VOICE AND SOUL OF ‘ALL THINGS’ : SIEGEL-MONTAIGNE DUO CLICK ON NPR

WASHINGTON — What if CBS had lost first Walter Cronkite and then, bam, Dan Rather--from its evening news. It would have been panic in the hallways at network headquarters.

The departure this year of Susan Stamberg, then Noah Adams, from the prize-winning public radio news show “All Things Considered” did not cause public hysteria at National Public Radio headquarters. But the search for new hosts was, at the least, intense.

Stamberg had, in her 14 years of hosting NPR’s flagship show, developed a loyal following, and her husky voice was the show’s signature. During the last several years, Adams developed his own coterie of fans as co-host of the in-depth magazine-style show.

NPR finally chose new hosts from within its ranks, putting news executive Robert Siegel and science reporter Renee Montaigne in the Stamberg-Adams seats. They are the new voice and soul of this 16-year-old program, which boasts a weekly evening audience of 3.7 million listeners in cars and kitchens across the nation.

Wise-cracking Siegel brings 20 years of hard news experience to the job, which finds expression in his “seen-it-all” voice. Montaigne, whose approach is more artsy and intimate, serves as his foil. Together they’ve inherited an influential role in radio reportage.

Earlier this year, “ATC” plunged into an identity crisis.

Stamberg left the show in February to become the host of the still-gestating Sunday sibling to “ATC,” “Weekend Edition.” Adams, a five-year veteran, left shortly thereafter to develop a successor to Garrison Keillor’s popular “A Prairie Home Companion,” produced by Minnesota Public Radio and syndicated through NPR rival American Public Radio. The double blow would have killed most “personality” radio shows.

Siegel and Montaigne feel the weight of their hand-me-down mantle, but they consider it a good fit. A few hundred loving letters to the former hosts haven’t dismayed them, and mail in their name has been favorable so far. They claim to be comfortable with their roles and willing to test their limits.

Siegel, 39, is sensitive to the listeners’ demands. For the last four years he served as director of the network’s News and Information Department, which produces ATC, “Morning Edition” and “Weekend Edition.”

Listeners “count on us to be accurate and intelligent,” he said, “to address them in an appropriate way, to ask good questions on their behalf.”

Siegel joined NPR as an associate producer in 1977. Several positions later--including a stint as senior editor for the London Bureau--he knows the medium well.

“Public radio occupies a rung in society that is exceptionally important,” Siegel explained in his well-worn office at the network’s Washington headquarters. “It is an institution where we build bridges between high culture and mass society. Fitting into that process is something very gratifying.”

Montaigne see other attractions in hosting “ATC.” She sees her role as a facilitator for other people’s conversations. “Here you get people at their most intense, talking about something they really care about, having an experience unlike any they’ve had before,” she said.

“If you get them to be themselves and say something in a powerful way, the people listening will be touched emotionally and enlightened to some extent.”

The 37-year-old Montaigne began her career in 1974 as news director of a small San Francisco radio station. Her studies in English at the University of California had increased her interest in writing and literature, but her career took her into news and science reporting for Pacific News Service and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., among others. She joined the public radio network as a health and science reporter two years ago.

“I see myself more as a reporter than a personality,” she said, assessing her new post. “I’m curious about lots of things. I wake up in the morning fascinated by what people have done the night or day before, or what they will do that day.”

From the spring of 1985 to the spring of 1986, according to Arbitron figures, “All Things Considered’s” audience grew by 12.9%. NPR says it does not have any newer year-to-year comparative figures, for the period since Stamberg left.

Siegel and Montaigne would like to see the show attempt more personal and long-term projects. Public radio news, in contrast to TV or commercial radio, generally provides reporters the luxury of several minutes rather than seconds per story. “ATC,” the hosts say, will strive for even greater depth, with more documentaries and highly produced pieces.

ATC Senior Producer Art Silverman says he’d like to expand the show’s scope with more “grass-roots reporting.”

“I want to create a place where you meet people away from where the news is happening,” he says. “There’s a great deal of unexpected humor, warmth, heartache and intellectual curiosity in the many corners of our country.”

“ATC” is the most popular program distributed to NPR’s 331 member stations. Demographic dissections of its audience reveal a well-educated and largely professional listenership. A recent mail-in poll by the Washington Journalism Review showed readers consider “ATC” the best in broadcasting.

The one point on which both the program and the network are repeatedly criticized is their perceived “liberal bias.” NPR has been referred to by industry wags as “Radio Sandinista” for its heavy scrutiny of the U.S.- contra connection. And a critique by The New Republic called “All Things Distorted” said “the left-wing agenda dominates” the show.

Siegel’s response to such charges is the equivalent of a shrug.

“I think there are biases of journalism which seem particularly liberal,” he said. “We aggressively question what may be merely accepted elsewhere. If that seems ‘liberal,’ so be it. But I don’t think we’re particularly liberal.”

On the other hand, listeners supply a constant tide of fan mail testifying to “ATC’s” accessibility. They make suggestions and are often gratified with on-air replies.

Siegel says he is delighted with his new-found notoriety and the benefits of the job.

“It gives vent to a breadth of interests,” he states. “We follow a very, very broad array of stories, meet very interesting people, get to work in radio and actually get paid for this.”