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WOUB Member Spotlight: Cita Strauss
< < Back to woub-member-spotlight-cita-straussStrauss has been a member of WOUB since 1982
ATHENS, OH – When Cita Strauss came to Athens, Ohio from Cincinnati to attend Ohio University in 1973, she had no idea she’d make the area her permanent home.
“There are so many people who come to school here and stay,” said Strauss. “There’s something about this place.”
Strauss graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance. In 1978, she and a fellow Ohio University graduate started Factory Street Studio. The dance studio provides non-competitive dance education in Southeast Ohio, promoting dance technique, self-esteem, personal growth, and a cooperative spirit.
“We owned the studio for four years. The studio is now a nonprofit,” said Strauss. “It’s an honor to see something you created live on with such wonderful values and a strong mission.”
During her career, Strauss also worked in development at the Ohio University’s College of Arts and Sciences and was director of Athens County Habitat for Humanity. She is now a certified Pilates instructor.
“Pilates is great because it really works our core strength and our more distal articulation,” said Strauss. “It works our bones and muscles while teaching alignment and keeping the brain and body working strong.”
In her spare time, Strauss also does work with many community organizations. She is on the programming committee for Rural Action and is a Friends of the Library board member. She also is involved in the Democratic party and supports women’s issues at Planned Parenthood. Strauss enjoys gardening on her 10-acre property and being a grandmother.
“I also enjoy traveling, but I haven’t been able to travel the last couple of years due to COVID,” said Strauss. “I have been to 28 countries, and I study Spanish.”
Strauss has been a member of WOUB Public Media since 1982 and knows how important it is to the region from firsthand experience.
“I was living in rural Washington County in the winter of 1977/78,” said Strauss. “We couldn’t pick up any television and WOUB radio was all we could get. Having access to what was going on in Athens and the world was vital. I am a big fan of both WOUB AM and FM. I switch back and forth. I love my mornings with NPR. I also enjoy The Takeaway and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! I used to love Car Talk when it was on. I would be driving and would start laughing so hard. Then I would pass a friend on the road and see that they were laughing in their car, and I knew they were listening to Car Talk as well.”
Strauss also had the opportunity to host a Conversations from Studio B program on WOUB AM where she interviewed her now deceased mother, Dana Strauss.
“My mother was a World War II veteran and a Revolutionary War scholar,” said Strauss. “She died on July 4, 2000, and I treasure that recorded interview.”
When Strauss’ daughter was young, she relied on WOUB TV for the children’s educational programming.
“My daughter loved Bob Ross before loving Bob Ross was cool,” said Strauss chuckling. “I was also in that first generation of mothers who benefitted from Sesame Street.”
Strauss’s daughter is now a senior editor at Random House in New York City and one of the books she edited, Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch, was a 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
WOUB is an important part of Strauss’s life, and it’s something she feels is very important to support financially.
“It is supporting the public good. WOUB provides educated and thoughtful programming, and I appreciate that it tries to be neutral in the information it presents,” said Strauss. “I also appreciate the local hosts who get up early in the morning, like Chris Riddle and Robin Barnes. There is so much media to choose from today, but WOUB is still what I gravitate to.”