If you ran NPR/public radio

[FM 100 Means Music]

- Ira Glass will be removed as host of This American Life and replaced by the production team of The Story. TAL will essentially become The Story: Weekend Edition.

- Due to the fact that her spasmodic dysphonia has never healed and has only gotten worse, The Diane Rehm Show will revert back to its original name of Kaleidoscope and Ms. Rehm will be phased out over a sixth month period, with Susan Page, Steve Roberts, Terrence Smith, Frank Sesno, and Katty Kay serving as rotating Monday thru Friday hosts.

- Glynn Washington will be fired from Snap Judgement. The new producer and host will be required to share George Carlin’s misanthropic, cynical, bitter contempt for humanity, and stories chosen for Snap Judgement will reflect this new attitude.

- Production of Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me will be shifted from Chicago to WGBH Boston. WWDTM will become a studio-bound show with no audience. Faith Salie will replace Peter Sagal as host and the “Not My Job” segment will be expanded to fill the first half of the show. Caller segments will be eliminated and guest panelists will be of a more serious/intellectual nature than current panelists.

- Lourdes Garcia Navarro will be transferred to NPR’s Canadian desk and Lakshmi Singh (sp?) will be “promoted” to cover the Egyption/Yemen/Tunisia unrest. World of Opera’s Lisa Simeone will replace Singh as “drive time” news reader.

- World Café will be shortened to one hour and will focus exclusively on the genre known as “world music.”

- Terry Gross will take over as host of From the Top and will now conduct interviews with the young musicians that are intellectual in nature and will strive to avoid any “cute” or “cloying” moments.

- The people responsible for finding stories for The Story will be fired and replaced with researchers who can find guests more interesting than a woman who got locked in a closet for four days or a Miami physical therapist who suffered a nervous breakdown after working in post-earthquake Haiti.

- NPR will make a deal with the CBC to begin production of a daily Q: American Edition that will air at the 6PM hour on all NPR affiliates, with Jion Ghomeshi serving as host as he does for the original Q.

 

[MattParker]

Most every thing mentioned here is not produced by NPR. NPR and public radio are two different things.

This American Life is produced by Chicago Public Radio and distributed by PRI.
Diane Rehm is produced by WAMU and distributed by NPR.
Fresh Air is produced by WHYY and distributed by NPR.
World Cafe is produced by WXPN and distributed by NPR.
Snap Judgement is independently produced and distributed by PRX.
The Story is produced by North Carolina Public radio and distributed by APM.
Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me is produced by Chicago Public Radio and distributed by NPR.

NPR has no authority to order "affiliates" (sic) to air a program, let alone air it at a specific time. Member stations control NPR, not the other way around.

 

[mescutia]

Something tells me "FM 100 Means Music" would prefer NPR to be more like commercial radio.

 

[DonTheTrucker]

Production of Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me will be shifted from Chicago to WGBH Boston. WWDTM will become a studio-bound show with no audience. Faith Salie will replace Peter Sagal as host and the “Not My Job” segment will be expanded to fill the first half of the show. Caller segments will be eliminated and guest panelists will be of a more serious/intellectual nature than current panelists.

I don't even listen to public radio and I'm pretty sure that part is a joke.

 

[MattParker]

All NPR is public radio but not all public radio is NPR.

OK, if I ran NPR (and the way things look, Vivian Schiller's job will be open any time now) my priority would be to make NPR independent of of the so-called "member stations" and their A-Reps. The stations want to keep NPR tied to terrestrial radio and their own parochial interests. If NPR is going to survive and thrive it needs to become a multi-platform, new media content provider and distributor. The stations got Viv's predecessor fired for embracing new media but that is exactly what NPR needs to do.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

.....my priority would be to make NPR independent of of the so-called "member stations" and their A-Reps. The stations want to keep NPR tied to terrestrial radio and their own parochial interests. If NPR is going to survive and thrive it needs to become a multi-platform, new media content provider and distributor.

You raise a deep philosophical question for discussion. NPR was apparently created out of whole cloth by congress for one rather specific purpose: to be a resource to serve the needs of local "member stations". Yes, there is some constant tension within the family of "member stations". What a member station in Boston, NYC or Chicago values as an available resource could be significantly different than what is needed (and wanted) in Rome, GA or Casper, WY.

It would seem to me that for NPR to strike out and become "a being of-its-own-making" and focusing on pefecting new delivery programs that knife the "member stations" in the back would require some permission-giving legislation from Congress. Has that happened?

 

[MattParker]

You raise a deep philosophical question for discussion. NPR was apparently created out of whole cloth by congress for one rather specific purpose: to be a resource to serve the needs of local "member stations". Yes, there is some constant tension within the family of "member stations". What a member station in Boston, NYC or Chicago values as an available resource could be significantly different than what is needed (and wanted) in Rome, GA or Casper, WY.

It would seem to me that for NPR to strike out and become "a being of-its-own-making" and focusing on pefecting new delivery programs that knife the "member stations" in the back would require some permission-giving legislation from Congress. Has that happened?

Not yet. But if congress is going to take away or phase out government funding (via CPB) they should give public radio some additional maneuvering ability. Not that NPR would be totally "independent" of member stations. The stations would still be NPR's biggest client. NPR would have to provide them with products and services stations want to buy. They would still be a station "resource," as are APM, PRI and PRX.

NPR could function more like networks and distributors which provide programming and content to commercial stations. In fact, I'd like to see NPR compete with those networks and distributors in delivering content to commercial stations. Already at least one member station operates a regional news network for commercial radio stations. NPR would be in an excellent position to compete with the Westwood and Citadel networks in providing TOH news and long-form coverage.

And you might find the following interesting:
A Fan's Case for Ending Federal Support to Public Radio and Public TV
This article proposes selling content to commercial broadcasting plus possible "advertising" options. The writer also suggests that donations might increase if tax support ended on the theory that many listeners don't see an imperative to donate to an organization that already gets government funding.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Imagine this scenario. I open a simple hot-dog based fast food operation in my town. A friend in the next town over is impressed and quits his job to open a similar food location. Within two years there are nine of these shops in a 50 mile cirlcle here at the edge of the mountains.

Somehow we get connected with a fellow who is experienced in the meat processing business. We share with him all our dreams, our methods, our secrets. He agrees to create a provision service and begins manufacturing a custom wiener that really fits our business picture. It becomes a great business relationship and a great business success.

But after a few years our vendor is not content with his role so he comes up with a new hamburger mixture and he opens hamburger stores next to each of our hot-dog shops. We tussle and quarrel a bit.

A year later he comes out with a unique pizza formula and be opens a pizza shop next door to each of our hot-dog shops.

He knows our business techniques and he is using them to compete with us. He knows how we appeal to our customers and what our advertising methods are and he uses them to compete with us.

You think we might consider terminating our relationship? You think we might seek a new vendor? You think we might not open up our books anymore to his auditors and we might not tell him about this new shopper publication that is really working well for us. You think our relationship might begin to resemble a marriage where the fizz is no longer present?

So tell me again what is such a great idea about NPR walking away from a perfectly good marriage and making whoopee with several new girlfriends. If this polygamy scheme is truly good for the listeners and good for the nation, then maybe NPR can explain to the existing wife what a good arrangement it is for them, too.

 

[MattParker]

@GRC: Because it's not a "perfectly good marriage." The stations are "wedded" to obsolete technology. They are in complete denial; the world is changing and they don't want to change with it. The local stations are a bunch of small-minded petty, public sector bureaucrats trying to protect their respective turfs (and jobs). They are an albatross around the neck of NPR. If NPR does not get free, NPR goes down with them.

I'm sorry but your analogy is flawed. Local stations did not "get together" to create NPR. Congress did. NPR pre-dates most members. Those that were around at the beginning were a handful of "educational stations" to which hardly anyone listened.

Here is a better analogy: I have created a better hamburger. I offer franchises to a few local diners. I provide them with product and help them with marketing and promotion. Their businesses really take off. So does mine. Other people want franchises and they start-up restaurants under my banner. But unfortunately, I gave the old and new franchisees stock (and voting power) in my company. I want to introduce new menu items; they block me. Tastes are changing and I want to expand and start healthy menu restaurants or ethnic restaurants; they won't let me. I want to move into running corporate cafeterias; they don't like the idea of workers not going out to lunch. They want to keep the business where it was for the past 30 years, although public demand for hamburgers is declining. An organization must adapt or perish. If I don't get shed of these franchisees they are going to kill my business - and their own, but they won't see that.

 

[amfmxm]

Several thoughts...

Tax support is what makes "public" broadcasting public. It is also what gives Congress a measure of control over what pubcasters do and don't do. Should Congress now or ever eliminate taxpayer funding, it would be hard to justify any strings beyond those placed on any other non-comms--at the very least. And, frankly, with the clout that they have, it would not be hard to imagine them successfully lobbying the FCC to release them from non-comm restrictions, as well. But that's for another day and a different thread. Regardless of what the House does, the Senate & Prez ain't gonna let it happen.

As for NPR, I think Viv has tried to go too fast with her non-terrestrial initiatives and has been shortsighted in not enlisting full support and participation from NPR's member stations. I'll gently disagree with Matt in this regard. NPR's listeners are not abandoning (FM/AM) radio, they are merely--like the majority of all media users--expanding their media usage to include "new media." She is not wrong to develop those new channels, but she has been foolish not to recognize that the strength--and power--still reside at the listener-and-station level.

Top-down/command-control management doesn't work with this kind of entity. Mandatory consultation and vertical integration does.

But if I ran public radio? News. Old-fashioned objective non-partisan journalism, with primary focus on governmental issues. There's a market for it.