Gillespie on NPR Today

I'll be on Talk of the Nation today at 2pm ET, discussing the upside(s) to taking NPR and PBS off the public teat.

Go here to find your local affiliate carrying the program.

Go here for Managing Editor Jesse Walker's recent take on the issue.

And go here for my 1995 (!) editorial on the then-hot issue of public funding for the arts, etc.

Comments

[Number 6]

Be sure to wear the black leather jacket.

[The Stalker]

Yeah, I want to hear it rubbing!

[Ammonium]

But Spontaneous Save Public Broadcasting Day was yesterday!

If I listen will I have to be subjected to "independent" NPR telling me to call my congressman to influence policy?

To balance this, will Gillespie get to produce similar PSAs asking us to support killing public broadcasting funding?

[Ken Shultz]

C'mon guys! ...This should be great!

[Brian]

Just up the monthly begathons to weekly.

Listen you moochers. Make with the greenbacks or it's Yanni. Hours and hours of Yanni.

[Rich Ard]

This has been interesting for me to read about, as it's one place where my philosophy and practice differ so completely - I listen to NPR during much of the day, and would suspect that few (if any) of us reading this post really needed a list of local affiliates.

Plus, let's be real - Diane Rehm is pretty hot.

[big and]

Funny, her in DC ToTN got preeempted today by an important broadcast about how it's hard to live on minumum wage. Who knew?

[Ammonium]

I've spent most of my life living in the middle of the country, and I don't think I've ever encountered anyone listening to public radio. Lots of different talk radio stations, but never public radio.

When I've spent some summers on the coasts, however, it seemed that everyone was listening to public radio. And it was torturous.

So I need a list of local affiliates. Of course, if it's anything like the local PBS, it will be impossible for me to get reception.

[Brian]

I listen to NPR. It gets a little earnest and could they cut back the 12 hour bluegrass marathons on the weekends? And yet. There's like 6 AM channels here and I cracked up once flipping through them in the car:

1) Limbaugh
2) Hannity
3) Limbaugh
4) G. Gordon Liddy
5) Limbaugh
6) some preacher

I'm getting satellite one of these days.

[Mitch]

There was a period of a few days when I had just moved and there was no computer and no TV and girlfriend was out of town, and I listened to NPR. At first I was excited to hear the discussions about sharks, birdwatching, sciencey/naturey stuff like that. But then it seemed like whenever I turned the radio on it was something like, "Today we present spoken word essays by convicted shoplifters who explain why our capitalist society causes and/or justifies their so-called crime," and I quickly lost interest.

[Ammonium]

I'm figuring out why nobody around here listens to NPR. I can only get half the stations they say I should get, and most of them are music. One has a local show and one a science show.

[Number 6]

I'm also an NPR listener, and my affiliate is more or less dead center in the country. KCUR out of Kansas City actually does very well in the ratings here-it's something like the fourth highest ratedstation in the nation.

BTW- Gillespie sounds good so far. And they're leaving his mic on.(!)

[Number 6]

That should be "highest rated station in the market."

[Jason Sonenshein]

...an important broadcast about how it's hard to live on minumum wage. Who knew?

What's next, an important broadcast about bears crapping in the woods? Or how about an important broadcast about the pope being Catholic?

[phocion]

That TotN was awesome. First of all, Nick was on fire. It was like arguing against the existence of God in a church, and winning. I also liked how Neal Conan let Nick sit in the whole time, while other guests came and went. Too bad all the NPR hosts don't have libertarian sidekicks. Finally, TotN faded out a blabbering congressman (and then let Nick diss the hell out of the guy when they came back). I always approve of that.

[Mark]

That congress guy was a scream.

Why do you make the children cry, Nick???

[Ken Shultz]

Nick's response to the but-what-about-the-children theme was (dare I say?) pefect.