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"Exciting News"

E

Element9

That's how WBFO is spinning the forthcoming end of Talk of the Nation, which today wraps a 21 year run on NPR. Program host Neal Conan has been with NPR for 35 years and hosted the program for 12 years, but NPR is showing him the door. He appears to be taking it well. He'll probably receive some nice parting gift$, which is more than most who spend 36 years in radio receive. "Exciting changes?" Hardly. But don't blame WBFO for trying to make chicken salad out of chicken squat. It's Marketing 201 and the station has no say in the matter. Give NPR marginal credit. It's a lousy decision, most likely driven by economics, but at least the network is allowing Conan say goodbye. Rarely does this happen in commercial radio.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=196242323
 
I was listening the other day and heard the news about TOTN. I was a little taken back. I always thought it was one of the best and most successful shows on NPR. ?
 
I'm pretty sure I heard that it was Neal's choice to depart NPR rather than accept a reassignment. He mentioned on his last show that he's going to spend the next six months enjoying some R & R. After that, no doubt we'll be hearing from him again. Not only is Neal leaving NPR, but so is political junkie Ken Rudin. I'm not happy with NPR's decision here. But all of us in radio are well aware that the one constant in our industry is change.
 
The daily grind can be tough, especially when you're the lone host of one of these shows. He met his wife there a long time ago, they had two kids together, and they recently divorced. If I were a betting man, I'd say he might want to call some minor league baseball games somewhere. He wrote a book on the subject a few years ago.
 
SirRoxalot said:
Cuts were unavoidable. NPR has to pay for their new broadcast palace somehow.
Click to expand...

According to the link in my previous post, the cuts were because of a $7 million deficite. Not the building.
 
If NPR hadn't built itself a fancy new building with state of the art equipment, they wouldn't have a "deficite" (sic).

Notice that almost everything NPR distributes is produced by someone else...

The only thing they have left are the drive-time news-magazines (plus Weekend Edition) and Tell Me More. Talk shows and weekend shows are out-sourced.

Neal left because they took his show away. Like Bob Edwards. I feel for the guy. First his wife bails and then he loses his job.

That said, I could only stand to listen to TOTN for the actual interview. Once they started taking calls, I bailed. Terrible questions from insufferably earnest people. Terry Gross is right not to take calls. Too bad other public radio shows don't learn from her example.
 
FredLeonard said:
If NPR hadn't built itself a fancy new building with state of the art equipment, they wouldn't have a "deficite" (sic).
Click to expand...

Source please.

The deficit was in 2011. You just posted the 2012 financials, and it clearly shows the deficit has been solved.

Plus, as the link I posted states, the decision wasn't totally financial. All employees were offered positions with the company. NPR is getting out of the call in business.
 
FredLeonard said:
Terrible questions from insufferably earnest people. Terry Gross is right not to take calls. Too bad other public radio shows don't learn from her example.
Click to expand...

"Insufferably earnest." I have to admit to liking the turn of that phrase. Perhaps you'd prefer the echo-chamber parrots that call commercial talk radio shows. Talk about insufferably earnest. Comfortably dumb.

TheBigA said:
NPR is getting out of the call in business.
Click to expand...

I can understand why NPR may be moving away from the call-in model. It's yesterday's talk show platform. It would be no surprise if more (AM) commercial talkers follow suite, getting the message far too late. Most of the 27 repeat offenders who call the two leading local commercial talk shows in Buffalo sound angry and old. The callers heard on the rimshot AMs are worse. They're effin' certifiable! And they drone on forever because the rimshot talk show hosts have no clue and get little if any direction. Any wonder why listeners under 50 aren't attracted to this model of talk radio whether it's on AM or FM?
 
They must have been paying Neal Conan a LOT of money if firing him solved the deficit problem.

Talk of the Nation was one of the few opportunities for public interaction on NPR. The callers could sometimes be "insufferably earnest", but sometimes they brought up points of view that weren't represented on the show. Tweets and e-mails became a bigger part of the discussion as time went on for the same reason.

The program was called "TALK of the Nation", so that element was important to the show. At least Conan's screeners kept the level of discourse pretty high most of the time. Conan was generally patient, but firm in moving on from callers - considerably different from commercial talk show hosts. I don't believe he ever used the words "dumb ass".

I didn't always agree with Conan, or his selection of guests, but I suspect that his roster of those representing the extremes of either side of the political spectrum was pretty short because his show was all about looking for solutions, or explaining basic policy disagreements, not simply spouting talking points from either side.

Intelligent talk on the radio, complete with the unscripted and unexpected. I'll miss it.
 
Element9 said:
FredLeonard said:
Terrible questions from insufferably earnest people. Terry Gross is right not to take calls. Too bad other public radio shows don't learn from her example.
Click to expand...

"Insufferably earnest." I have to admit to liking the turn of that phrase. Perhaps you'd prefer the echo-chamber parrots that call commercial talk radio shows. Talk about insufferably earnest. Comfortably dumb.
Click to expand...

Why do you assume because I don't like one thing, I must like some other thing?

For the record, I'd rather hear real interviews. Terry Gross. Or the CBC's "As It Happens." Call-in shows almost never use callers effectively, certainly not Talk of the Nation. About the only example of a good use of callers is Michael Jackson, or going back aways, Brad Crandall. Otherwise, you're right, dumb questions or ditto-heads - both with an insufferable measure of sucking up.

On Point is a big improvement (assuming NPR doesn't mess it up).
 
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