NPR reports.
NPR's research revealed recommencing commutes would boost back audience the most. Yet a significant minority of public radio listeners said they would tune in more often if NPR shows offered a greater variety of news coverage, beyond the coronavirus, recent protests for social justice and the election....
NPR has been planning for the migration of listeners away from traditional radio for years....
The lack of commuting is just accelerating the decline of news radio. People were already moving away from it. NPR has its website and podcasts to get its share of the audience as radio becomes less important to people. I remember when I didn't have satellite radio in my car. I would have the radio on my local NPR station nearly all the time. If I was in the car, I listened to whatever was on NPR. But it's been 20 years since I did that.
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My first car, a VW, had a Blaupunkt shortwave radio, so I could get foreign radio to listen to. Today I listen to Radio Japan every day (podcast) just to have access to a total priority change. They have no more variety but it's mostly completely different. Their US news comes from the left, which is funny in a banana peel way (illusion of competence destroyed).
"they would tune in more often if NPR shows offered a greater variety of news coverage"
All left all the time.
"And if we have any time left over it's all anti-Trump"
I quit nearly all forms of terrestrial broadcasts because I'm tired of the same news. And if not news, then same programming of re-runs, because nobody is producing new entertainment content (other than the garbage celebrity sing-a-longs). And it is not just generic stuff, but right wing content. There's only so many ways I can hear Limbaugh and others say it is all a hoax.
In its stead, I'm catching up on reading books.
NPR is shameless in bias reporting this year. Smooth voices sold out to anti Trump Propaganda all of the time Makes them into a parody.
It may be true that radio is on the way out, but I think the pandemic might cause an explosion of audio-based entertainment, like podcasts, interview shows, etc; because people can’t safely film movies and shows, and live entertainment seems out as well.
So sad.
Just kidding!
NPR isn't funded the way most radio is, by advertising, instead it relies mostly on fees from stations that carry its marquee programming, corporate sponsorships, and distribution (74%). That would make the volume of listeners more important to them than to a traditional commercial outfit whose advertising fees are set based more on share than volume. If the volume of listeners to radio news programming is down across the board then NPR will have to cut back to adjust to the lower revenue stream, or find new ways to generate fees.
I don't think I've tuned in to NPR or PBS radio since the heyday of Christopher Lydon's time at Boston affiliate WBUR. Heck, I haven't listened to anything on the radio other than the occasional sports talk radio program. That was always during sales guy windshield time - which is non-existent since the Covid lockdown.
Even though I'm conservative, NPR used to be a pretty good listen while getting ready for work and on the drive in, but not any more.
I could put up with the obligatory fawning coverage of the president (if he is a Democrat) and negative (if he is a Republican) because most of the rest was of general interest. Now it is attack Trump, whine about some racial thing or another and raise alarm over Covid.
I just stopped listening.
It's not because of people not listening. It's because of the people that are.
Go to any of their websites on any given article and you'll see life-long NPR listeners that just cannot tolerate the level of blatant lying and vitriol anymore.
Which is tough to do, since they've built up such a strong tolerance.
You find more common sense on YouTube. The fired NPR talent should look for work in North Korea.
I stopped listening due to NPR's unrelenting Liberal/Democrat bias that permeates every story and program.
I had been a donor to Minnesota Public Radio for years. I regret every one of those donations now.
DEFUND NPR.
Interesting how media always want to identify and/or fix their problems by using their preferred reasons instead of the actual reasons.
- the public doesn't mis-trust us because we are not trustworthy, it is cause Trump says mean things.
- our ratings are not down because we do our jobs very poorly, it is because of the lockdown or alternate media or ...
- we are polling so badly not because our "news" is slanted always in one direction, it is because the public is not educated enough to "get" us.
Rush Limbaugh could not be reached for comment.
Seriously. This is a great example of govt failure, one size fits all. Understanding(not) your audience. Rush invented a middle of the day, national show on AM radio. A creature that could not exist in the hostile environment he chose. NPR is searching for excuses, not solutions.
My impression of NPR was that they hired a lot of sleepy and tired people. If you ever want to drift off and then drift off for real as your car slams into the nearest highway trestle, NPR is the way to go.
Their audience appeal is becoming more selective.
The funny thing about NPR is their Satellite radio version of it is awful!!!
I'm team podcast or Audible in the car all the way. Occasionally Spotify when I feel like music. When I got a free trial of Sirius a few years ago, it was election time so I would listen to whatever cable station I had going in the house. Poor radio stations!!
Remind me again why I'm still paying for a product I never use?
The first news channel on TV or radio to wise up and start covering what’s actually happening in the world WILL find an audience. I have to search out facts and trends on my own because there is so little outside of the monoculture’s obsession with COVID/“protests”/Trump. Too bad Rupert’s kids are part of that same obsession. Now would be a good time for FNC to get back to real news in ‘tween all those opinion shows.
I have 14 music stations plus npr programmed on my car radio. I only listen to npr if the wife asks, and even then I mostly refuse. News is dimentia induction.
Nobody needs that shit.
I used to listen to NPR daily in the gym - even when I was living in Korea. When it was good. Then Obama was elected and it became a 24/7 House of Praise for him. Ferguson was the tipping point - I never dreamed NPR would become unhinged and just openly state accusations and bald faced lies unchallenged. ( Happiest day was a Diane Rehm show when a caller - God knows how they got through the screener - eviserated the host with a recitation of the facts, since the caller knew the policeman and told Diane what a fraud and liar she had become) Her successor show called itself 1A to “promote free speech” then closed comments since they dared to push back against the tripe on the show.
NPR needs be defunded from government support - it’s just propaganda now.
I love NPR because they are so obviously spinning. It’s a high art and they do it so well, so thoroughly, so sincerely, that they can’t see how obvious they are. I read “real news” on my favorite blogs, then go for a drive with NPR feeding me their version of the same stories, and it is all I can do not to drive off the road as I shout “Bull! Bull! Utter bull, you liars!”
Good times.
I can't suffer listening to NPR. It's All LIBERAL Things Considered.
THEOLDMAN
P.S. "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" is the most cringe title of a quiz program ever.
Ratings don't matter, If they appeal to just one listener, that's enough to keep NPRs schweddy balls funded...
They aren't woke enough
Rather watch AOC make donkey faces
And tik tok dancing
I've listened to NPR from the 1970's, but I can barely bear to anymore. I was once a regular annual contributor, but that ended about 15 years ago when I decided that my dollars would give them heartburn if they knew how slightly conservative they are.
Get woke - go broke. The people who think they're the smartest always seem to be the slowest.
That, and it doesn't help that even as long as 10 years ago they'd struggle to make it through an hour of broadcasting without talking about gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans, otherkin pyrofox this or that or yadda yadda yadda. But that makes sense considering the above mentioned adore making everything about them.
4,001
I always enjoyed NPR's marketplace. It was always fresh, rarely very biased, and well presented with a good rhythm between topics and usually a few minute deeper dive on one economic indicator or anecdote.
I would tune into their news programming and it was just trash. Well presented, intellectually positioned trash. I would watch how they would present "balanced" opinions with a democratic and republican voice and you could literally hear them choose soundbites representing the best of democratic thinking and the weakest of republican. If you were educated on the topics and pros/cons of both sides position, it became a disgusting thing to hear because it was an ever-present breaking of the moment. You could never just listen to the news and absorb it, because the presentation constantly forced you to examine what was being presented in a paranoid manner.
more selective audience,
They should be defunded as they are another arm of the Progressive party now.
Nothing good on NPR since Click and Clack ended.
On Saturdays, I always like to listen to "On the Media." It helps balance NPR's usual conservative bias.
"But it's been 20 years since I did that."
Same here, though I quit NPR for other reasons. Sensitive deplorable that I am, I didn't want to be triggered into primal screams within the first few minutes of listening every time.
Only audio books now.
So at what point will prog media have an exclusively prog audience? Are we there already? OK, so Althouse still reads the NYT. Anyone else?
I would have the radio on my local NPR station nearly all the time. If I was in the car, I listened to whatever was on NPR. But it's been 20 years since I did that.
How Madisonian! Have you lost any intellectual heft after ceasing the dumbass politics and Schweddy Balls?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bPpcfH_HHH8
The Crack Emcee summarized it nicely.
I'm so old I remember when my local public radio station played music (almost always classical) you could listen to on your car radio instead of DNC propaganda 24/7.
That ended about 25 years ago or so.
About then, local stations were required to take orders from the mothership in DC regarding programming to their local audience, forced to buy their product and air it, and we now see what that has created. I know staffers at the local station with an almost bottomless knowledge of the classical genre who were cut loose at that time. Most of them are still supporters of the ideology that defenestrated them.
Such is the power of the faith.
There are NPR people and there are non-NPR people. I find it unlistenable as their bias oozes from every pore.
Apparently they don't get a huge amount of money from the feds, but try to cut a dime of it and they scream bloody murder.
I haven't figured out if Trump has the ability to fire NPR employees but I always thought he should if he could. Make the president someone like Steve Bannon or Mark Levin and then watch all hell break loose. The Volvos in Berkeley would be spinning in their driveways.
Even though NPR has a government mandate (mommy knows best) they don't seem to know how to make any money. I know, you say, they're not in it to make money. But they do make money, so why not make more?
In 2010 NPR had revenues of $180 million. Rush Limbaugh makes $85 million himself. I wonder who resonates with the public?
No one seems to have read the article:
"Ironically, this larger plunge in radio listenership has occurred even as a record number of people are turning to NPR for news and other content. More than 57 million people now consume the network's offerings each week, whether on radio or its various digital platforms. That's a rise of nearly 10% from last year, despite the severe drop in the broadcast audiences. Podcast downloads and the usage of NPR's listening apps are up nearly a quarter, and there is a 76% increase in users of NPR.org as more people access the network's content from home."
Listenership is up by 10%. Who could have guessed the internet would change the way people consume media?
"Go to any of their websites on any given article and you'll see life-long NPR listeners that just cannot tolerate the level of blatant lying and vitriol anymore."
Seriously? How would you know? I thought NPR long ago stopped allowing comments because they got too many from white men.
I'm at the NPR site now, and no matter which article I check out, I see no way of commenting. I see the red donate button prominently displayed on each page, but I feel no urge to click it.
I can't tolerate the speaking voices on NPR. Nasal wussy sounding lecturers. If they just hired people whocan talk normally it would make a big difference.
I used to listen to local sports radio while outside doing lawn and garden work. Somehow, the hosts got the notion that their audience wanted to hear them talk about their experiences with the Covid virus every day, and then hear their take on the martyrdom of George Floyd. I listened to sports talk to NOT have to hear about this other shit, and so I quit listening to them too.
How clueless can people in the business of entertaining others be? I never fail to be amazed.
And a resounding yes to the sentiment above: Defund NPR.
I was able to stomach NPR when each segment was about how great Obama was.Then Trump won.The vitriol made it unbearable.Now they just treat Trump with disdain.I often check NPR to see how certain lefties are getting their information.It took them a full week to report on CHAZ/CHOP.When they finally did it was about what a peaceful artistic haven it had become without police.A portion of a major US city was taken over by the left, abandoned by police and NPR was too busy ranting about Trump not wearing a mask to report the issue.
NPR also now has a reporter assigned to the media beat.How absurd.CNN does the same.Most of these segments are about tearing down FOX news.Sometimes they report on which of their fellow "journolists" have been taken out by #metoo or racism allegations.But mostly it is about attacking FOX as fake news.They are terrified a random listener might hear FOX and question NPR's spin.These journo's are so enthralled with themselves they believe reporting on fellow journos is news.Doesn't that prove they are not journalists?Isn't one of the first rules - don't make yourself the story???
Nuttin’ from nuttin’, but Howard sez he “loves the taste of Schweddy Balls in the morning, they taste like... salty!“
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a wonderful show called A Prairie Home Companion on NPR. It lasted roughly ten years or so, developing a huge fan base. Appointment radio for me, and I even taped shows to relisten. Alas, the show deteriorated as the host aged and became more famous and more political, losing the common touch and most of his sense of humor. The Prairie Home Companion continued in name only for many more years, such was its momentum. It was a huge revenue source for MPR.
I did not realize at the time what a golden age it was.
I agree with whoever mentioned that the loss of Click and Clack, the Tappett brothers, was the final nail in NPR's coffin.
@Char Char Binks, Esq.
Here&Now from WBUR still allows comments.Not sure what other programs do.
NPR would improve my listening pleasure by broadcasting Al Jazeera, Deutschewelle and other international news programs much as it does BBC all during the night.
Blogger Johnathan Birks said...
Remind me again why I'm still paying for a product I never use?
Easy. We live n a representational democratic republic. Enough of the representatives the people have elected to office voted to fund National Peoples Radio. When congres amends the income tax laws to be a smorgasborg, then you can pay for what you want. Until then, you can kindly fuck off and pay for libtard koffee klatch radio.
NPR has been planning for the migration of listeners away from traditional radio for years....
It migrated from traditional journalism in 2012, when it removed "objectivity" from its mission statement during the presidential election.
My late husband and I used to listen to NPR. We liked the Will Shortz puzzle segments for one thing and our [Seattle] station played classical music much of the day. But they have never tried to hide their bias and never, ever had room for conservative women or blacks. And Nina Totenberg is still repulsive.
I try to listen to them while driving around, but usually can't stand more than a couple minutes. They used to be left-wing but smart. Now they're just dumb. Its hate Orange man and DNC propaganda 24/7. Their approach to CV-19 is pure hysteria. Today, I overheard them comparing the CV-19 cases in Italy today to those in Florida. Hello? Florida has 5,000 deaths, Italy has 35,000. But they're making the comparison because it makes Trump look bad - they think.
MY NPR station used to play classical music. Now, its just pop crap. They used to have discussions about history and novels and arts. Now, they discuss it less often and when they do its mostly about sexism, racism, or homophobia. Its like everyone working their dropped 50 IQ points.
I said goodbye to NPR about 25 years ago more because of the tone of overbearing earnestness of everyone on every show. The only fun people were the Car Talk guys, who were both entertaining and informative. Imagine that!
NPR was so obviously courting an overtly intellectual demographic that takes all of this very seriously, mmmm hmmm, yes [puffs on pipe, peering over reading glasses, perusing The Atlantic in the study].
The Schweddy Balls parody on NPR nailed it. Humorless dorks who take themselves, and their precious opinions, WAY too seriously.
YMMV.
"Here&Now from WBUR still allows comments"
Maybe some member stations allow comment, but I believe NPR itself does not.
"I can't tolerate the speaking voices on NPR. Nasal wussy sounding lecturers"
I hear ya! They used to feature a kind of standard American speech, but more educated, somewhat slow paced and well-considered, but lately I've been hearing a lot of voices that make Ira Glass sound butch.
>if NPR shows offered a greater variety of news coverage
NPR was better 20 years ago, when it focused more on ideas (e.g., the old 'best lecture' series they used to run) and less on news. It was a niche. Lots of other stations do news/opinion, and typically better.
>I remember when I didn't have satellite radio in my car. I would have the radio on my local NPR station nearly all the time.
I it probably was a Corporation for Public Broadcasting station (which were subsidized by the government). CPB stations would then buy programming from NPR (and thus, NPR's claim that they didn't receive much from the government).
back when i worked, i listened to NPR, right up until O'Bama care
So, you had a President propose a new plan, which he claimed would Save Billions
Then, the Republicans claimed, NO it won't Save Billions, it will Cost Billions
And NPR did a "fact check" of the Republicans claim
AND, NPR found it "false"... BECAUSE, (and I'm Quoting (from memory) here)...
O'Bama claimed it would Save Billions
I heard that, and thought: these claims are about PREDICTIONS of what will happen
HOW can a PREDICTION be "false" BEFORE the thing even occurs?
if it COULD be "false" would someone else's PREDICTION make it "false"
That's when i gave up on those lying pieces of shit. Once a month or so, i'll tune to them and see how long it takes before i catch them in a Lie
It used to minutes; Now it takes seconds
NPR should go back to playing classical music.
I used to listen to This American Life and Radiolab every week. i never missed a show. They were occasionally weak, which is ok, no one is perfect, but far more often they were excellent. Then, in the fall of 2016, for week after week after week they both did shows about Trump. Or about the people who are hurt by Trump. Or about the people who are hurt by the people who support Trump (some of whom don't even realize they are Nazis!).
After a few weeks of this, I couldn't stand it anymore. These shows might be excellent again now, but I would not know. I have not tuned in for years.
"Listenership is up by 10%. Who could have guessed the internet would change the way people consume media?"
Just not the listeners whose attention pays the bills. That's the point of the article. If they are to survive long term they need to figure out how to monetize the digital media listener's attention.
I've tried to listen to NPR. I also used to listen to them during the commute years ago. But they are unlistenable now.
I gave up NPR yeeeeeeeaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs ago.
The people in Lake Wobegon sounded so long-suffering & sensible I always figured they were Republicians. It was kind of a shock when Keillor came out as a hateful lib -- the kind of guy the Wobegoners would roll their eyes at.
WUSF's live stream is great for Jazz at night -- except I have to cut it every hour to keep my blood pressure down during the NPR newsbreak. Check out theclassicalstation.org for classical all day long without any NPR cruft.
I wonder what Stern's ratings are like. Coincidentally, he was talking about David Lee Roth on a show this week. It was a rundown on a lot of aging metal/rock stars from the 80s. Looking at how they've aged, especially the handsome ones like DLR, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil (aka Vince Meal), Howard felt reassured: he feels confident there exist women who would rather fuck him than DLR or Tommy Lee, finally. Cracked me up in light of Althouse's comment that she appreciates that DLR let himself age more or less appropriately.
If it went off the air tomorrow, I wouldn't miss it. The local public-radio station used to be mainly classical music, but they jettisoned that content to replace it with "balanced" talk shows ("balanced" by NPR standards, with "liberals" talking to "progressiives" talking to Marxists).
When people aren't driving they have better things to do than listen to NPR.
Black Bellamy said...
My impression of NPR was that they hired a lot of sleepy and tired people. If you ever want to drift off and then drift off for real as your car slams into the nearest highway trestle, NPR is the way to go.
NPR Voice is actually A Thing.
When I was an undergrad (UW-Madison! 1980-85) I had an early morning job cataloging papers for an anthropology professor (who was a wonderful guy, although I learned later he was a hard-core Marxist; still, he treated me well) and got utterly hooked on Baroque music from the local public radio station (can't even remember its call sign now). In the late-1990s/early-2000s I used to listen to Talk of the Nation. For a while it was okay. Sure, at least 3-4 hours a week were about Things Gay, but the host for most of the time I was listening was Ray Suarez who, while definitely a committed Lefty, actually did his homework and challenged everyone with pretty good regularity. After the 2000 election, they went utterly bonkers and I quit listening after that.
Someone mentioned it actually stood for National Palestinian Radio, and darned if the very few times I listened after that they always always ALWAYS had a Palestinian story, even if I listened for only 10 minutes. (Usually when someone else had it on)
I stopped listening to it during the war in Afghanistan - the first one with the second Bush, not the Obama one. Recently, though, I accidentally tuned in while driving. They were reporting on the pandemic. Oh my goodness. I couldn't believe the panic in their voices. Usually they have very modulated, soothing radio voices. They sounded insane. No wonder my patients report the news makes them anxious.
I listened to NPR when they played jazz and classical music. I stopped when they began talking all the time. Decades now.
Yesterday I saw a Sandhill Crane ripping up sod and flinging it in the air and then jumping up and flapping his wings, squawking frantically and then throwing more sod, then another crane joined in with more squawking and flapping and it reminded me of NPR.
I couldn't find NPR on my radio if I tried. Well, I guess KPLU would count as NPR, but I only listen for the jazz.
In other news of "Things White People Like" the cost of Rick Steve's package tours to Austria and Hungary are plummeting as well.
People who do fundraising for local PBS and NPR stations are growing increasingly irritated that national is creaming their major donors and thus starving local programming.
"Yet a significant minority of public radio listeners said they would tune in more often if NPR shows offered a greater variety of news coverage, beyond the corona virus, recent protests for social justice and the election...."
No hint that the "greater variety" MIGHT include a conservative viewpoint?
None at all?
Just a variety of topics?
Huh.
It's painful to listen to NPR anymore. It is lefty and predictable. Trump is evil, white people are bad, police are bad. I don't turn it on myself, but I frequently hear it secondhand at work.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a wonderful show called A Prairie Home Companion on NPR.
I stopped listening to that during the second Bush's presidency. Too many jokes that were variations on "isn't Bush stupid? haha!". I had liked Keillor because even when he made fun of people, it was gentle and good-natured. I don't remember the joke that made me turn it off forever, but it was one that just struck me as hateful and without any humor. Just bitterness.
I still turn on my public radio station once in a while when I'm in the car. I keep hoping it will have something good. I keep being disappointed. The last time was July 3. They were at Mt. Rushmore, interviewing a protester. The interviewer editorialized so much in his question, describing why the protester might be upset with something (I think it was the fireworks), I turned it off. Let the person being interviewed speak for himself. It felt condescending, like he thought the protester couldn't articulate why he was upset himself but I think it was meant to just signal that he was on the protester's side.
I used to sit on the deck on the fourth of July and listen to Kielor talk about Gettysburg and the 1st Minnesota Inf Rgt. with a hamms in my hand. It was good.
Back in the 1970s, "news radio" consisted of little more than a reading from the local paper, front to back, repeated hourly or half-hourly, updated maybe once during the day.
That was SOOOOOOOO much better than NPR today.
Keilor's soft radio voice belied his feelings about the people of Lake Wobegon. If you read his books, you might see, like I did, that every endearing thing he wrote about them was dripping with sarcasm. IRL, his main goal in life was to get as far away from them as possible--like to Denmark and NYC. I saw several of his live performances, and he seemed to be becoming more arrogant and condescending to his audiences as time went by.
ken in tx said...
Keilor's soft radio voice belied his feelings about the people of Lake Wobegon.
And other feelings, perhaps. Anybody ever figure out what Keillor got MeToo'd for? If not, he was quite wise to duck out quietly.
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