‘ALL THINGS CONSIDERED,’ SHE WOULD RATHER NOT

Susan Stamberg, the homey dilettante anchorwoman of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” has hung up her anchor because she got tired of the daily grind.

The venerable co-host of radio’s longest-running daily newsmagazine said she began to think seriously about quitting during a leave of absence earlier this year when she was on a professional journalism fellowship. She also noted that in the past she has taken as much as a year off to write a book.

“I did a little farewell on the air this week and I had several people tell me, ‘You know, it’s amazing. You actually told the truth!’,” Stamberg told The Times.

The truth, she said, is that she had burned out from co-hosting the five-afternoon-a-week daily newsmagazine since its inception 15 years ago, even though her salary has climbed to about $60,000 a year and she has been regularly excused from her daily duties for long stretches of time.

NPR news reporter Wendy Kaufman will temporarily co-anchor with Noah Adams.

Whoever fills the slot permanently remains a question, but whoever it is will probably not duplicate the inquisitive “big sister” interview style of Stamberg. One of her peers once compared her technique to that of a next-door neighbor schmoozing over the back fence with politicians, painters and poets.

Asked who she thought might be a suitable replacement, Stamberg said, “There are a lot of other big sisters, moms and wives out there. Who knows what you’ll get? An adventure in anchors! Isn’t this exciting?”

She dismisses any danger to “All Things Considered” ’s popularity, now that she has opted to leave. The program is the mainstay of National Public Radio and is heard over 300 public stations. It airs in Los Angeles from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday over KCRW-FM (89.9) and KPCC-FM (89.3), 5 to 8 p.m. on KCSN-FM (88.5).

Last year NPR added a Saturday-morning version of the program called “Weekend Edition,” hosted by Scott Simon and broadcast locally over KCRW from 8 to 10 a.m. Stamberg said she plans to host a similar Sunday-morning program, beginning in January. No time slot has been set yet, but Stamberg said she intends to fill it with her trademark long, homey interviews.

In the meantime, she said, she will continue to be an irregular on-air reporter for “All Things Considered.” Her current project is a multipart series on the life of African author Beryl Markham, whose British expatriate life in Kenya paralleled that of her much celebrated contemporary, “Out of Africa” author Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen).

Stamberg will also make a guest appearance Monday on another public radio program: “Castaway’s Choice,” broadcast over KCRW at 1 p.m. Host John McNally asks different celebrities each week what 10 recordings they would take with them if they were a castaway on a desert island.

“I cheated,” Stamberg said. “My first choice was a recording of the complete works of Shakespeare.”

She also said she would take along Dave Brubeck’s “Balcony Rock” and “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff.

Her fan mail has increased substantially since her announcement that she would be leaving, she said. One loyal listener from Salem, Mass., said he was paying homage to Stamberg by making her the central character in a short story he was writing. Despite the setting, she said, she didn’t believe the story was about witches.