Bob Boilen
American radio host
Bob B Boilen (born April 10, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American musician and media personality. He was the host and creator of NPR's online music show All Songs Considered and the co-creator of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, a series originally conceived of by NPR's Stephen Thompson. He retired from NPR in October 2023 after 35 years.
Since 2021, Boilen has hosted the weekly show My Tiny Morning Show on WOWD-LP.
Career
In 1978, Bob Boilen played synthesizers in the Washington, D.C. band Tiny Desk Unit. They were the first band to ever play the 9:30 Club at the original location at 930 'F' Street. From 1982 to 1986, Boilen filled a variety of roles including composer with Baltimore's Impossible Theater. He also worked as a producer for Channel 50, and produced Science Live for the Discovery Channel. He joined NPR in 1988 and "was hired to work on the flagship news program All Things Considered on a temporary basis. Less than a year later, he became the director of the show". He held that position until 2007.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bob Boilen” is american radio host. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Boilen, American and radio, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american radio host” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4931862. VIAF identifies the subject as 65767402. The Library of Congress control number is n97846766. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 2023, 2021 and 1978.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bob Boilen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bob Boilen primary sources, Bob Boilen archive and Boilen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bob Boilen”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bob Boilen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.