Former WHIO anchor to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

WASHINGTON D.C. — A former WHIO anchor will receive the Nation’s highest civilian honor today.

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Phil Donahue is one of 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Friday.

The Cleveland native started working in the Miami Valley in 1959 as a WHIO TV reporter where he gained a reputation for his perceptive interviewing technique, according to Britannica.com.

Donahue hosted “Conversation Piece,” an afternoon call-in talk show, from 1963 to 1967 on WHIO Radio.

He left WHIO in 1967 and moved his talk program, “The Phil Donahue Show” to another Dayton TV station with a studio audience. It became nationally syndicated in 1970.

His daytime talk show was the first to feature audience participation, the White House said.

Donahue moved his show from Dayton to Chicago in 1974 and then to New York in 1984. His show ended in 1996.

His wife, actress Marlo Thomas, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom back in 2014.

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The other recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom are Michael Bloomberg, Greg Boyle, Rep. James Clyburn, Elizabeth Dole, Medger Evans (posthumous), Al Gore, Clarence B. Jones, John Kerry, Frank Lautenberg (posthumous), Katie Ledecky, Opal Lee, Ellen Ochoa, Nancy Pelosi, Jane Rigby, Teresa Romero, Judy Shepard, Jim Thorpe (posthumous), and Michelle Yeoh.

“These 19 Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better. They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields,” the White House said. “They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.”

The awards will be presented later today at the White House.

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