NPR’s number one problem is the repetitive structure of their feature stories, and their reach for a younger audience. As to the first, with so much news to cover in the day (9/11, Katrina, Iraq, 2008 Election) many features are needed to cover it all. This means more reporters who are trained in the NPR model. It’s more important to cover the issues than be creative with story structure, timing, and sound elements. NPR is more like a daily newspaper, filling the void left by the dying print media.

Their second problem is new media and new audiences. Podcasting, blogging, video, and whatever else comes along is a waste of time. When you’ve got 99.99% of your audience listing one way, why would you devote so much effort to the .01%? That’s not to say you should abandon new media. It has it’s place, but it should only be afforded the time it deserves.

NPR will never penetrate the 18-25 market. No matter how hard they try they’ll never be The Daily Show. Kids and young adults don’t listen to radio news. Are you listening The Bryant Park Project? It’s something you come to as you get mature–and have a job that requires you sit in ridiculous traffic on aging infrastructure.

Radio is radio, and always will be. As long as there are free broadcasts that can be received on a car stereo, new media and new audiences will be forever on the outside looking in. NPR news all sounds the same, and that needs to change. Nevertheless, it’s the best daily news broadcast service in the world.

In my experience, it’s been the single that changed and not the many. This is not meant as an insult. We all change, and what was once important can now seem trivial.

I STILL don’t know.

Seriously, I sympathize with your frustration, but this disjointed rant did nothing to clear up my confusion. All I can extract from it is something like, “Boy, their new album isn’t nearly as good as their early stuff. I used to like them a lot — now, not so much.” But I’m still not sure why you think that, or for that matter why I think pretty much the same thing.

Just for an example, if you want to talk vintage, golden-age NPR, wouldn’t you think a good place to start would be Susan Stamberg? I mean, she has been there so long that she published a book of highlights from ten years of All Things Considered — in 1982! Surely she ought to be an example of how good NPR used to be. But these days I can hardly stand to listen to her. Maybe she’s doing things differently, but that’s not the way I remember it.

I do know that the arch, superior tone of NPR programming — the presentation rather than the content — has been an irritant to me for as long as I can remember. It runs counter to everything I know about effective broadcast announcing. I tolerate it for the sake of the content.

I don’t know, maybe I AM missing your point. What was it again?

When the smug superiority of NPR drives me to change the station, I switch over to AM… and find it the other end of a terrible spectrum. It’s Talk Radio for morons, even worse than the elitist jerks on public radio.

Terry Gross is an example (I see you mentioned her show). I loved Fresh Air for years, but began to be turned off more recently. Sometimes she doesn’t listen to an answer at all, and follows up immediately with a complete non sequitur. I know one doesn’t want any dead air, but can she at least pretend to have heard the responses?

Sometimes the smugness comes through even when english is a second language for the presenter. “Pacfic Time” comes to mind, especially under its previous host.

As you say, they’re blindly following a formula… and it’s making my ears bleed. If I hear actress Linda Hunt tell me ONE MORE TIME … “Join me now…” for City Arts & Lectures… I mean, I like and respect her work, and think maybe should could write marginally more interesting introductions and promo spots for her show. Why does a really good, serious actress sound like she’s reading cue cards? Answer: she’s on auto-pilot like the rest.

I remember your post about your father, and atheism. I remember half a dozen others that where truly fascinating, or introduced me to some music I liked (Michelle Malone, for example. Also the Paul Melancon… how do you type a cedilla in Courier?). It’s been quite a while since I felt that way about NPR.

But then, maybe we’re both just becoming cranky old men. Maybe it was always this way, but one only notices after a decade or so. I should go listen to some very old shows, and see.

Second, the idea of having decentralized podcasts strikes me as downright bizarre. To justify this, you make the claim that the local affiliates are the “real customer”. It seems that if there is a real “customer” it is you and I, the listeners. We can give or choose not to give. The affiliates broadcast, collect donations, and produce local content. Something I do not see in your screed is that the “affiliates” (member stations) are — as far as I know — not obliged to buy NPR programming. They can buy programming from APM, PRI or BBC, or NPR. Member stations are also represented on the NPR Board of Directors, so I’m not seeing any case for NPR’s “hegemony.”

Prairie Home Companion is produced by APM, not NPR. APM is made up of Minnesota Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, and Greenspring. It is not NPR.

As for the supposed decline and fall of NPR programming, I think of programs like Only a Game and Wait, Wait, and have to disagree. Or, Weekend Edition Sunday today, which had great stories about the Digital DIY community and cows adjusting to daylight savings time.

Finally, I guess the implication of the last bit is that, if *you* don’t like NPR, well NPR must really be going down the tubes. I don’t follow you there. Has NPR grown up and changed? Yes, and I hope it continues to do so. Please, fill your podcasting folder with lots of stuff you love — and let us know what you discover.

I really do think the whole podcast listening experience does have something to it…we have just developed a different ear than we have previously.

I have also removed a number of NPR-style programs from my feeds over time…I’m down to Democracy Now (which isn’t really the same by any means, but it’s somewhat the same daily news format), and CBC Search Engine from the Canadian Broadcast Company, which is currently one of my absolute favorites. Weird how the CBC can do what NPR can’t…I may have to try Morning Stories, though! Let me head over to Amigofish…*grin*.