were 442 fully-licensed community radio stations (including remote Indigenous services) and a number of community television stations (most operating as Channel 31 despite being unrelated across different states). They are organised similarly to PBS and NPR stations in the US, and take on the role that Public access television stations have in the US.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, the former public broadcaster BCNZ (formerly NZBC) was broken up into separate state-owned corporations, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ). While RNZ remains commercial-free, about 90% of funding for TVNZ comes from selling advertising during programmes on their two stations. TVNZ continues to be a public broadcaster; however like CBC Television in Canada it is essentially a fully commercial network in continuous ratings battles with other stations.

Programmes offered on TVNZ include popular US-produced shows like ''Desperate Housewives'', ''ER'', ''Lost'', ''Cold Case'', and ''Dancing with the Stars''. TVNZ operates five stations: ''TV ONE'', ''TV2'', ''TVNZ 6'', ''TVNZ 7'' and ''TVNZ Sport Extra'' and hold majority ratings in the country. Because of its high ratings some of the most expensive advertising slots in the country are on TV ONE and TV2. TVNZ 6 and 7 are fully-funded and advertisement-free.

The Government owns a network of reserved channels for non-commercial regional access broadcasting, and some of them have been awarded to local community trusts to provide public service and access television. Examples are ''Triangle TV'' in Auckland and Wellington; and ''Channel 7'' in Taranaki.

List of public broadcasters

American

Argentinian

Canal 7 Argentina — Argentina (nationwide)

Canal 10 - Tucumán — Tucumán, Argentina

Canal 10 - Rio Negro — Rio Negro, Argentina

Canal 10 - Cordoba — Cordoba, Argentina

Brazilian

TV Cultura — São Paulo, Brasil (some programming available nationwide)

TV Brasil — Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (some programming available nationwide)

Canadian

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

:*CBC Television :*Télévision de Radio-Canada :*CBC Radio One :*CBC Radio 2 :*CBC Radio 3 :*Première Chaîne :*Espace musique :*Bande à part :*CBC Newsworld :*RDI :*Radio Canada International

Knowledge — British Columbia

Saskatchewan Communications Network — Saskatchewan

Télé-Québec — Quebec

TFO — Ontario

TVOntario — Ontario

CKUA — Alberta

CJRT-FM — Toronto, Ontario

CFTU-TV — Montreal, Quebec

Chilean

Televisión Nacional de Chile — Chile (nationwide)

Colombian

National

Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia

*Señal Colombia

*Señal Institucional

Regional

Canal 13

Teleantioquia

Telecafé

Teleislas

Televisión Regional del Oriente

Telecaribe

Telepacífico

Local

Canal Capital

Telemedellín

Costa Rican

Canal 13 (SINART) — Costa Rica

Canal 15 (Universidad de Costa Rica) — Costa Rica

Cuba

Cubavisión — Cuba

Ecuadorian

Ecuador TV - Ecuador

United States

National Public Radio

Public Broadcasting Service

Wisconsin Public Television

Minnesota Public Radio

Uruguay

TNU - Televición Nacional de Uruguay

S.O.D.R.E - Servicio Oficioal Radioletrico(en desuso)

Radio Clasica Radio Uruguay Radio Nacional

Venezuelan

Venezolana de Televisión — Venezuela (nationwide)

Televisión Educativa — Venezuela

Visión Venezuela — Venezuela

Many American countries

teleSUR — Reaches the entire continent, Europe and Northern Africa. Owned by La Nueva Televisora del Sur, a public company sponsored by several American countries.

African and Middle Eastern

SABC - South Africa

Botswana Television - Botswana

GBC - Ghana

Televisão Pública de Angola - Angola

SNRT - Morocco

ENTV & TPA - Algeria

ERTU - Egypt

LJBC - Libya

LBS - Liberia

Israel Broadcasting Authority - Israel

IRIB - Iran

Télé-Liban - Lebanon

Al Jazeera - Qatar

JRTV - Jordan

Abu Dhabi TV - United Arab Emirates

Syrian Television - Syria

Nigerian Television Authority - NTA - Nigeria

Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria - FRCN - Nigeria

Asian

Taiwan

Taiwan Broadcasting System (台灣公共廣播電視集團|TBS)

Radio Taiwan International （中央廣播電台|RTI）

National Education Radio （國立教育廣播電臺|NER）

Police Radio Station （警察廣播電台|PRS）

Taipei Broadcasting Station （台北廣播電台|TBS）

Kaohsiung Broadcasting Station （高雄廣播電台|KBS）

Hong Kong (China) SAR

Radio Television Hong Kong (香港電台|RTHK)

Macau (China) SAR

Teledifusão de Macau (澳門廣播電視股份有限公司 "澳廣視"|TDM) - Macau

Indonesia

Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) - Indonesia

Malaysia

Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) - Malaysia

Singapore

Media Corproration of Singapore (MediaCorp) - Singapore

Brunei Darussalam

Radio Televisyen Brunei (RTB) - Brunei Darussalam

Asian Legends

Pakistan Television Corporation - Pakistan

Educational Broadcasting System - South Korea

Korean Broadcasting System - South Korea

Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation - South Korea; half-public, half-private

NHK - Japan

Prasar Bharati - India

*All India Radio

*Doordarshan

Nepal television (NTV)- Nepal

*NTV Metro 2

*Radio Nepal

Vietnam Television - Vietnam

Thai Public Broadcasting Service - Thailand

National Broadcasting Network - Philippines

Oceanian

Australia

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Special Broadcasting Service

Imparja Television

East Timor

Radio-Televisão Timor Leste

New Zealand

Radio New Zealand

European

ARD — working partnership of German public-service broadcasters

*Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk — Leipzig

*Westdeutscher Rundfunk — Cologne

*Norddeutscher Rundfunk — Hamburg

*Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg — Berlin

*Bayerischer Rundfunk — Munich

*Südwestrundfunk — Stuttgart

*Saarländischer Rundfunk — Saarbrücken

*Hessischer Rundfunk — Frankfurt

*Radio Bremen — Bremen

Arte — France / Germany

BBC — United Kingdom

BNT — Bulgaria

BRF — German-speaking Community of Belgium

BVN — Flanders and Netherlands television

Česká televize — Czech Republic

Channel 4 — United Kingdom

Danmarks Radio — Denmark

Duna TV— Hungary

EITB- Basque Country

ERT — Greece

ETV — Estonia

France Télévisions

*France 2

*France 3

*France 4

*France 5

GBC — Gibraltar

KNR — Greenland

HRT — Croatia

LRT — Lithuania

LTV — Latvia

Magyar Televízió — Hungary

MRT — FYR Macedonia

NRK — Norway

NTKU - Ukraine

ORF — Austria

Polish Radio - Poland

PBS — Malta

Netherlands Public Broadcasting — Netherlands

*BNN

*EO

*KRO

*LLiNK

*MAX

*NCRV

*TROS

*VARA

*VPRO

RTP — Portugal

Radio France

*France Inter

*France Info

*France Culture

*France Musique

*France Bleu

*FIP

*Le Mouv'

Radio France Internationale

Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra — Andorra

RAI — Italy

RAS — Italy

RTBF — Wallonia, Belgium

RTCG — Montenegro

RTÉ — Ireland

RTS — Serbia

RTSH — Albania

RTK - Kosovo

RTV Slovenija — Slovenia

RTVE — Spain

*TVE-1

*TVE-2

*Clan TVE

*Canal 24 Horas

*Teledeporte

*TVE Internacional

RÚV — Iceland

S4C — Wales, United Kingdom

Sjónvarp Føroya — Faroe Islands

SRG SSR idée suisse — Switzerland

STV — Slovakia

SVT - Sveriges Television — Sweden

SR - Sveriges Radio — Sweden

UR — Sweden

TG4 — Ireland

TVP — Poland

Televisió de Catalunya — Catalonia

TVR — Romania

TRT — Turkey

VRT — Flanders, Belgium

Yleisradio — Finland

ZDF — Germany

See also

Campus radio

Citizen media

Commercial broadcasting

Community radio

Corporate media

Pirate broadcasting

Religious broadcasting

Notes

References

External links

The 100th Anniversary of Public Broadcasting

Public Broadcasting Map

Public Radio Map (in portuguese)

A Model Public Service Broadcasting Law, by ARTICLE 19

AIR, the Association for Independents in Radio

''Current'', the newspaper about public TV and radio in the United States

Public Radio Exchange, non-profit distribution, peer review and licensing

Public Radio Fan website, Public Radio Fan is a listing of public radio programs and stations worldwide.

Radio College, Internet Resources for Radio Journalists and Producers

Transom, A Showcase and Workshop for New Public Radio

Interview with public radio guru Jay Allison on the purpose of public media, on ThoughtCast.

Comparative Advantage - Some Considerations Regarding the Future of Public Media.

Access to the Airwaves: Principles on Freedom of Expression and Broadcast Regulation

The Association of Public Television Stations

The Public Radio Program Directors Association

Ray Fitzwalter on public service broadcasting in Britain London Frontline Club, May 2008.

* Category:Radio formats Category:Article Feedback Pilot

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Coordinates	46°46′″N23°35′″N
birth name	Betty Marion White
birth date	January 17, 1922
birth place	Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
nationality	American
alma mater	Beverly Hills High School
other names	Betty White Ludden
occupation	Actress, comedienne, writer
years active	1939–present
spouse	Dyck Barker (1945)Lane Allen (1947–1949) Allen Ludden (1963–1981; his death) }}

Betty White Ludden (born January 17, 1922) better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and Rose Nylund on ''The Golden Girls''. , she is starring as Elka Ostrovsky in the TV Land sitcom ''Hot in Cleveland''. She has also released several books over the span of her career. In August 2010, she entered a deal with G.P. Putnam Sons to produce two more books, the first of which was scheduled for release in 2011.

White has won seven Emmy Awards and received 20 Emmy nominations over the course of her career, including being the first woman ever to receive an Emmy for game show hosting (for the short-lived ''Just Men!''). In May 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host ''Saturday Night Live'', for which she also received a Primetime Emmy Award. She made regular appearances on the game shows ''Password'' and ''Match Game'' and played recurring roles on ''Mama's Family'', ''Boston Legal'', and'' The Bold and the Beautiful''.

Early life

Born Betty Marion White in Oak Park, Illinois, on January 17, 1922, she is the daughter of Tess Curtis (née Cachikis), a homemaker, and Horace Lawrence White, a traveling salesman and electrical engineer. Her mother was of Greek, English, and Welsh descent, and her father was of Danish and English ancestry. White's family moved to Los Angeles, California during the Great Depression. She attended Horace Mann School in Beverly Hills, California, and Beverly Hills High School. Hoping to become a writer, she wrote and played the lead in a graduation play at Horace Mann School and discovered her interest in performing.

Career

1939–1979

White began her television career in 1939, three months after high school graduation, when she and a classmate sang songs from ''The Merry Widow'' on an experimental Los Angeles channel. White found work modeling, and her first professional acting job was at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre. White's career was disrupted immediately, as World War II broke out, causing her to join the American Women's Voluntary Services. In the 1940s, she worked in radio appearing on shows such as ''Blondie'', ''The Great Gildersleeve'' and ''This Is Your FBI''. She then got her own radio show, called ''The Betty White Show''. In 1949 she began appearing with Al Jarvis on his daily, live variety show ''Hollywood on Television'' on KLAC in Los Angeles. White began hosting the show in 1952 after Jarvis' departure.

In 1952, the same year she began hosting ''Hollywood on Television'', White co-founded Bandy Productions with writer George Tibbles and Don Fedderson, a producer. The trio worked to create new shows using existing characters from sketches shown on ''Hollywood on Television''. White, Fedderson and Tibbles created the television comedy ''Life With Elizabeth'', based on a ''Hollywood on Television'' sketch. White portrayed the title character on the sitcom from 1952 to 1955, which effectively boosted her career. The show, which she co-produced, garnered White her first Emmy Award. ''Life With Elizabeth'' was nationally syndicated by the mid-1950s, allowing White to become one of the few women in television with full creative control in front of and behind the camera at the time. In 1954, she briefly hosted and produced her own daily talk show, ''The Betty White Show'', on NBC (not to be confused with her 1970s sitcom of the same name). Following ''Life with Elizabeth'', she appeared as Vicki Angel on the sitcom ''Date with the Angels'' from 1957 to 1958. The show later became another variety series before going off the air. White performed in commercials seen on live television in Los Angeles, including a spirited rendition of the "Dr. Ross Dog Food" advertisement at KTLA during the 1950s.

She made her feature film debut as Kansas Senator Elizabeth Ames Adams in the 1962 drama, ''Advise and Consent''.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, White appeared on a number of late night talkshows and daytime game shows, including ''Password''. White made many appearances on the hit game show ''Password'' as a celebrity guest from 1961 through 1975. She married the show's host, Allen Ludden, in 1963. She subsequently appeared on the show's three updated versions ''Password Plus'', ''Super Password'', and ''Million Dollar Password'', having been on versions of the game with five different hosts (Allen Ludden, Bill Cullen, Tom Kennedy, Bert Convy, and Regis Philbin). White made frequent game show appearances on ''What's My Line?'' (starting in 1955), ''To Tell the Truth'' (in 1961 and in 1990), ''I've Got a Secret'' (in 1972–73), ''Match Game'' (1973–1982) and ''Pyramid'' (starting in 1982). Both ''Password'' and ''Pyramid'' were created by White's friend, Bob Stewart. In 1983, she became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Game Show Host, for the NBC entry ''Just Men!''. Due to the amount of work she has done on them, she has been deemed the "First Lady of Game Shows".

In 1973, White made a guest appearance in season four of ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' as ''The Happy Homemaker''. As a result of her guest appearance, White landed her most significant role at that point as the sardonic, man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens, ''The Happy Homemaker'', on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' as a full time cast member. The running gag was that Sue Ann's hard-edged private personality was the complete opposite of how she presented herself on her show. "We need somebody who can play sickeningly sweet, like Betty White," Moore herself suggested at a production meeting, which resulted in casting White herself. White won two back-to-back Emmy Awards for her role in the hugely popular series.

Following that show's end in 1977, she was given her own sitcom on CBS, ''The Betty White Show'', during the 1977–78 season, in which she co-starred with John Hillerman and former ''Mary Tyler Moore'' co-star Georgia Engel. It was canceled after one season. White appeared several times on the ''Tonight Show With Johnny Carson'' appearing in many sketches, and began guest-starring in a number of television movies and television miniseries, including ''With This Ring'', ''The Place to Be'', ''Before and After'', and ''The Gossip Columnist''.

1980–2000

From 1983 through 1985, she had a recurring role playing Ellen Harper Jackson on the series ''Mama's Family'', along with future ''Golden Girls'' co-star Rue McClanahan. White had originated this character in a series of sketches on ''The Carol Burnett Show'' in the 1970s. When ''Mama's Family'' was picked up in syndication after being canceled by NBC in 1985, White left the show (with the exception of one final appearance in the show's syndicated version in 1986).

In 1985, she scored her second signature role as the St. Olaf, Minnesota-native Rose Nylund on ''The Golden Girls''. The series chronicled the lives of four widowed or divorced women in their "golden years" who shared a home in Miami. ''The Golden Girls'', which also starred Beatrice Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan, was immensely successful and ran from 1985 through 1992. White won one Emmy Award, for ''Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series'', for the first season of ''The Golden Girls'' and was nominated in that category every year of the show's run (the only cast member to receive that distinction — Getty was also nominated every year, but in the supporting actress category). When Beatrice Arthur left in 1992, White, McClanahan, and Getty reprised their roles Rose, Blanche, and Sophia in the spin-off ''The Golden Palace''. The series was short-lived, lasting only one season. In addition, White reprised her Rose Nylund character in guest appearances on the NBC shows ''Empty Nest'' and ''Nurses'', both of which were set in Miami.

White was originally offered the role of Blanche in ''The Golden Girls,'' and Rue McClanahan was offered the role of Rose (the two characters being similar to roles they had played in ''Mary Tyler Moore'' and ''Maude'', respectively). Jay Sandrich, the director of the pilot, suggested that since they had played similar roles in the past, they should switch roles, Rue McClanahan later said in a documentary on the series. White was originally scared to play Rose, feeling that she would not be able to play the role—until the show's creator took her aside and told her not to play Rose as stupid but to play her as someone "terminally naive, a person who always believed the first explanation of something." Despite being the eldest of the four women, White is the only surviving regular cast member, following the deaths of Estelle Getty in July 2008, Bea Arthur in April 2009, and Rue McClanahan in June 2010.

After ''The Golden Girls'' ended, White guest-starred on a number of television programs including ''Ally McBeal'', ''The Ellen Show'', ''My Wife and Kids'', ''That '70s Show'', ''Everwood'', ''Joey'', and ''Malcolm in the Middle''. She received Emmy Award nominations for her appearances on ''Suddenly Susan'', ''Yes, Dear'' and ''The Practice''. She won an Emmy in 1996 for ''Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series'', appearing as herself on an episode of ''The John Larroquette Show''. In that episode, titled "Here We Go Again", a spoof on ''Sunset Boulevard'', a diva-like White convinces Larroquette to help write her memoirs. In one bit, ''Golden Girls'' co-stars McClanahan and Getty appear as themselves. Larroquette is forced to dress in drag as Beatrice Arthur, when all four appear in public as the "original" cast members. White comically envisions her Rose as the central character with the other cast members as mere supporting players.

The actress has lent her voice to several animated shows, including ''The Simpsons'', ''King of the Hill'', ''The Wild Thornberrys'', ''Family Guy'' and ''Father of the Pride''. In 1999, she had a supporting role in the monster film ''Lake Placid'', as a widow who later is revealed to have raised the giant crocodile (which accidentally ate her husband).

2000–present

White's career has been in revival throughout the first decades of the 2000s, and her continuing cultural relevance is reflected in the numerous television and film projects she has been a part of. In December 2006, White joined the soap opera ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' in the role of Ann Douglas, the long-lost mother of the show's matriarch Stephanie Forrester, who is played by Susan Flannery. In February 2007, White returned as Ann, who had an intent to move to Los Angeles to be near her daughters. The characters of Ann and Pamela Douglas (Alley Mills) disappeared after their March 27, 2007, appearance and were not mentioned again until October 19, 2007, when Ann appeared briefly. White would go on to appear in three more episodes following that, one on December 10, 2007; August 28, 2008; and October 28, 2008. She returned to the show on November 18, 2009 and in the November 19, 2009 episode her character revealed that she was dying of advanced pancreatic cancer. To date she has made 22 appearances as Ann Douglas. In the November 23, 2009 episode Ann passes away due to complications from her illness, with both of her daughters at her side on the beach at Paradise Cove.

In the broadcast of the 2007 TV Land Awards, White starred in a parody of ''Ugly Betty'', aptly titled ''Ugly Betty White'', in which she played America Ferrera's title character, with Charo playing White's sister Hilda, and Erik Estrada playing her father Ignacio. Her performance earned her a part on ''Ugly Betty'' as herself, the victim of Wilhelmina Slater's temper as they vie for a cab in the episode "Bananas for Betty", which aired December 6, 2007.

White had a recurring role in ABC's ''Boston Legal'' from 2005 to 2008 as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally portrayed as a guest star on ''The Practice'' in 2004.

White appeared as a roaster on the ''Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner'' in 2006. On May 19, 2008, White appeared on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', taking part in the host's ''Mary Tyler Moore Show'' reunion special alongside every surviving cast member of the series.

She was honored at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards with the Pop Culture Award on June 8, 2008. She accepted it along with co-stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan.

White returned to ''Password'' in its latest incarnation, ''Million Dollar Password'', on June 12, 2008, (episode #3), participating in the Million Dollar challenge at the end of the show. Her quick correct responses helped the contestant win $100,000. White returned to the show again on December 28, 2008 (episode #9), helping the contestants win $25,000 each. White has made a number of appearances in skits on ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'', playing the part of an Exxon representative, a Girl Scout, an accountant with a briefcase full of cocaine, a nurse who just got her medical license from El Salvador, a newspaper delivery girl, a prison guard, and an Apple representative. She appeared as herself with a shoe box full of receipts, explaining that she was doing her taxes. She appeared as herself to promote ''Together: A Story of Shared Vision'' by her and Tom Sullivan. On July 18, 2008, she appeared on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' in a skit entitled "Can You Make Betty White Flinch".

White guest starred as the "Witch Lady" on an episode of ''My Name is Earl'', and starred on Chelsea Handler's late night show ''Chelsea Lately''. Some of her other most recent television credits in the 2000s include ''Stealing Christmas'', ''Annie's Point'' and ''The Retrievers''. Her film credits in the late 1990s and early 2000s included ''Hard Rain'', ''Dennis the Menace Strikes Again'' and ''Bringing Down the House'', in which she co-starred with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah.

White appeared in the 2009 motion picture ''The Proposal'' with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. White provided the English-language voice of Yoshie in the anime film ''Ponyo'', which was released in Japan in 2008 and in the United States and Canada on August 14, 2009. She co-starred with Kristen Bell in the 2010 film, ''You Again''.

White appeared alongside Abe Vigoda in an advertisement for Snickers during the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV. The ad won the top spot on the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter. It was also featured on Television with the caption; "You're not you when you're hungry".

A grassroots campaign on Facebook called "Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" began in January 2010. The group was approaching 500,000 members when NBC confirmed on March 11, 2010 that White would in fact host ''Saturday Night Live'' on May 8. The appearance made her, at age 88, the oldest person to host the show, beating out Miskel Spillman, the winner of ''SNL'''s "Anybody Can Host" contest, who was 80 when she hosted in 1977. The May 8 SNL episode garnered the show's highest ratings since November 1, 2008, when Ben Affleck hosted. In her opening monologue, White thanked Facebook and joked that she "didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time." The appearance earned her a 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series, her seventh Emmy win overall. Years earlier, White's character Rose Nylund on ''The Golden Girls'' in an episode from season 7 while laying in a hospital bed awaiting open heart surgery, says to her daughter; "There's something else I wanna tell you. Now lean in close, this is very important...LIVE FROM NEW YORK IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!

In June 2010, White took on the role of Elka Ostrovsky the house caretaker on TV Land’s original sitcom ''Hot in Cleveland'', now in its second season.

In July 2010, it was announced that she posed for her own calendar for the year 2011; the calendar also features photos from her career and her pictured with various animals. She also debuted her own clothing line on July 22, 2010, which features shirts with her face on them. All proceeds will also go to various animal charities she supports.

She guest-starred in the second-season premiere of NBC's ''Community'' as an anthropology professor. In 2010 she also guest starred in The Middle & 30 Rock. She also had a role as Mrs. Claus in ''Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa'', the sequel to Disney's ''Prep & Landing''.

Betty also starred in the Hallmark Hall of fame presentation of The Lost Valentine on January 30, 2011. This presentation garnered the highest rating for a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation in the last four years and according to the Nielsen Media Research TV rating service won first place in the prime time slot for that date.

Betty White's latest book, ''If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't)'', was published in 2011.

White is scheduled to serve as a judge alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Wendy Diamond for the American Humane Association's Hero Dog Awards airing on The Hallmark Chanell on November 8th, 2011 at 8PM ET/PT

Charity

White is a pet enthusiast and animal health advocate who works with a number of animal organizations, including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals. Her interest in animal rights and welfare began in the early 1970s while she was both producing and hosting the syndicated series, ''The Pet Set'', which spotlighted celebrities and their pets.

As of 2009, White is the president emerita of the Morris Animal Foundation, where she has served as a trustee of the organization since 1971. She has been a member of the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association since 1974. Additionally, White served the zoo association as a Zoo Commissioner for eight years.

According to the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Garden's "ZooScape" Member Newsletter, White hosted "History on Film" from 2000 to 2002. White donated nearly $100,000 to the zoo in the month of April 2008 alone.

Personal life

In 1945, White married Dick Barker, a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot. The marriage was short-lived. In 1947, she married Lane Allen, a Hollywood agent. This marriage ended in divorce in 1949.

On June 14, 1963, White married television host and personality Allen Ludden, whom she had met on his game show ''Password'' as a celebrity guest in 1961, and is legally known as Betty White Ludden. He proposed to White at least twice before she accepted. The couple appeared together in an episode of ''The Odd Couple'' featuring Felix's and Oscar's appearance on ''Password''. Ludden appeared as a guest panelist on ''Match Game'', with White sitting in the audience. (She was prompted to criticize one of Ludden's wrong answers on camera during an episode of ''Match Game '74''). The two appeared together on the Match Game panel in 1975.

Ludden died from stomach cancer on June 9, 1981, in Los Angeles. They had no children together. White has not remarried since Ludden's death.

When asked about her real-life heroes White told Vanity Fair, "Charles Darwin."

Awards, honors and nominations

White has won seven Emmy Awards, three American Comedy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990), and two Viewers For Quality Television Awards. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6747 Hollywood Boulevard alongside the star of her late husband Allen Ludden. White was the recipient of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters Golden Ike Award and the Genii Award from the American Women in Radio and Television in 1976. The American Comedy Awards awarded her the award for Funniest Female in 1987 as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. She was formally inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2009, White received the Career Achievement Award from the Television Critics Association.

The American Veterinary Medical Association awarded White with its Humane Award in 1987 for her charitable work with animals. The City of Los Angeles further honored her for her philanthropic work with animals in 2006 with a bronze plaque near the Gorilla Exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. The City of Los Angeles named her "Ambassador to the Animals" at the dedication ceremony.

In September 2009, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced plans to honor White with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards. Sandra Bullock presented White with the award on January 23, 2010, at the ceremony, which took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. She is a Kentucky Colonel. In 2009, White and her now deceased ''Golden Girls'' cast mates Beatrice Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty were awarded honorary Disney Legend awards. Betty was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in December 2010. In 2010 she was chosen as the Associated Press's Entertainer of the Year.

On November 9, 2010, the USDA Forest Service along with Smokey Bear made actress Betty White an honorary forest ranger, fulfilling her lifelong dream. White said in previous interviews that she wanted to be a forest ranger as a little girl but that women were not allowed to do that then. Today’s United States Forest Service is 38 percent female, including rangers, scientists and leaders at every level.

In January 2011, White received a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her role as Elka Ostrovsky in Hot In Cleveland. The show itself was also nominated for an award as Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, but lost to the cast of Modern Family.

A 2011 poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos revealed that White was considered to be the most popular and most trusted celebrity among Americans, beating out the likes of Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks.

! Year !! Award !! Category !! Work !! Result
1951	Emmy Award
1952	Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''Life With Elizabeth''
1975	Emmy Awards		''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''
1976	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''
1977	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''
1983	Emmy Awards		''Just Men!''
1984	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Game Show Host	''Just Men!''
1986	Emmy Awards		''The Golden Girls''
1986	Golden Apple Award	Female Star of the Year
1986	Golden Globes		''The Golden Girls''
1987	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1987	Golden Globes	Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy	''The Golden Girls''
1987	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication	''The Golden Girls''
1987	Viewers for Quality Television	Best Actress in a Quality Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1988	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1988	Golden Globes	Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy	''The Golden Girls''
1988	Viewers for Quality Television	Best Actress in a Quality Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1989	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1989	Golden Globes	Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy	''The Golden Girls''
1990	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1990	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication	''The Golden Girls''
1990	American Comedy Awards	Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy
1991	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1992	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1995	Walk of Fame	Star on the Walk of Fame
1996	Emmy Awards		''The John Larroquette Show''
1997	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	''Suddenly Susan''
2000	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Female Guest Appearance in a TV Series	''Ally McBeal''
2003	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series	''The Practice''
2003	TV Land Awards	Quintessential Non-Traditional Family
2004	TV Land Awards	Groundbreaking Show
2008	TV Land Awards	Pop Culture Award
2009	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	''My Name Is Earl''
2009	Television Critics Association
2009	Disney Legends	Disney Legends
2010
2010	MTV Movie Awards
2010	MTV Movie Awards		''The Proposal''
2010		Best Dance (with Sandra Bullock)	''The Proposal''
2010	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	''Saturday Night Live''
2010	''New Now Next Awards''	Cause You're Hot
2011	People's Choice Awards
2011	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Web Celeb
2011	Screen Actors Guild		''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	Screen Actors Guild		''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	Gracie Allen Awards	Best Actress in a Comedy Series	''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	The Comedy Awards	Best Actress in a TV Comedy	''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	''Hot In Cleveland''

Filmography

''Hollywood on Television'' ''Life with Elizabeth'' ''Make the Connection'' ''Date with the Angels'' ''Santa Claus'' '''' ''To Tell the Truth'' ''Advise and Consent (film) ''Password (game) ''Your First Impression'' ''Concentration (game show) ''What's My Line?'' ''Vanished'' ''Match Game'' '''' ''Tattletales'' '''' '''' ''Liar's Club'' '''' ''Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Betty White'' ''With This Ring'' '''' '''' '''' ''Before and After'' ''Password Plus'' '''' ''Eunice'' ''Just Men!'' ''Doctor Detroit'' ''Kill Me If You Can'' ''Santa Claus: The Movie'' ''Mama's Family'' ''Body Language (game show) ''Trivia Trap'' ''Who's the Boss'' '''' '''' ''Super Password'' ''Santa Barbara (TV series) ''Another World (TV series) ''To Tell the Truth'' ''Chance of a Lifetime'' '''' ''Bob (TV series) ''Diagnosis: Murder'' ''Family Feud'' ''Maybe This Time'' '''' '''' ''Hard Rain (film) ''Hercules: The Animated Series'' ''Me & George'' ''Dennis the Menace Strikes Again'' ''Holy Man'' '''' '''' ''Gaia Symphony II'' ''Lake Placid (film) '''' ''Ladies Man (1999 TV series) ''Ally McBeal'' '''' ''Whispers: An Elephant's Tale'' ''Tom Sawyer (2000 film) '''' '''' ''I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'' ''That '70s Show'' ''Bringing Down the House (film) ''Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt'' ''Stealing Christmas'' ''Malcolm in the Middle'' ''Hollywood Squares ''Complete Savages'' '''' '''' ''Annie's Point'' ''Boston Legal'' ''Family Guy'' ''Gameshow Marathon (US TV series) '''': Their Greatest Moments ''Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner'' '''' ''My Wife and Kids'' ''Daytime Emmy Awards ''Back to the Grind'' '''' ''Pioneers of Television'' '''' ''Million Dollar Password'' ''Ugly Betty'' '''' ''Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show) ''My Name is Earl'' ''Chelsea Lately'' ''Ponyo'' ''Love N' Dancing'' ''Chelsea Lately'' ''Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List'' ''30 Rock'' ''Glenn Martin, DDS'' ''Saturday Night Live'' '''' ''Inside the Actors Studio'' ''Operation Secret Santa'' ''Hot in Cleveland'' ''You Again (film) ''Community (TV series) ''Pound Puppies (2010 TV series) '''' ''''

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1945	''Time to Kill''	Lou's Girl
1949–50	|	Phone Girl
1953–55	|	Elizabeth	12 episodes
1955	|
1957–58	|	Vickie Angel	33 episodes
1959	|
1959–62	|
1961	|	Herself
1962	Advise and Consent'' ||	Senator Bessie Adams
1961–75	Password'' ||	Herself
1963	|
1965	Concentration'' ||	Herself
1967	|	Herself
1971	|	TV Hostess
1973–82	|	Herself
1973–77	|	Sue Ann Nivens	42 episodes
1974–78	|
1977	|
1977–78	|	Joyce Whitman	14 episodes
1978	|
1978	|
1978	|
1979	|	Evelyn Harris
1979	|
1979	|
1980	|
1980	|
1980–83	|	Herself
1982–88	|	Herself
1982	|	Ellen
1983	|
1983	|
1984	|
1985	|
1983–84, 1986	|	Ellen Harper-Jackson	15 episodes
1984	Body Language'' ||	Herself
1985	|	Herself
1985	|	Bobby Barnes
1985–88	|	Herself
1985–92	|	Rose Nylund	180 episodes
1987–99	|	Herself
1988	Santa Barbara'' ||	Waitress	3 episodes
1988	Another World'' ||	Brenda Barlowe
1990–91	|	Herself
1991	|	Evelyn Eglin
1992–93	|	Rose Nylund	24 episodes
1993	Bob'' ||	Sylvia Schmidt
1994	|	Dora Sloan
1995	|	Herself
1995–96	|	Shirley Wallace
1996	|
1996	|
1997	Hard Rain'' ||	Doreen Sears
1998	|	Hestia
1998	|
1998	|	Martha Wilson
1998	|
1998–99	|		(voice)
1999	|	Herself
1999	|
1999	Lake Placid'' ||	Mrs. Deloris Bickerman
1999	|	Lillian Jordan
1999–2000	Ladies Man'' ||	Mitzi Stiles
2000	|	Dr. Shirley Flott
2000	|		(voice)
2000	|	Round
2000	Tom Sawyer'' ||	Aunt Polly
2001	|	Sophie Hunter
2001	|	Mrs. Krisper
2001	|
2002–03	|	Bea Sigurdson
2003	Bringing Down the House'' ||	Mrs. Kline
2003	|	Woman in Window
2004	|	Emily Sutton
2004	|	Sylvia
2004	Hollywood Squares – Game Show Week Part 2'' ||
2004–05	|	Mrs. Riley
2005	|	Catherine Piper
2005	|	Lettie
2005	|	Annie Eason
2005-08	|	Catherine Piper	16 episodes
2006	|	Herself	(voice)
2006	Gameshow Marathon'' ||
2006	|	Herself
2006	|	Herself
2007	|
2007	|
2007	34th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards'' ||
2007	|
2007	|	Herself	(voice)
2008	|	Herself
2008	|
2008	|	Herself
2008	|		1 episode
2009	|	Grandma Annie
2009	Wheel of Fortune'' ||	Herself
2009	|	Mrs. Weezmer	1 episode
2009	|	Herself
2009	|		(voice)
2009	|	Irene
2009	|	Herself
2009	|
2009	|	Betty White	1 episode
2009–10	|	Dora / Grandma Shelia Martin	2 episodes
2010	|	Herself	(Host)
2010	|	Mrs. Nethercott	1 episode
2010	|	Herself
2010	|		(voice)
2010–present	|	Elka Ostrovsky
2010	You Again'' ||	Grandma Bunny
2010	Community '' ||	Professor June Bauer	2 episodes
2010	Pound Puppies'' ||	Agatha McLeish
2011	|	Caroline Thomas
2012	|	Norma	(voice)

Books by White

1983: ''Betty White's Pet-Love: How Pets Take Care of Us''

1987: ''Betty White In Person''

1991: ''The Leading Lady: Dinah's Story''

1995: ''Here We Go Again: My Life In Television''

2011: ''If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't)''

References

Further reading

Tucker, David C. ''The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007.

External links

Betty White News on Twitter

Betty White is Hot in Cleveland

The Early Betty White 1947-1971

Archive of American Television Interview with Betty White June 4, 1997

Betty White on The Museum of Broadcast Communications

Betty White to Star on Hot in Cleveland

Video of TV Academy's Salute to Betty White

Category:1922 births Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from California Category:Actors from Illinois Category:Animal rights advocates Category:American film actors Category:American game show hosts Category:American people of Danish descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:American soap opera actors Category:American television actors Category:American vegans Category:American voice actors Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:People from Oak Park, Illinois Category:Women comedians Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners

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Coordinates	46°46′″N23°35′″N
name	Joey Ramone
background	solo_singer
birth name	Jeffry Ross Hyman
alias	Joey Ramone
born	May 19, 1951, Queens, New York, United States
died	April 15, 2001, New York City, New York, United States
instrument	Vocals, drums, percussion, guitar
genre	Punk rock
occupation	Musician, songwriter
years active	1972–2001
label	Sire, Radioactive
associated acts	Ramones, Sibling Rivalry, Sniper (American band)
website	joeyramone.com }}

Joey Ramone (born Jeffry Ross Hyman; May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001) was an American vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist in the punk rock band the Ramones. Joey Ramone's image, voice and tenure as frontman of the Ramones made him a countercultural icon.

Biography

Early life

Joey Ramone was born Jeffry Hyman to parents Noel and Charlotte Hyman. The Jewish Hyman family lived in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, where Jeffry and his future Ramones bandmates attended Forest Hills High School. By general accounts, Jeffry was happy but something of an outcast.

Jeffry was a fan of The Beatles, The Who, David Bowie and The Stooges among other bands (particularly oldies and the Phil Spector-produced "girl groups"). His idol was Pete Townshend of The Who (with whom he shared birthdays). Jeffry took up drums at 13, and played throughout his teen years.

Ramones

In 1974, Jeffry Hyman co-founded the punk rock band the Ramones with friends John Cummings and Douglas Colvin, upon which point all three adopted stage names using "Ramone" as their surname: Cummings became Johnny Ramone, Colvin became Dee Dee Ramone, and Hyman became Joey Ramone. The name Ramone stems from a story that Paul McCartney of the The Beatles would check into hotels under the pseudonym "Paul Ramon" while touring.

Joey initially served as the group's drummer while Dee Dee Ramone was the original vocalist. Ramones manager Tommy Erdelyi suggested Joey switch to vocals while Tommy took over on drums.

The Ramones were a major influence on the punk rock movement in the United States, though they achieved only minor commercial success. Their only record with enough U.S. sales to be certified gold was the compilation album ''Ramones Mania''. Recognition of the band's importance built over the years, and they are now regularly represented in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as the ''Rolling Stone'' lists of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time and 25 Greatest Live Albums of All Time, VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, and Mojo's 100 Greatest Albums. In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in ''Spin'', trailing only The Beatles.

In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played their final show and then disbanded. Less than nine years after the breakup, three of the band's four founding members (Joey, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone) were dead.

Vocal style

Ramone's vocal style was unorthodox in that he had no formal training in an era where vocal proficiency was arguably the norm for most rock bands. His signature cracks, hiccups, snarls, crooning and youthful voice made his one of punk rock's most recognizable voices. Allmusic.com claims that "Joey Ramone's signature bleat was the voice of punk rock in America." As his vocals matured and deepened through his career, so did the Ramones' songwriting, leaving a notable difference from Joey's initial melodic and callow style—two notable tracks serving as examples are "Somebody Put Something in My Drink" and "Mama's Boy".

Other projects

In 1985, Joey joined Little Steven Van Zandt's music-industry activist group Artists United Against Apartheid which acted against the Sun City resort in South Africa. Joey and forty-nine other top recording artists, including Bruce Springsteen, U2, Bob Dylan and Run DMC, collaborated on the song "Sun City" in which they pledged they would never perform at the resort.

In 1994, Joey appeared on the Helen Love album ''Love and Glitter, Hot Days and Music'' singing the track "Punk Boy". Helen Love returned the favor, singing on Joey's song "Mr. Punchy".

Hyman co-wrote and recorded the song "Meatball Sandwich" with Youth Gone Mad. For a short time before his death, he took the role of manager and producer for the punk rock group The Independents.

His last recording as a vocalist was singing backup vocals on the CD ''One Nation Under'' by the Dine Navajo rock group Blackfire. He appeared on two tracks, "What Do You See" and "Lying to Myself". The CD, released in 2002, won "Best Pop/Rock Album of the Year" at the 2002 Native American Music Awards.

Joey also produced the Ronnie Spector album, ''She Talks to Rainbows'', in 1999. It was critically acclaimed, but did not perform too well with the public and went virtually unnoticed. The title track was previously on the Ramones' last studio album, ''¡Adios Amigos!''.

Death and influence

right|thumb|180px|Headstone for Joey Ramone with fan tributesJoey Ramone died of lymphoma at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on April 15, 2001, after a seven-year battle. He was reportedly listening to the song "In a Little While" by U2 when he died. This was during U2's Elevation Tour, and from that point on during shows Bono would introduce the song as a tune that was originally about a lovestruck hangover but that Joey turned it into a gospel song.

His solo album ''Don't Worry About Me'' was released posthumously in 2002, and features the single "What a Wonderful World", a cover of the Louis Armstrong standard. MTV News claimed: "With his trademark rose-colored shades, black leather jacket, shoulder-length hair, ripped jeans and alternately snarling and crooning, hiccoughing vocals, Joey was the iconic godfather of punk."

On November 30, 2003, a block of East 2nd Street in New York City was officially renamed Joey Ramone Place. It is the block where Hyman once lived with bandmate Dee Dee Ramone, and is near the former site of the music club CBGB, where the Ramones got their start. Hyman's birthday is celebrated annually by rock 'n' roll nightclubs, hosted in New York City by his brother and, until 2007, his mother, Charlotte. Joey Ramone was buried in Hillside Cemetery in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.

In 2001, when Joey Ramone died, the Ramones were named as inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, prior to the actual ceremony held early the following year (2002).

Several songs have been presented as a tribute to Joey Ramone, including "Hello Joe" by Blondie from the album ''The Curse Of Blondie'', "Don't Take Me For Granted" by Social Distortion and "Here's To You" by Minus3. Indianapolis band Sloppy Seconds have a song on their album ''Endless Bummer'' entitled "You Can't Kill Joey Ramone."

In September 2010, the Associated Press reported that "Joey Ramone Place," a sign at the corner of Bowery and East Second Street was New York City's most stolen sign. As of September 27, the sign has been moved to 20 feet above ground level. Drummer Marky Ramone thought Joey would appreciate the fact that his sign would be the most stolen adding "Now you have to be an NBA player to see it."

Discography

:''For Ramones albums, see Ramones discography.''

Solo

''Don't Worry About Me'' – (2002)

EPs

''In a Family Way'' – Sibling Rivalry (1994)

''Ramones: Leathers from New York'' – The Ramones and Joey Ramone (solo) (1997)

''Christmas Spirit...In My House'' – (2002)

Singles

"I Got You Babe" - (1982) (Duet with Holly Beth Vincent)

"What a Wonderful World" - (2002)

Memorial books

"Heaven Needed A Lead Singer: Fans Remember Joey Ramone" by Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone - (2002)

"Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone" by Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone - (2004)

References

External links

The Official Joey Ramone Website

Monte A. Melnick, Ramones Tour Manager "On The Road With The Ramones"

Joey's memorial section in Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone's site

Category:1951 births Category:2001 deaths Category:American Jews Category:American punk rock singers Category:American record producers Category:American tenors Category:American vegetarians Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:Deaths from lymphoma Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish singers Category:Musicians from New York Category:New York Democrats Category:People from Forest Hills, Queens Category:People from Queens Category:Pseudonymous musicians Joey

an:Joey Ramone ca:Joey Ramone cs:Joey Ramone cy:Joey Ramone de:Joey Ramone et:Joey Ramone es:Joey Ramone fr:Joey Ramone hr:Joey Ramone io:Joey Ramone it:Joey Ramone he:ג'ואי ראמון hu:Joey Ramone nl:Joey Ramone ja:ジョーイ・ラモーン no:Joey Ramone pl:Joey Ramone pt:Joey Ramone ru:Джоуи Рамон simple:Joey Ramone sk:Joey Ramone fi:Joey Ramone sv:Joey Ramone

Coordinates	46°46′″N23°35′″N
name	Fred Rogers
birth name	Fred McFeely Rogers
birth date	March 20, 1928
birth place	Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S.
death date	February 27, 2003
death place	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
death cause	Stomach cancer
religion	Presbyterian Church(ordained in 1963)
other names	Mister RogersMr. Rogers
spouse	Sara Joanne Byrd (1952–2003)
occupation	Educator, minister, songwriter, television host
years active	1951–2002 }}

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) was an American educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, and television host. Rogers was most famous for creating and hosting ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (1968–2001), that featured his gentle, soft-spoken personality and directness to his audiences.

Initially educated to be a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television addressed children and made an effort to change this when he began to write for and perform on local Pittsburgh area shows dedicated to youth. The Public Broadcasting System developed his own nationally aired show in 1968 and over the course of three decades on television, he became an indelible American icon of children's entertainment and education, as well as a symbol of compassion, patience, and morality. He was also known for his advocacy of various public causes. He testified to the U.S. Supreme Court on time shifting; and he gave a now-famous speech before the U.S. Senate, advocating government funding for children's television.

Rogers was honored extensively for his life work in children's education. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, a Peabody Award for his career, and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Two resolutions recognizing his work were unanimously passed by U.S. Congress, one of his trademark sweaters was acquired and is on display at the Smithsonian Institution, and several buildings and works of art in Pennsylvania are dedicated to his memory.

Personal life

Fred McFeely Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Pittsburgh, to James and Nancy Rogers; he had one sister, Elaine Rogers Crozier. Early in his life, he spent much of his free time with his maternal grandfather, Fred McFeely, who would later move to Florida, and had an interest in music. He would often sing along as his mother would play the piano and, at age five, began to play the piano as well.

Rogers graduated from Latrobe High School (1946). He studied at Dartmouth College (1946–48) in Hanover, New Hampshire, and transferred to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition (1951).

At Rollins, Rogers met Sara Joanne Byrd, an Oakland, Florida, native; and they married on June 9, 1952. They had two sons, James (b. 1959) and John (b. 1961), and three grandsons, the third (Ian McFeely Rogers) born twelve days after Rogers' death. In 1963, Rogers graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church. During the course of his career, he garnered forty honorary degrees. Rogers was red-green color blind, swam every morning, was a vegetarian, and neither smoked nor drank.

Rogers had an apartment in New York City and a summer home on Nantucket island in Massachusetts.

Television career

Early work

Fred Rogers had a life-changing moment when he first saw television in his parents' home. He entered seminary after college; but, after his first experience as a viewer, he wanted to explore the potential of the medium. In an interview with CNN in his later years, Rogers stated, "I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen."

He thus applied for a job at NBC in New York City in 1951 and was hired because of his Music degree. Rogers spent three years working on the production staffs for such music-centered programming as ''NBC Opera Theater''. He also worked on Gabby Hayes' show for children. Ultimately, Rogers decided that commercial television's reliance on advertisement and merchandising undermined its ability to educate or enrich young audiences, so he quit NBC.

In 1954, he began working at WQED, a Pittsburgh public television station, as a puppeteer on a local children's show ''The Children's Corner''. For the next seven years, he worked with host Josie Carey in unscripted live TV, developing many of the puppets, characters, and music used in his later work, such as King Friday XIII, and Curious X the Owl.

Rogers began wearing his famous sneakers when he found them to be quieter than his work shoes as he moved about behind the set. He was also the voices of King Friday XIII and Queen Sara Saturday (named after his wife), rulers of the neighborhood, as well as X the Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, Daniel Striped Tiger, Lady Elaine Fairchild, and Larry Horse. The show won a Sylvania Award for best children's show, and was briefly broadcast nationally on NBC.

During these eight years, he would leave the WQED studios during his lunch breaks to study theology at the nearby Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Rogers, however, was not interested in preaching; and, after his ordination, he was specifically charged to continue his work with Children's Television. He had also done work at the University of Pittsburgh's program in Child Development and Child Care.

In 1963, Rogers moved to Toronto, where he was contracted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to develop a 15-minute children's television program: ''Misterogers'', which would be his debut in front of the camera. The show was a hit with children but lasted for only three seasons. Many of his famous set pieces—Trolley, Eiffel Tower, the 'tree', and 'castle'—were created by CBC designers. While in Canada, Rogers brought his friend and understudy Ernie Coombs, who would go on to create ''Mr. Dressup'', a very successful and long-running children's show in Canada, and similar in many ways to ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''. ''Mr. Dressup'' also used some of the songs that would be featured on Rogers' later program.

In 1966, Rogers acquired the rights to his program from the CBC and moved the show to WQED in Pittsburgh, where he had worked on ''The Children's Corner''. He developed the new show for the Eastern Educational Network. Stations that carried the program were limited but did include educational stations in Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

After returning to Pittsburgh, Rogers attended and participated in activities at the Sixth Presbyterian church in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, a More Light congregation which he attended until his death.

Distribution of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' began on February 19, 1968. The following year, the show moved to PBS (Public Broadcasting Service). In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc. (FCI), and the company established offices in the WQED building in Pittsburgh. Initially, the company served solely as the production arm of ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'', but now develops and produces an array of children's programming and educational materials.

''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''

''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' began airing in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes; the last set of new episodes was taped in December 2000 and began airing in August 2001. At its peak, in 1985, 8% of U.S households tuned in to the show.

Each episode began the same way: Mister Rogers is seen coming home, singing his theme song "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", and changing into sneakers and a zippered cardigan sweater.

In a typical episode, Rogers might have an earnest conversation with his television audience, interact with live guests, take a field trip to such places as a bakery or a music store, or watch a short film.

Typical video subjects included demonstrations of how such inanimate objects as bulldozers and crayons work or are manufactured.

Each episode included a trip to Rogers' "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" featuring a trolley with its own chiming theme song, a castle, and the kingdom's citizens, including King Friday XIII. The subjects discussed in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe often allowed further development of themes discussed in Mister Rogers' "real" neighborhood.

Mister Rogers often fed his fish during episodes. They were originally named Fennel and Frieda.

Typically, each week's episode explored a major theme, such as going to school for the first time.

Originally, most episodes ended with a song entitled "Tomorrow", and Friday episodes looked forward to the week ahead with an adapted version of "It's Such a Good Feeling." In later seasons, all episodes ended with "Feeling."

Visually, the presentation of the show was very simple, and it did not feature the animation or fast pace of other children's shows, which Rogers thought of as "bombardment". Rogers also believed in not acting out a different persona on camera compared to how he acted off camera, stating that "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away." Rogers composed almost all of the music on the program. He wanted to teach children to love themselves and others, and he addressed common childhood fears with comforting songs and skits. For example, one of his famous songs explains how a child cannot be pulled down the bathtub drain because he or she will not fit. He even once took a trip to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to show children that a hospital is not a place to fear. During the Gulf War (1990–91), he assured his audience that all children in the neighborhood would be well cared for and asked parents to promise to take care of their own children. The message was aired again by PBS during the media storm that preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Other television work

In 1994, Rogers created another one-time special for PBS called ''Fred Rogers' Heroes'' which consisted of documentary portraits of four real-life people whose work helped make their communities better. Rogers, uncharacteristically dressed in a suit and tie, hosted in wraparound segments which did not use the "Neighborhood" set.

For a time Rogers produced specials for parents as a precursor to the subject of the week on the Neighborhood called "Mister Rogers Talks To Parents About ''[topic]''". Rogers didn't host those specials though as other people like Joan Lunden, who hosted the Conflict special, and other news announcers played MC duties in front of a gallery of parents while Rogers answered questions from them. These specials were made to prep the parents for any questions the children might ask after watching the episodes on that topic of the week.

The only time Rogers appeared on television as someone other than himself was in 1996, when he played a preacher on one episode of ''Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.''

In the mid-1980s, the Burger King fast-food chain lampooned Rogers' image with an actor called "Mr. Rodney", imitating Rogers' television character. Rogers found the character's pitching fast food as confusing to children, and called a press conference in which he stated that he did not endorse the company's use of his character or likeness (Rogers did no commercial endorsements of any kind throughout his career, though he acted as a pitchman for several non-profit organizations dedicated to learning over the years). The chain publicly apologized for the ''faux pas'', and pulled the ads. By contrast, Fred Rogers found Eddie Murphy's parody of his show on ''Saturday Night Live'', "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood," amusing and affectionate, which was also initially broadcast at a time of night when his own child audience was not likely to see it.

Emmys for programming

''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' won four Emmy awards, and Rogers received one for lifetime achievement.

During the 1997 Daytime Emmys, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Rogers. The following is an excerpt from ''Esquire's'' coverage of the gala, written by Tom Junod:

Advocacy

PBS funding

In 1969, Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. His goal was to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in response to significant proposed cuts. In about six minutes of testimony, Rogers spoke of the need for social and emotional education that public television provided. He passionately argued that alternative television programming like his ''Neighborhood'' helped encourage children to become happy and productive citizens, sometimes opposing less positive messages in media and in popular culture. He even recited the lyrics to one of his songs.

The chairman of the subcommittee, John O. Pastore, was not previously familiar with Rogers' work, and was sometimes described as impatient. However, he reported that the testimony had given him goosebumps, and declared, "I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million." The subsequent congressional appropriation, for 1971, increased PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.

VCR

During the controversy surrounding the introduction of the household VCR, Rogers was involved in supporting the manufacturers of VCRs in court. His 1979 testimony in the case ''Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.'' noted that he did not object to home recording of his television programs, for instance, by families in order to watch together at a later time. This testimony contrasted with the views of others in the television industry who objected to home recording or believed that devices to facilitate it should be taxed or regulated.

The Supreme Court considered the testimony of Rogers in its decision that held that the Betamax video recorder did not infringe copyright. The Court stated that his views were a notable piece of evidence "that many [television] producers are willing to allow private time-shifting to continue" and even quoted his testimony in a footnote:

}}

Death, awards, and memorials

Rogers was diagnosed with stomach cancer in December 2002, not long after his retirement. He underwent surgery on January 6, 2003, which was unsuccessful. A week earlier, he served as grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby.

Rogers died on February 27, 2003 at his home with his wife by his side, less than a month before he would have turned 75. His death was such a significant event in Pittsburgh that the front page of the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' published the next day devoted its coverage to him. The Reverend William P. Barker presided over a public memorial in Pittsburgh. More than 2,700 people attended the memorial at Heinz Hall, including former ''Good Morning America'' host David Hartman, Teresa Heinz Kerry, philanthropist Elsie Hillman, PBS President Pat Mitchell, ''Arthur'' creator Marc Brown, and ''The Very Hungry Caterpillar'' author-illustrator Eric Carle. Speakers remembered Rogers' love of children, devotion to his religion, enthusiasm for music, and quirks. Teresa Heinz Kerry said of Rogers, "He never condescended, just invited us into his conversation. He spoke to us as the people we were, not as the people others wished we were." Rogers is interred at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe.

On New Years Day of 2004, Michael Keaton hosted the PBS TV special "Mr. Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor". It was released on DVD September 28 that year. Keaton was a former stagehand on the show before he quit to become an actor. To mark what would have been his 80th birthday, Rogers' production company sponsored several events to memorialize him, including "Won't You Wear a Sweater Day", during which fans and neighbors were asked to wear their favorite sweaters in celebration.

The television industry honored Rogers with a George Foster Peabody Award "in recognition of 25 years of beautiful days in the neighborhood" in 1987, the same year he was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, the national fraternity for men of music. Rogers was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. One of Rogers' iconic sweaters was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, which displays it as a "Treasure of American History". In 2002 Rogers received the PNC Commonwealth Award in Mass Communications.

He was furthermore awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, for his contributions to children's education, justified by President George W. Bush, who said, "Fred Rogers has proven that television can soothe the soul and nurture the spirit and teach the very young". A year later, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed Resolution 16 to commemorate the life of Fred Rogers. It read, in part, "Through his spirituality and placid nature, Mr. Rogers was able to reach out to our nation's children and encourage each of them to understand the important role they play in their communities and as part of their families. More importantly, he did not shy away from dealing with difficult issues of death and divorce but rather encouraged children to express their emotions in a healthy, constructive manner, often providing a simple answer to life's hardships."

Following Rogers' death, the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 unanimously passed Resolution 111 honoring Rogers for "his legendary service to the improvement of the lives of children, his steadfast commitment to demonstrating the power of compassion, and his dedication to spreading kindness through example."

The same year the U.S. Presbyterian Church approved an overture "to observe a memorial time for the Reverend Fred M. Rogers" at its General Assembly. The rationale for the recognition of Rogers reads, "The Reverend Fred Rogers, a member of the Presbytery of Pittsburgh, as host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood since 1968, had a profound effect on the lives of millions of people across the country through his ministry to children and families. Mister Rogers promoted and supported Christian values in the public media with his demonstration of unconditional love. His ability to communicate with children and to help them understand and deal with difficult questions in their lives will be greatly missed."

Several buildings, monuments, and works of art are dedicated to Rogers' memory, including a mural sponsored by the Pittsburgh-based Sprout Fund in 2006, "Interpretations of Oakland," by John Laidacker that featured Mr. Rogers. Saint Vincent College in (Latrobe, Pennsylvania) completed construction of The Fred M. Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media in 2008. The Fred Rogers Memorial Statue on the North Shore near Heinz Field in Pittsburgh was created by Robert Berks and dedicated in 2009.

The asteroid 26858 Misterrogers is named after Rogers. This naming, by the International Astronomical Union, was announced on May 2, 2003 by the director of the Henry Buhl Jr. Planetarium & Observatory at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The science center worked with Rogers' Family Communications, Inc. to produce a planetarium show for preschoolers called "The Sky Above Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", which plays at planetariums across the United States.

False rumors

A false rumor claims that Fred Rogers was once a U.S. Marine sniper in the Vietnam War. The rumor appeared on the Internet in 1994 and re-emerged several times over the next ten years, most notably after his death in 2003. However, Rogers never served in any branch of the military. Beginning in 1963, Rogers developed the ''Misterogers'' program for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1966, he moved back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the U.S. where he produced ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' through the height of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Related claims that Rogers had a number of military tattoos are also entirely false.

See also

Colcom Foundation

Notes

References

External links

PBS Kids: Official Site

The Fred M. Rogers Center

Fred Rogers' Company

Category:1928 births Category:2003 deaths Category:People from Latrobe, Pennsylvania Category:American Presbyterian clergy Category:Actors from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:American puppeteers Category:American television actors Category:American television personalities Category:American vegetarians Category:Christian vegetarians Category:Cancer deaths in Pennsylvania Category:Christianity in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Deaths from stomach cancer Category:PBS people Category:Peabody Award winners Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Rollins College alumni

eo:Fred Rogers fa:فرد راجرز fr:Fred Rogers id:Fred Rogers pt:Fred Rogers simple:Fred Rogers sh:Mister Rogers

Coordinates	46°46′″N23°35′″N
name	Ramones
landscape	Yes
background	group_or_band
origin	Forest Hills, Queens, New York, United States
genre	Punk rock
years active	1974–1996
label	Sire, Philips, Beggars Banquet, Radioactive, Chrysalis
associated acts	Tangerine Puppets, Sniper, Bad Chopper, Los Gusanos, Dust, The Voidoids, Blondie, Uncle Monk, Misfits, Osaka Popstar
past members	Dee Dee RamoneJohnny RamoneJoey RamoneTommy RamoneMarky RamoneRichie RamoneElvis Ramone (Clem Burke)C. J. Ramone }}

The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group. Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was a major influence on the punk rock movement both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname "Ramone", though none of them were related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By a little more than eight years after the breakup, the band's three founding members—lead singer Joey Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone—had died.

Their only record with enough U.S. sales to be certified gold was the compilation album ''Ramones Mania''. However, recognition of the band's importance built over the years, and they are now cited in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as the ''Rolling Stone'' list of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time and VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by ''Spin'' magazine, trailing only The Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the Ramones—including the three founders and drummers Marky and Tommy Ramone—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

History

Early days: 1974–1975

The original members of the band met in and around the middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. John Cummings and Thomas Erdelyi had both been in a high-school garage band from 1966 to 1967 known as the Tangerine Puppets. They became friends with Douglas Colvin, who had recently moved to the area from Germany, and Jeffrey Hyman, who was the initial lead singer of the glam rock band Sniper, founded in 1972.

The Ramones began taking shape in early 1974, when Cummings and Colvin invited Hyman to join them in a band. The initial lineup featured Colvin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Cummings on lead guitar, and Hyman on drums. Colvin, who soon switched from rhythm guitar to bass, was the first to adopt the name "Ramone", calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by Paul McCartney's use of the pseudonym Paul Ramon during his Silver Beatles days. Dee Dee convinced the other members to take on the name and came up with the idea of calling the band the Ramones. Hyman and Cummings became Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone, respectively.

A friend of the band, Monte A. Melnick (later their tour manager), helped to arrange rehearsal time for them at Manhattan's Performance Studios, where he worked. Johnny's former bandmate Erdelyi was set to become their manager. Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he could not sing and play his bass guitar simultaneously; with Erdelyi's encouragement, Joey became the band's new lead singer. Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his signature rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!" Joey soon similarly realized that he could not sing and play drums simultaneously and left the position of drummer. While auditioning prospective replacements, Erdelyi would often take to the drums and demonstrate how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was able to perform the group's music better than anyone else, and he joined the band as Tommy Ramone.

The Ramones played before an audience for the first time on March 30, 1974, at Performance Studios. The songs they played were very fast and very short; most clocked in at under two minutes. Around this time, a new music scene was emerging in New York centered around two clubs in downtown Manhattan—Max's Kansas City and, more famously, CBGB (usually referred to as CBGB's). The Ramones made their CBGB debut on August 16. Legs McNeil, who co-founded ''Punk'' magazine the following year, later described the impact of that performance: "They were all wearing these black leather jackets. And they counted off this song...and it was just this wall of noise.... They looked so striking. These guys were not hippies. This was something completely new."

The band swiftly became regulars at the club, playing there seventy-four times by the end of the year. After garnering considerable attention for their performances—which averaged about seventeen minutes from beginning to end—the group was signed to a recording contract in late 1975 by Seymour Stein of Sire Records. Stein's wife, Linda Stein, had seen the band play at CBGB's; she would later co-manage them along with Danny Fields. By this time, the Ramones were recognized as leaders of the new scene that was increasingly being referred to as "punk". The group's unusual frontman had a lot to do with their impact. As Dee Dee explained, "All the other singers [in New York] were copying David Johansen [of The New York Dolls], who was copying Mick Jagger.... But Joey was unique, totally unique."

Spearheading punk: 1976–1977

The Ramones recorded their debut album, ''Ramones'', in February 1976. Of the fourteen songs on the album, the longest, "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", barely surpassed two-and-a-half minutes. While the songwriting credits were shared by the entire band, Dee Dee was the primary writer. ''Ramones'' was produced by Sire's Craig Leon, with Tommy as associate producer, on an extremely low budget of about $6,400 and released in April. The now iconic front cover photograph of the band was taken by Roberta Bayley, a photographer for ''Punk'' magazine.

''Ramones'' was not a commercial success, reaching only number 111 on the ''Billboard'' album chart. The two singles released from the album, "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", failed to chart at all. At the band's first major performance outside of New York, a June date in Youngstown, Ohio, approximately ten people showed up. It wasn't until they made a brief tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor; a performance at The Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976 (second-billed to the Flamin' Groovies), organized by Linda Stein, was a resounding success. Their Roundhouse appearance and a club date the following night—where the band met members of the Sex Pistols and The Clash—helped galvanize the burgeoning UK punk rock scene. The Flamin' Groovies/Ramones double bill was successfully reprised at The Roxy in Los Angeles the following month, fueling the punk scene there as well. The Ramones were becoming an increasingly popular live act—a Toronto performance in September energized yet another growing punk scene.

Their next two albums, ''Leave Home'' and ''Rocket to Russia'', were released in 1977. Both were coproduced by Tommy and Tony Bongiovi, the second cousin of Jon Bon Jovi. ''Leave Home'' met with even less chart success than ''Ramones'', though it did include "Pinhead", which became one of the band's signature songs with its chanted refrain of "Gabba gabba hey!" ''Rocket to Russia'' was the band's highest-charting album to date, reaching number 49 on the ''Billboard'' 200. In ''Rolling Stone'', critic Dave Marsh called it "the best American rock & roll of the year". The album also featured the first Ramones single to enter the ''Billboard'' charts (albeit only as high as number 81): "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker". The follow-up single, "Rockaway Beach", reached number 66—the highest any Ramones single would ever reach in America. On December 31, 1977, the Ramones recorded ''It's Alive'', a live concert double album, at the Rainbow Theatre, London, which was released in April 1979 (the title is a reference to the 1974 horror film ''It's Alive'').

Recordings turn more pop: 1978–1983

Tommy, tired of touring, left the band in early 1978. He continued as the Ramones' record producer under his birth name of Erdelyi. His position as drummer was filled by Marc Bell, who had been a member of the early 1970s hard rock band Dust, Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, and the pioneering punk group Richard Hell & The Voidoids. Bell became Marky Ramone. Later that year, the band released their fourth studio album, and first with Marky, ''Road to Ruin''. The album, co-produced by Tommy with Ed Stasium, included some new sounds such as acoustic guitar, several ballads, and the band's first two recorded songs longer than three minutes. It failed to reach the ''Billboard'' Top 100. However, "I Wanna Be Sedated", which appeared both on the album and as a single, would become one of the band's best-known songs. The artwork on the album's cover was done by ''Punk'' magazine co-founder John Holmstrom.

After the band's movie debut in Roger Corman's ''Rock 'n' Roll High School'' (1979), renowned producer Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their 1980 album ''End of the Century''. During the recording sessions in Los Angeles, Spector held Dee Dee at gunpoint, forcing him to repeatedly play a riff. Though it was to be the highest-charting album in the band's history—reaching number 44 in the United States and number 14 in Great Britain—Johnny made clear that he favored the band's more aggressive punk material: "''End of the Century'' was just watered-down Ramones. It's not the real Ramones." This stance was also conveyed by the title and track selection of the compilation album Johnny later oversaw, ''Loud, Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits''. Despite these reservations, Johnny did concede that some of Spector's work with the band had merit, saying "It really worked when he got to a slower song like 'Danny Says'—the production really worked tremendously. 'Rock 'N' Roll Radio' is really good. For the harder stuff, it didn't work as well." The syrupy, string-laden Ronettes cover "Baby, I Love You" released as a single, became the band's biggest hit in Great Britain, reaching number 8 on the charts.

''Pleasant Dreams'', the band's sixth album, was released in 1981. It continued the trend established by ''End of the Century'', diluting the rawer punk sound showcased on the band's initial three albums. Slick production was again featured, this time provided by Graham Gouldman of UK pop act 10cc. Johnny would contend in retrospect that this direction was a record company decision, a continued futile attempt to get airplay on American radio. While ''Pleasant Dreams'' reached number 58 on the U.S. chart, its two singles failed to register at all.

''Subterranean Jungle'', produced by Ritchie Cordell and Glen Kolotkin, was released in 1983. Billy Rogers, who had performed with Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers, played drums on the album's second single, a cover of The Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today". ''Subterranean Jungle'' peaked at number 83 in the United States—it would be the last album by the band to crack the ''Billboard'' Top 100.

Shuffling members: 1983–1989

After the release of ''Subterranean Jungle'', Marky was fired from the band due to his alcoholism. He was replaced by Richard Reinhardt, who adopted the name Richie Ramone. The first album the Ramones recorded with Richie was ''Too Tough to Die'' in 1984, with Tommy Erdelyi and Ed Stasium returning as producers. The album marked a shift to something like the band's original sound. In the description of Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the "rhythms are back up to jackhammer speed and the songs are down to short, terse statements." In contrast, Salon.com arts editor Bill Wyman writes of "Joey's pained, pleading voice". |format=Ogg}} The band's main release of 1985 was the British single "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg"; though it was available in the United States only as an import, it was played widely on American college radio. The song was written by Joey in protest of Ronald Reagan's visit to a German military cemetery where SS members were buried. Retitled "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)", the song appeared on the band's ninth studio album, ''Animal Boy'' (1986). Produced by Jean Beauvoir, formerly a member of the Plasmatics, the album was characterized by a ''Rolling Stone'' reviewer as "nonstop primal fuzz pop". Making it his pick for "album of the week", ''New York Times'' critic Jon Pareles wrote that the Ramones "speak up for outcasts and disturbed individuals".

The following year the band recorded their last album with Richie, ''Halfway to Sanity'', produced by Daniel Rey. Richie left in August 1987, upset that after being in the band for four years, the other members would still not give him a share of the money they made selling T-shirts. Richie was replaced by Clem Burke from Blondie, which was disbanded at the time. According to Johnny, the performances with Burke—who adopted the name Elvis Ramone—were a disaster. He was fired after two performances because his drumming could not keep up with the rest of the band. Marky, now clean and sober, returned.

Dee Dee left the band after the recording of their tenth studio album, 1989's ''Brain Drain'', co-produced by Beauvoir, Rey, and Bill Laswell. He was replaced by Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone), who performed with the band until they disbanded. Dee Dee initially pursued a brief career as a rapper under the name Dee Dee King. He quickly returned to punk rock and formed several bands, in much the same vein as the Ramones, for whom he also continued to write songs.

Final years: 1990–1996

After more than a decade and a half at Sire Records, the Ramones moved to a new label, Radioactive Records. Their first album for the label was 1992's ''Mondo Bizarro'', which reunited them with producer Ed Stasium. ''Acid Eaters'', consisting entirely of cover songs, came out the following year. In 1993 the Ramones were featured in the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', providing music and voices for animated versions of themselves in the episode "Rosebud".

In 1995, the Ramones released ''¡Adios Amigos!'', their fourteenth studio album, and announced that they planned to disband if it was not successful. Its sales were unremarkable, garnering it just two weeks on the lower end of the ''Billboard'' chart. The band spent late 1995 on what was promoted as a farewell tour. However, they accepted an offer to appear in the sixth Lollapalooza festival, which toured around the United States during the following summer. After the Lollapalooza tour's conclusion, the Ramones played their final show on August 6, 1996, at the Palace in Hollywood. A recording of the concert was later released on video and CD as ''We're Outta Here!'' In addition to a reappearance by Dee Dee, the show featured several guests including Motörhead's Lemmy, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, and Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen.

Aftermath and deaths

On July 20, 1999, Dee Dee, Johnny, Joey, Tommy, Marky, and C.J. appeared together at the Virgin Megastore in New York City for an autograph signing. This was the last occasion on which the original four members of the group appeared together. Joey, who had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995, died of the illness on April 15, 2001, in New York.

In 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which specifically named Dee Dee, Johnny, Joey, Tommy, and Marky. At the ceremony, the surviving inductees spoke on behalf of the band. Tommy spoke first, saying how honored the band felt, but how much it would have meant for Joey. Johnny thanked the band's fans and blessed George W. Bush and his presidency, Dee Dee humorously congratulated and thanked himself, while Marky thanked Tommy for influencing his drum style. Green Day played "Teenage Lobotomy" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" as a tribute, demonstrating the Ramones' continuing influence on later rock musicians. The ceremony was one of Dee Dee's last public appearances; on June 5, 2002, two months later, he was found at his Hollywood home, dead from a heroin overdose.

On November 30, 2003, New York City unveiled a sign designating East 2nd Street at the corner of Bowery as Joey Ramone Place. The singer lived on East 2nd for a time, and the sign is near the former Bowery site of CBGB. ''End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones'', a Ramones documentary, came out in 2004. Johnny, who had been privately battling prostate cancer, died on September 15, 2004, in Los Angeles, shortly after the film's release. On the same day as Johnny's death, the world's first Ramones Museum opened its doors to the public. Located in Berlin, Germany, the museum features more than 300 items of memorabilia, including a pair of stage-worn jeans from Johnny, a stage-worn glove from Joey, Marky's sneakers, and C.J.'s stage-worn bass strap.

The Ramones were inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007. That October saw the release of a DVD set containing concert footage of the band: ''It's Alive 1974-1996'' includes 118 songs from 33 performances over the span of the group's career. In February 2011 the group was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Drummers Tommy, Marky, and Richie Ramone attended the ceremony. Joey Ramone's award was accepted by his brother Mickey Leigh, who thanked his brother Joey Ramone for giving a voice to a whole genre of music and "To sharing his voice with us, and his character, and his style, and his charm, his sentiment, his sensitivity, his craziness and for urging us to experience every human emotion through music and most of all to have some fun in this life." During Richie Ramone's speech, Richie noted that it was the first time in history that all three drummers were under the same roof, and mused that he couldn't "...help thinking that [Joey Ramone] is watching us right now with a little smile on his face behind his rose-colored glasses." Marky remarked "This is amazing. I never expected this. I'm sure Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee would never have expected this. I'm extremely honoured."

Conflicts between members

Tensions between Joey and Johnny colored much of the Ramones' career. The pair were politically antagonistic, Joey being a liberal and Johnny a conservative. Their personalities also clashed: Johnny was a military brat who lived by a code of self-discipline, while Joey struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Johnny, who was fascinated by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, would sometimes torment Joey (who was Jewish) with anti-Semitic remarks. In the early 1980s, Johnny "stole" Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom he later married. As a consequence, despite performing together for years afterward, Joey and Johnny stopped speaking to each other. Johnny did not call Joey before the latter's death in 2001, but said in the documentary ''End of the Century'' that he was depressed for "the whole week" after the singer died.

Aside from this central conflict, Dee Dee's bipolar disorder and repeated relapses into drug addiction also caused significant strains. Tommy left the band partly in reaction to being "physically threatened by Johnny, treated with contempt by Dee Dee, and all but ignored by Joey". As new members joined, payment methods and image representation became matters of serious dispute. In 1997, Marky and Joey got into a fight about their respective drinking habits on the Howard Stern radio show.

Style

Musical style

The Ramones' loud, fast, straightforward musical style was influenced by pop music that the band members grew up listening to in the 1950s and 1960s, including classic rock groups such as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones; bubblegum acts like the 1910 Fruitgum Company and Ohio Express; and girl groups such as The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las. They also drew on the harder rock sound of The Stooges and the New York Dolls, both now known as seminal protopunk bands. The Ramones' style was in part a reaction against the heavily produced, often bombastic music that dominated the pop charts in the 1970s. "We decided to start our own group because we were bored with everything we heard," Joey once explained. "In 1974 everything was tenth-generation Led Zeppelin, tenth-generation Elton John, or overproduced, or just junk. Everything was long jams, long guitar solos.... We missed music like it used to be." Ira Robbins and Scott Isler of ''Trouser Press'' describe the result:

With just four chords and one manic tempo, New York's Ramones blasted open the clogged arteries of mid-'70s rock, reanimating the music. Their genius was to recapture the short/simple aesthetic from which pop had strayed, adding a caustic sense of trash-culture humor and minimalist rhythm guitar sound.

As leaders in the punk rock scene, the Ramones' music has usually been identified with that label, while some have defined their characteristic style more specifically as pop punk and others as power pop. In the 1980s, the band sometimes veered into hardcore punk territory, as can be heard on ''Too Tough to Die''.

On stage, the band adopted a focused approach directly intended to increase the audience's concert experience. Johnny's instructions to C.J. when preparing for his first live performances with the group were to play facing the audience, to stand with the bass slung low between spread legs, and to walk forward to the front of stage at the same time as he did. Johnny was not a fan of guitarists who performed facing their drummer, amplifier, or other band members.

Visual imagery

The Ramones' art and visual imagery complemented the themes of their music and performance. The band members adopted a uniform look of long hair, leather jackets, t-shirts, torn jeans, and sneakers. This fashion emphasized minimalism, which was a powerful influence on the New York punk scene of the 1970s and reflected the band's short, simple songs. Tommy Ramone recalled that, both musically and visually, "we were influenced by comic books, movies, the Andy Warhol scene, and avant-garde films. I was a big ''Mad Magazine'' fan myself."

The band's logo was created by New York City artist Arturo Vega, a longtime friend who had allowed Joey and Dee Dee to move into his loft. Vega produced the band's t-shirts, their main source of income, basing most of the images on a black-and-white self-portrait photograph he had taken of his American bald eagle belt buckle which had appeared on the back sleeve of the Ramones' first album. He was inspired to create the band's logo after a trip to Washington, D.C.:

I saw them as the ultimate all-American band. To me, they reflected the American character in general—an almost childish innocent aggression.... I thought, 'The Great Seal of the President of the United States' would be perfect for the Ramones, with the eagle holding arrows—to symbolize strength and the aggression that would be used against whomever dares to attack us—and an olive branch, offered to those who want to be friendly. But we decided to change it a little bit. Instead of the olive branch, we had an apple tree branch, since the Ramones were American as apple pie. And since Johnny was such a baseball fanatic, we had the eagle hold a baseball bat instead of the [Great Seal]'s arrows.

The scroll in the eagle's beak originally read "Look out below", but this was soon changed to "Hey ho let's go" after the opening lyrics of the band's first single, "Blitzkrieg Bop". The arrowheads on the shield came from a design on a polyester shirt Vega had bought. The name "Ramones" was spelled out in block capitals above the logo using plastic stick-on letters.

Influence

The Ramones had a broad and lasting influence on the development of popular music. Music historian Jon Savage writes of their debut album that "it remains one of the few records that changed pop forever." As described by Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "The band's first four albums set the blueprint for punk, especially American punk and hardcore, for the next two decades." ''Trouser Press'''s Robbins and Isler similarly write that the Ramones "not only spearheaded the original new wave/punk movement, but also drew the blueprint for subsequent hardcore punk bands". Punk journalist Phil Strongman writes, "In purely ''musical'' terms, The Ramones, in attempting to re-create the excitement of pre-Dolby rock, were to cast a huge shadow—they had fused a blueprint for much of the indie future." Writing for Slate in 2001, Douglas Wolk described the Ramones as "easily the most influential group of the last 30 years."

The Ramones' debut album had an outsized effect relative to its modest sales. According to Tony James, a member of several seminal British punk bands, "Everybody went up three gears the day they got that first Ramones album. Punk rock—that rama-lama super fast stuff—is totally down to the Ramones. Bands were just playing in an MC5 groove until then." The central fanzine of the early UK punk scene, ''Sniffin' Glue'', was named after the song "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", which appeared on the debut LP. The Ramones' first British concert, at London's Roundhouse concert hall, was held on July 4, 1976, the United States Bicentennial. The Sex Pistols were playing in Sheffield that evening, supported by The Clash, making their public debut. The next night, members of both bands attended the Ramones' gig at the Dingwall's club. Ramones manager Danny Fields recalls a conversation between Johnny Ramone and Clash bassist Paul Simonon (which he mislocates at the Roundhouse): "Johnny asked him, 'What do you do? Are you in a band?' Paul said, 'Well, we just rehearse. We call ourselves the Clash but we're not good enough.' Johnny said, 'Wait till you see us—we stink, we're lousy, we can't play. Just get out there and do it.'" Another band whose members saw the Ramones perform, The Damned, played their first show two days later. The Ramones' two July 1976 shows, like their debut album, are seen as having a significant impact on the style of many of the newly formed British punk acts—as one observer put it, "instantly nearly every band speeded up".

Ramones concerts and recordings influenced many musicians central to the development of California punk as well, including Greg Ginn of Black Flag, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, Mike Ness of Social Distortion, Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, and members of the Descendents. Canada's first major punk scenes—in Toronto and in British Columbia's Victoria and Vancouver—were also heavily influenced by the Ramones. In the late 1970s, many bands emerged with musical styles deeply indebted to the band's. There were The Lurkers from England, The Undertones from Ireland, Teenage Head from Canada, and The Zeros and The Dickies from southern California. The seminal hardcore band Bad Brains took its name from a Ramones song. Later punk bands such as Screeching Weasel, The Vindictives, The Queers, The Mr. T Experience, Boris the Sprinkler, Beatnik Termites, and Jon Cougar Concentration Camp have recorded cover versions of entire Ramones albums—''Ramones'', ''Leave Home'', ''Rocket to Russia'', ''Road to Ruin'', ''End of the Century'', ''Pleasant Dreams'', and ''Too Tough to Die'', respectively. The Huntingtons' ''File Under Ramones'' consists of Ramones covers from across the band's history. The Riverdales, made up of former members of Screeching Weasel, have emulated the sound of the Ramones throughout their career.

The Ramones also influenced musicians associated with other genres, such as heavy metal. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has described the importance of Johnny's rapid-fire guitar playing style to his own musical development. Motörhead lead singer Lemmy, a friend of the Ramones since the late 1970s, mixed the band's "Go Home Ann" in 1985. The members of Motörhead later composed the song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." as a tribute, and Lemmy performed at the final Ramones concert in 1996. In the realm of alternative rock, the song "53rd and 3rd" lent its name to a British indie pop label cofounded by Stephen Pastel of the Scottish band The Pastels. Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam (who also inducted the band to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) and The Strokes are among the many alternative rock musicians who have credited the Ramones with inspiring them.

The first Ramones tribute album featuring multiple artists was released in 1991: ''Gabba Gabba Hey: A Tribute to the Ramones'' includes tracks by such acts as The Flesh Eaters, L7, Mojo Nixon, and Bad Religion. In 2001, ''Ramones Maniacs'', a multi-artist cover of the entire ''Ramones Mania'' compilation album, included a guest appearance by Dee Dee Ramone. ''We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones'' (2003) is the best known Ramones tribute album, with artists such as Green Day, Kiss, The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Metallica, and Rob Zombie (who also did the album cover artwork). Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong named his son Joey in homage to Joey Ramone, and drummer Tré Cool named his daughter Ramona.

Members

Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) – bass guitar, vocals (1974–1989) Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) – guitar (1974–1996) Joey Ramone (Jeffry Hyman) – drums (1974), lead vocals (1974–1996) Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi) – drums (1974–1978) Marky Ramone (Marc Bell) – drums (1978–1983, 1987–1996) Richie Ramone (Richard Reinhardt) – drums, vocals (1983–1987) Elvis Ramone (Clem Burke) – drums (1987) C. J. Ramone (Christopher Joseph Ward) – bass guitar, vocals (1989–1996)

Discography

;Studio albums

''Ramones'' (1976)

''Leave Home'' (1977)

''Rocket to Russia'' (1977)

''Road to Ruin'' (1978)

''End of the Century'' (1980)

''Pleasant Dreams'' (1981)

''Subterranean Jungle'' (1983)

''Too Tough to Die'' (1984)

''Animal Boy'' (1986)

''Halfway to Sanity'' (1987)

''Brain Drain'' (1989)

''Mondo Bizarro'' (1992)

''Acid Eaters'' (1993)

''¡Adios Amigos!'' (1995)

See also

List of Ramones concerts

Gabba Gabba Hey

References

Sources

Bayles, Martha (1996). ''Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music'', University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226039595

Beeber, Steven Lee (2006). ''The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk'', Chicago Review Press. ISBN 155652613X

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Edelstein, Andrew J., and Kevin McDonough (1990). ''The Seventies: From Hot Pants to Hot Tubs'', Dutton. ISBN 0525485724

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Keithley, Joe (2004). ''I, Shithead: A Life in Punk'', Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1551521482

Leigh, Mickey, and Legs McNeil (2009). ''I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir'', Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743252160

McNeil, Legs, and Gillian McCain (1996). ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'' (2d ed.), Penguin. ISBN 0140266909

Melnick, Monte A., and Frank Meyer (2003). ''On The Road with the Ramones'', Sanctuary. ISBN 1860745148

Miles, Barry, Grant Scott, and Johnny Morgan (2005). ''The Greatest Album Covers of All Time'', Collins & Brown. ISBN 1843403013

Ramone, Dee Dee, and Veronica Kofman (2000). ''Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones'', Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1560252529

Roach, Martin (2003). ''The Strokes: The First Biography of the Strokes'', Omnibus Press. ISBN 0711996016

Robb, John (2006). ''Punk Rock: An Oral History'', Elbury Press. ISBN 0091905117

Sandford, Christopher (2006). ''McCartney'', Century. ISBN 1844136027

Savage, Jon (1992). ''England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond'', St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312087748

Schinder, Scott, with Andy Schwartz (2007). ''Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever'', Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313338477

Spicer, Al (2003). "The Lurkers", in ''The Rough Guide to Rock'' (3d ed.), ed. Peter Buckley, p. 349, Rough Guides. ISBN 1843531054

Spitz, Mark, and Brendan Mullen (2001). ''We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk'', Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0609807749

Stim, Richard (2006). ''Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business'', Nolo. ISBN 1413305172

Strongman, Phil (2008). ''Pretty Vacant: A History of UK Punk'', Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1556527527

Notes

External links

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:Ramones Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Queens Category:Musical groups from New York City Category:American punk rock groups Category:Sire Records artists Category:MCA Records artists Category:Musical groups established in 1974 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1996 Category:Musical quartets

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