Talk show host and McDaniel Trustee Diane Rehm (left), whose two-hour daily program The Diane Rehm Show has been a tradition for more than 25 years on public radio station WAMU in Washington, D.C., and distributed to NPR Member stations around the country since 1995, began broadcasting on the new NPR Berlin channel (104.1 FM) in Germany on April 3. Berlin and Brandenberg residents are able to join the global conversation live weekdays at 4 p.m. CET (10 a.m. ET) when the program’s first hour, devoted to critical news issues and analysis, opens the phone lines to listeners.

“The Diane Rehm Show” has aired globally on satellite through NPR Worldwide since 1996 and now will be part of the daytime schedule on NPR Berlin, a new free over-the-air radio station that will broadcast, as part of its NPR Worldwide schedule, the “First Lady” of public radio talk programming.

According to a news release from WAMU, Rehm said, “The expanding reach of ‘The Diane Rehm Show’ provides yet another opportunity to demonstrate the universal appeal of good conversation conducted in a civil manner.”

Rehm's international influence will again be in evidence when she travels to Italy as the inaugural recipient of the Urbino Press Award from the Province of Pesaro e Urbino. Created to recognize outstanding work by American journalists, Rehm was chosen for her “long and prestigious career in journalism and…special focus on the problems of human frailty.” The award will be presented to her at a May 11 ceremony at the 500-year-old ducal palace of Federico da Montefeltro.

The Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., offered a preview of the award at a ceremony held March 13. The Urbino Award marks Rehm’s first international accolade. For Rehm this award signifies the critical role journalism plays in a democracy and the benefit of both the world’s electorate and those who make the decisions to hear each other’s words.

Rehm’s daily program airs on 99 stations around the country, with more than 1.6 million listeners weekly. In 1992 she was awarded an honorary degree in journalism from McDaniel and was elected to its board of trustees in 1994.