For decades, Greek Americans in New York knew Cosmos FM through the voices that came across the airwaves: the journalists, musicians, commentators, priests and community figures who helped keep listeners connected to Greece and to one another.
Behind many of those voices was Ioanna Antzoulis-Giannopoulos.
The longtime Director of Operations of Hellenic Public Radio–Cosmos FM died suddenly on Sunday, August 23, while visiting Greece with her family. Her death came, poignantly, on her birthday.
GAEPIS, the nonprofit organization behind Cosmos FM, announced her passing with what it described as “profound sadness and broken hearts,” calling Giannopoulos not simply an employee but a trusted colleague, mentor, friend and central member of the Cosmos FM family.
Her death was first shared with listeners Sunday morning by Cosmos FM producer and former executive director Stelios Taketzis, who altered the station’s programming as news of her passing spread through New York’s Greek-American community. According to Greek-American media reports, Giannopoulos was in her native Fthiotida during her annual summer visit to Greece when she died suddenly. No cause of death has been announced. Greek News USA reported on her sudden death and her final trip to Greece
What made Giannopoulos important to Cosmos FM was not necessarily what listeners heard on the air. It was everything that had to happen behind it.
Producers and volunteers affectionately referred to her as the “Μάνα του Λόχου”—a Greek expression suggesting the person who watches over everyone and somehow keeps the entire group functioning. Years before her death, another prominent figure in Greek-American communal life had found a different description. When Leadership 100 Executive Director Paulette Poulos accepted the Phidippides Award in 2023, she singled Giannopoulos out by name, calling her the “Guardian Angel of Cosmos FM.” Leadership 100 recorded Poulos’ tribute to Giannopoulos at the 2023 Phidippides Award ceremony
It was an apt description for a woman whose connection to Greek-language radio stretched back more than half a century.
Born in Lamia and raised in Athens, Giannopoulos moved with her family to Brooklyn in 1973. At just 18, she worked on the daily Greek-language “Paralikas Show” on New York’s legendary WEVD radio station.
She studied English writing at New York University and later earned a Liberal Arts degree from Brooklyn College. But her first chapter in radio would be interrupted by another priority: raising her sons, George and Thomas.
During those years, Giannopoulos became deeply involved with the Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox community in Brooklyn, serving as president of its Parent-Teacher Organization, on its school board and with Philoptochos. While working in the family business, she also took evening courses in accounting and computer science.
Then, decades after that first teenage experience in Greek radio, she returned.
In 2001, Giannopoulos joined GAEPIS and Cosmos FM as a volunteer. She later became an administrative assistant and, in 2006, Director of Operations—a position she would hold for the next two decades. Cosmos FM’s own biographical profile traces her path from Brooklyn and WEVD back to Greek-American radio
Her work placed her at the operational center of one of New York’s longest-running Greek-American media institutions. Founded under GAEPIS in 1987, Cosmos FM has used radio and, increasingly, digital media to provide Greek- and English-language programming focused on Greece, Cyprus, culture, religion, music and the Greek diaspora. Cosmos FM continues that mission today through Hellenic Public Radio
Giannopoulos helped make that mission happen day after day—often in the unglamorous spaces where community institutions actually survive: schedules, volunteers, events, fundraising, correspondence, technical problems and the countless details that rarely carry a byline or reach a microphone.
Her contribution was formally recognized in 2018, when the Association of Greek American Professional Women honored her with its Greek American Woman of the Year Award.
But the response to her death suggests that the more meaningful recognition may have come from the people who worked beside her.
GAEPIS said Giannopoulos “gave so much of herself to our station,” recalling her professionalism, generosity, compassion and willingness to devote countless hours to the organization and the community it serves.
“Her presence brought strength and heart to GAEPIS–Cosmos FM,” the organization said.
There are people whose contribution to a community is easy to measure because their names appear on buildings, programs or awards. And then there are the people who quietly make the institutions themselves possible.
For Cosmos FM, Ioanna Antzoulis-Giannopoulos appears to have been one of those people.
She is survived by her family, including her sons George and Thomas. Funeral arrangements had not yet been announced at the time of publication.
May her memory be eternal.
