After 11 years and 1,500 episodes, J.D. Reeder has announced his retirement of hosting “The Reader’s Notebook” on Morehead State Public Radio.
“I hope the program has caused people to read more and think about what they read because I believe learning is meant to go on as long as life does,” said Reeder.
Since 2014, “The Reader’s Notebook” has been researched, written, and hosted by J. D. Reeder, a retired educator, historian, and writer.
Familiar with listeners of Morehead State Public Radio, the locally produced weekday segment has aired during Classical Music with Greg Jenkins, Midday News, and NPR’s All Things Considered. The series offered a variety of daily topics including arts and entertainment, history, literature, philosophy, and science.
“I deliberately chose topics that I knew little or nothing about because it was an effective way to stimulate my own interest and curiosity about a broad range of topics. I learned something new from every segment I wrote,” said Reeder. “I also looked at this as a teaching opportunity. A teacher is what I am and what I do, even 30 years after retiring.”
Reeder says he genuinely enjoyed learning throughout the process and finding topics with a broad, general appeal.
“I’ve had positive feedback with segments centered on holidays and observances, particularly the Thanksgiving episode that first aired in 2014, and repeated each year thereafter,” commented Reeder. “Segments dealing with word and phrase origins were fun to do, as were the ones on local history and quirky disasters, such as the Great Beer Flood in London, England in 1814, which aired on the 200th anniversary of the event on October 17, 2014.”
Reeder intends to host one final segment of “The Reader’s Notebook,” airing on Morehead State Public Radio the week of September 1. Past segments are archived on WMKY’s website (www.wmky.org).
Morehead State Public Radio (WMKY at 90.3FM) broadcasts from historic Breckinridge Hall on the campus of Morehead State University. Additional information is available by contacting Paul Hitchcock, MSPR general manager, at (606) 783-2001, e-mail at p.hitchc@moreheadstate.edu, and online at www.wmky.org