Rona Elliot

Rona Elliot
Born February 22, 1947
Occupation music journalist
Children 3

Rona Elliot (born February 22, 1947) is an American music journalist and interviewer of television, radio, and print. She was the music correspondent for NBC's Today show for ten years.

Early life and career

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Elliot grew up in Kew Gardens, Queens.[1] until age 10 when the family moved to Los Angeles.

Career

Elliot’s earliest job was at the influential 1960s Los Angeles radio station, 93 KHJ Boss Radio, hired by program director Ron Jacobs during the era of flamboyant disc jockeys including the Real Don Steele and Robert W. Morgan.

In 1969 Elliot worked on the staff of the legendary Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in local community and public relations. In 1970 Elliot moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was immersed in the underground radio scene at stations KMPX-FM and KSAN-FM. In 1971, Elliot established the west coast office of the infamous magazine, The Realist, working as an investigative reporter for the publisher; political activist and satirist Paul Krassner.

In 1975, she co-hosted the experimental TV show "Went Like It Came", which received a local Emmy nomination in San Francisco.

After moving to New York Elliot worked for NBC Radio’s Youth Network, The Source, both on air and as producer of live and recorded music shows. She then joined VH1 television as their on air news anchor.

Elliot assumed the position of music correspondent for NBCs The Today Show and over the next decade traveled the world conducting interviews and covering stories on rocks’ biggest performers. Elliot broke the Band Aid charity recording story with 80′s superstars Duran Duran from London’s legendary Abbey Road studios that would evolve into Live Aid in July 1985.

Elliot has written for USA Today about American Idol, and has taught about the music business at UCLA Extension in Los Angeles. As the U.S. Editor for Genesis Publications UK ; a firm that produces limited edition, collectible rock art books she worked with Woodstock producer Michael Lang on Genesis’ Woodstock 40 book and a Henry Diltz photographic retrospective. Elliot also worked closely with the Newseum in Washington, DC, assisting their team in organizing an exhibit celebrating the Woodstock Festival’s 40th anniversary.

Elliot has conducted interviews for the Grammy Living Legend Foundation, where she serves on the Grammy Museum Education Committee and has conducted interviews with holocaust survivors for the USC Shoah Foundation : The Institute for Visual History and Education (originally the Steven Spielberg Shoah Visual History Foundation).

In 2010 Elliot became a board member for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, where her papers are included in their archive of rock history memorabilia.

In October 2012, through NBC Publishing, Elliot released an enhanced e book 'Mick & Keith: Never Stop' (celebrating The Rolling Stone's 50th Anniversary) with exclusive, never before seen interviews with Mick Jagger & Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones during the Steel Wheels tour.

Personal

Elliot lives in Los Angeles, with her husband and their three children and plays percussions in a "parent's band."

References

  1. ↑ Chan, Sewell (2009-04-22). "Nazi Refugees’ Son Explores Complex Feelings". New York Times. The film is intensely personal, but it also offers a fascinating glimpse of a cohort of Jewish Americans whose ranks include the television host (and former Cincinnati mayor) Jerry Springer; the pop music critic Rona Elliot....

External links