What do you want to change about the sound of public radio?

Nicely put, Rich. May I add under Number two that NPR makes it frustratingly difficult to pitch stories when you're working at a local public radio station. There are endless hoops to jump through and often the network will turn to an established name for stories even if he or she lives far outside the area.

I'm hungry for a greater diversity of voices. I mean hosts, guests, subjects. For me, the big revelation when This American Life began wasn't Ira's delivery, it was his skill drawing meaning out of people--not sources.

More attention to the intangibles--race, class, why we can't stop consuming.

Less form, more function. Viva Abumrad! Viva Krulwich! Viva Alix Spiegel & Chana Joffe-Walt!

Listeners will follow us if we wean them off the 24 hour news cycle, and deliver real story.

The thing about the public media and other hangouts of liberals (and I am in that group!) is that they always a lot of discussion about diversity and people taking action to make different environments more diverse. And that is a good thing. But so often, categories such as race, gender, religion etc are almost used as a proxy for the thing no one in the US wants to talk about and that is class. This leads to rather odd situations like the time a coworker told me he lived in a diverse community because several black families lived on his street... but it is in a GATED COMMUNITY. HELLO! Economic problems such as poverty are correlated with race and gender but lets really talk about the class issues themselves instead of talking around them. And while I am on this rant I really cannot think of any authentic sounding working class voices on my local WUNC affiliate.** It seems like more working class and poor people (the ones I know anyway) would rather listen to AM talk radio. But then every election cycle when the same people vote conservatively and seemingly against their own economic interest, public radio has no lack of political pundits wondering aloud at the mystery of the working class and why more of them do not vote Democratic. Duh. It is very disingenuous to judge them like that if you do not give them space on your part of the radio dial.

Oh oh.. I do not want to let go of this rant yet. This reminds me of the other thing that bothers me a lot and that is how there seems to be no real political discourse anymore. In terms of the radio... you have a lot of liberals listening to liberals on public radio and a bunch of conservatives listening to conservatives on AM talk radio... so how do you create a space where people are truly interested in listening to folks who disagree with them?

** In fairness I think Dick Gordon has a pretty good variety of guests. He is not just looking for famous people or political talking heads but he interviews a lot of real folks. And John Biewen has done great documentary work. Actually most of the long form documentary work I have heard from what used to be American Radio Works has been pretty incredible and has touched on issues like class. But what I would really like to hear are host voices that sound more diverse. Here is an example:

http://www.publicradioquest.com/audio/user/1639

good read

... however is more "talk" and "discussion" really the way to win hearts and minds... and listeners for that matter?

Sometimes people get overloaded with all the information and interviews.

Radio 4 on BBC has a great model. News - Talk - Comedy - Quizzes - Arts and Drama.

I think US public radio has got the first two covered pretty nicely... maybe too nicely.

Mankind cannot live on bread alone (sometimes you've got to have toast).

I'm not sure if digital radio will allow public radio stations to have multiple channels, but if they have the means, it might be interesting to think about having three channels each with primary focus of 1) news and talk 2) music and entertainment and 3) arts and drama. And each should share programming and focus on a local voice so they don't become carbon copies of the niche stations on satellite radio.

-Rich

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Rich,

I agree 100% of your assessment and I would love to have that. However, the difference is the BBC is controlled by the audience and the government (there's a media governance). If there is an audience for a show, the government will renew it. Public shows are based on a variety of stuff, which include pledges from us. In the U.S., we take news and talk seriously, thus the more money spent in that area. I wish the money I pledge go to comedies and others, but I can't control that, it's the public audience with the money that makes the decision.

In the U.S., we take news and talk seriously, thus the more money spent in that area.

Then money is very, very, very boring. And with the state of the world today, it can be very depressing as well.

...A self fulfilling prophecy that feeds on itself. It certainly can't be good for our cutural psyche.

I find that when I'm down, I usually spend my money on the wrong things... or not at all (assuming lack of money isn't causing my sour mood in the first place).

Whatever must be done to make public radio better shouldn't be a mission to try to 'outshine' the other media and entertainment choices people have. I hope nobody has the idea of strapping a big bombastic audio strobe light to public radio. Please no...

Sadly, there's no way to go back to a time when individual station owners or consortiums could take more "risks" with local talent and odd programming choices... like "album side Thursdays". A laughable concept today... (or is it when you have a computer acting as your board-monkey).

I blame deregulation - "free" trade and that nasty old internet... (the only reason I know so much about Radio 4 and what I'm missing).

Bad Zoot... Naughty Zoot

-Rich

Whew... thank goodness for the edit function. :-)