Let me agree by reposting something I said in another thread. The comments about NPR and the "rest" of the news/talk audience is absolutely correct...
"Just an observation here, that I've made elsewhere. NPR is the number two syndicator of talk in the US. Limbaugh is still the number one program, but in terms of national listenership, Morning Edition and All Things Considered are ahead of any of the other commercial entries. In fact, NPR is rolling in cash and that is fodder for many who want it to go completely private. Actually, they make a fairly good case. But the bigger issue is that audience. They obviously have been abandoned by commercial talk and that makes the argument a circular one. No one listens to more balanced talk on commercial radio because they've gone somewhere else. It's silly and shortsighted, but there you are. Look at the numbers for the Houston stations and even a powerhouse like WBAP in Dallas. They are all trending down because we've ridden the same horse for 20 years now. Limbaugh is obviously the franchise, but even he is going through the motions. People are more than who they vote for and sooner or later the industry will have to catch on to the fact that it isn't all about politics. No one is having any fun, no one is really funny anymore, and we all think we're on the air curing cancer or establishing world peace. We have forgotten it's just radio and the prime directive here is to be entertaining. Too many PD's see their job as shuffling the same old names and shows in the hopes of finding some lineup that no one has thought of. And as for local talent, it amounts to trying to create a clone of the national shows you're running. Is that as good as we can do? Is that the level of creativity we aspire to? Seems to me we have set the bar fairly low. Lou Dobbs is the hottest commodity on CNN because he has figured out what most voters know. Both parties are in on the fix and the middle class is taking it in the shorts. The host who figures that out and sells it well will be leading the next wave politically. If he or she can sell it entertainingly, without taking themselves too seriously, they will draw a crowd. We have painted ourselves into a corner and it is shrinking. You can't stay mad all day and focus on the rest of your life. I know I have said this elsewhere, but it seems so obvious and yet we can't seem to see outside our little talk radio echo-chamber. Air America is usually cited as the template for failure. It was a stupid idea to start with a whole network populated with big name amateurs. You do it one show at a time. It was humorless, unwieldy and of spotty quality. Of course it flopped. The answer to the question "what's next?" isn't on the right or left. Sooner or later someone will figure that one out."
