Fiona Ritchie

Fiona Ritchie
At Univ. of Stirling, UK — Jan 2011
Born	1960 (age 56–57)
Show	The Thistle & Shamrock
Station(s)	NPR
Country	Scotland
Website	Official website

Fiona Karen Ritchie MBE (born 1960) is a Scottish radio broadcaster best known as the producer and host of The Thistle & Shamrock, an hour-long Celtic music program that airs weekly throughout the United States on National Public Radio (NPR). She also curates ThistleRadio, a 24/7 web-based music channel devoted to new and classic music from Celtic roots and is co-author of the New York Times Best Seller Wayfaring Strangers.

The radio program has won numerous awards since its inception in 1981, offering a fusion of traditional and contemporary Celtic sounds, interwoven with interviews, in-studio performances and Ritchie’s own trademark commentary in her “soft Scots” dialect.

Ritchie was born and raised in Scotland, where she went to the University of Stirling for her undergraduate education. While there, she was invited to spend one semester in North Carolina in the United States, and that was when she first heard NPR. After graduating in Scotland she returned to North Carolina and, although initially pursuing post-graduate research, was hired by WFAE FM, the NPR station in Charlotte, to oversee fundraising and promotion efforts. In her early years, Ritchie guest hosted live radio shows featuring everything from Big Band to Classical music, also producing and presenting many live concerts.

WFAE was a new station open to new ideas and in 1981 Ritchie began a weekly hour of Celtic music for its local audience. The Thistle & Shamrock was picked up for national broadcast less than two years after this debut. The program's national following grew quickly and it was soon established as one of NPR's most widely heard and best-loved music offerings. During her years based in North Carolina, Ritchie visited radio stations coast-to-coast across the US, presenting live broadcasts and events, and in 1989 and 1990, traveled to 22 US cities with The Thistle & Shamrock Concert Tour.

Fiona Ritchie has come full circle to re-settle and create her radio programs at home in Scotland. On numerous return trips to the United States, she has visited and raised funds for NPR member stations everywhere from Louisiana to Alaska, and hosted festival concerts from Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts to Chicago's Grant Park. Along the way she has forged a strong association with the United States, and made a unique contribution to the American airwaves. In 2003 the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage honored her for “creating an on-air community, serving as a musical ambassador, and connecting listeners with the best of traditional and contemporary artistry.”