Donna Halper

Donna Halper, speaking in Marshfield, Massachusetts in 2006

Donna L. Halper (born February 1947 in Dorchester, Massachusetts) is a Boston-based historian and radio consultant. She is author of the first booklength study devoted to the history of women in American broadcasting, Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting.^[1] In late 2008, she completed her fourth book, Icons of Talk: The Media Mouths that Changed America, a history of talk shows. That year, she also had a chapter published in Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life, a book by Michael C. Keith.^[2] In 2010, she had an essay about the impact of McCarthyism on broadcasting published in Perspectives in American Social History: Cold War and McCarthy Era. In 2011, she completed a book for Arcadia Publishing, Boston Radio 1920-2010.^[3]

Career

Halper attended Northeastern University, where she received B.A., M.A., and M.Ed. degrees. In 1968 she became the first female announcer at Northeastern's campus radio station, WNEU (now WRBB).^[4] Halper went on to a career that included 12 years on the air, in Cleveland, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

She also was a music director and gave new bands their start. While working at WMMS in Cleveland, Halper discovered the rock band Rush. Halper helped get them signed to a record contract; as a result, the band dedicated their first two albums to her.^[5][6] Halper is also seen in the 2010 documentary about Rush, Beyond the Lighted Stage.^[7] On June 25, 2010, she was a speaker when Rush received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.^[8]

In 1980, Halper became a radio consultant. She has consulted for college and commercial radio stations in the United States, eastern Canada and Puerto Rico on aspects of operating a radio station.

In the late 1980s, Halper also began teaching college courses about broadcasting, media criticism, and media history. She taught part-time at Emerson College, in the journalism department and the Institute of Liberal Arts until the summer of 2008, when she accepted a position as assistant professor of communication at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1987–88, Halper taught courses at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire on radio programming. She has also taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Massachusetts Boston. In May 2011, she earned a Ph.D. in communication from UMass Amherst.^[9]

While acknowledging that she does not always agree with him, Halper is a fan of Joseph Farah, the founder of WorldNetDaily.com, and "makes the site required reading for her students at Lesley University."^[10]

A media and social historian, Halper has written essays for encyclopedias and magazines. She does speaking engagements about the history of broadcasting, bringing with her a collection of rare memorabilia.^[11] She has been a guest expert on NPR, PBS, the History Channel, and on local television stations WCVB-TV and NECN, commenting on media history.^[12]

Her expertise is in women and minorities in media history, talk radio, and individual entrepreneurs whose contributions to broadcasting have been overlooked. Among the forgotten broadcast pioneers whose careers she has researched are John Shepard III, Eunice Randall, and Big Brother Bob Emery.

References

External links

• Halper's business website
• Icons of Talk: The Media Mouths That Changed America
• "Why a liberal Jewish feminist loves WND"