Cuts to NPR

[iris lilies]

Congress is now working on a highly publicized bill that includes $1.1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that funnels government money to NPR and PBS.

I have thoughts. Probably Ldahl will express those thoughts. :)But I have to spend some time with the Board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting before I say more. This board publishes their meetings on SoundCloud, but SoundCloud just puts me in a loop when I try to login.

More, later. But my immediate thought upon hearing Katherine Maher’s plea ( she is CEO at NPR) at how NPR provides public safety broadcasting is if THAT is so important to our nation’s security, the CPB board can use their discretion to push funds towards those tiny rural areas that depend on NPR broadcasting for their tornado warnings. I think it’s kind of unbelievable that Maher uses that defense when she could exert immediate change on national NPR programming that is ideologically favoring left politics.

[catherine]

I read a super piece on The Free Press yesterday from someone who worked at NPR for years, but feels that the company, and especially its leadership, has to take some ownership of this funding grab. Apparently internally it was so left-leaning, the CEO made progressive issues the "North Star" of reporting. Ultimately, their DEI efforts were not exactly represented in the organization, at least by political persuasion--87% of the employees were Democrat.

I do love the idea of public broadcasting, and I'm sorry that NPR has come to this. As progressive as I am, I believe that public broadcasting should represent... the public.

https://www.thefp.com/p/happy-independence-day-npr

(I hope the 'Free' Press, really is free and you can read this without paywall or registering)

[iris lilies]

Sure, Uri Berliner worked as a news editor at NPR for decades. He blew the whistle a year ago on NPR editorial policy. We talked about it here.

The Free Press is indeed free, and it was started by a refugee from the New York Times, Bari Weiss. I listen to Bari often. It seems to me she has assembled a group of Left-center and Center- center journalists with visits from Right of center folks. It is an excellent source for news opinion pieces.

[LDAHL]

Is NPR biased? Absolutely. It seems to have gotten worse over the decades, going from a sort of smug upper middle class snobbery to full-blown resistance chic in the Trump years. There has always been a sort of Schrödinger’s cat aspect to the taxpayer subsidies: simultaneously too trivial to argue about and absolutely essential for survival. I’m sure the various foundations and corporations involved can pick up the slack.

The recent claims that NPR is a sort of light unto the gentiles of flyover country seems a bit of a desperation move. As a Midwestern bumpkin, I do like the classical music programming, but there’s nothing they offer I can’t find elsewhere. It’s not the seventies anymore. We have options.

I don’t think government should have a role in determining what media we consume, whether in a censorship role or supporting media with tax dollars.

[Tradd]

I like PBS much better than NPR. I listen to the Marketplace podcast but otherwise ignore NPR.

[catherine]

Sure, Uri Berliner worked as a news editor at NPR for decades. He blew the whistle a year ago on NPR editorial policy. We talked about it here.

The Free Press is indeed free, and it was started by a refugee from the New York Times, Bari Weiss. I listen to Bari often. It seems to me she has assembled a group of Left-center and Center- center journalists with visits from Right of center folks. It is an excellent source for news opinion pieces.

I guess I'm late to the party! I don't remember the discussion on Uri Berliner here. And I only recently started following Bari Weiss on Substack.

[littlebittybobby]

okay---this all reminds me----the late-night TV commentator Steve Col-Bert will be leaving the show. But yeah---after only about 20 years of it. I ain't even seen it, since i turned it off about 20 years ago. The damage he has caused is already done.

[iris lilies]

okay---this all reminds me----the late-night TV commentator Steve Col-Bert will be leaving the show. But yeah---after only about 20 years of it. I ain't even seen it, since i turned it off about 20 years ago. The damage he has caused is already done.
I don’t see how Colbert lasted this long. He is unfunny. To go from Letterman, the best late night host in my lifetime to…him…boggles my mind. But Colbert had a 10 year run which is 9 years longer than he deserved

[iris lilies]

I guess I'm late to the party! I don't remember the discussion on Uri Berliner here. And I only recently started following Bari Weiss on Substack.
Well I spoke too soon since I can’t login to look at that article without giving my email address although at the moment I can.

Now I can read it.

but I have read many articles from the Free Press. The Free Press broke Jamie Reed’s whistleblowing account of inappropriate actions and medical malpractice at the transgender clinic in St. Louis. She has since become a national spokesperson for youth endangered by trans medicine.

[Tybee]

Why is Colbert leaving? I liked this:

Bing Videos (https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=colbert+and+james+taylor&mid=BAF67963785903FF973CBAF67963785903FF973C&FORM=VIRE)

[iris lilies]

Why is Colbert leaving? I liked this:

Bing Videos (https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=colbert+and+james+taylor&mid=BAF67963785903FF973CBAF67963785903FF973C&FORM=VIRE)

I wouldn’t say he’s leaving. His show got canceled, but he has many more months of it before his contract runs out.

[frugal-one]

I don’t see how Colbert lasted this long. He is unfunny. To go from Letterman, the best late night host in my lifetime to…him…boggles my mind. But Colbert had a 10 year run which is 9 years longer than he deserved

Colbert is a riot! I will miss his show immensely. He is up for an emmy.

[frugal-one]

Why is Colbert leaving? I liked this:

Bing Videos (https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=colbert+and+james+taylor&mid=BAF67963785903FF973CBAF67963785903FF973C&FORM=VIRE)

Missed that performance. I liked it too!

[frugal-one]

I wouldn’t say he’s leaving. His show got canceled, but he has many more months of it before his contract runs out.

And the reason his show got cancelled?

https://people.com/why-is-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-ending-11774898

[Alan]

Why is Colbert leaving? I liked this:

Bing Videos (https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=colbert+and+james+taylor&mid=BAF67963785903FF973CBAF67963785903FF973C&FORM=VIRE)
I read a pretty good explanation in a business related story today. CBS/Paramount and Skydance Entertainment have been working for the past year or so on a merger and CBS is trying to get their operating costs down to an acceptable level. One of their current weak points is late night tv where ad revenue has dropped by over 50% in the past several years and Colbert's show, as their most expensive late night offering, is operating at a loss.

Of course then I read another article with a political slant that said the CEO of Skydance is a Trump fan and is butt hurt because Colbert says mean things about Trump. It also said that since the merger requires FCC approval CBS is concerned that evil Trump will not permit the merger in retaliation if Colbert remains on the schedule.

So, I guess we're all free to choose whichever explanation we prefer from available press reports. I choose the first one.

[iris lilies]

I read a pretty good explanation in a business related story today. CBS/Paramount and Skydance Entertainment have been working for the past year or so on a merger and CBS is trying to get their operating costs down to an acceptable level. One of their current weak points is late night tv where ad revenue has dropped by over 50% in the past several years and Colbert's show, as their most expensive late night offering, is operating at a loss.

Of course then I read another article with a political slant that said the CEO of Skydance is a Trump fan and is butt hurt because Colbert says mean things about Trump. It also said that since the merger requires FCC approval CBS is concerned that evil Trump will not permit the merger in retaliation if Colbert remains on the schedule.

So, I guess we're all free to choose whichever explanation we prefer from available press reports. I choose the first one.

Are there late night hosts who DON’t say mean things about Trump? I haven’t encountered one. And one of the late night Jimmies, I think the Fallon Jimmy, makes me laugh once in a while when I see selected clips on YouTube and wasn't he the one who cried on camera at Trump’s re re-election?

I just find Colbert extremely dull. I didn’t even find him funny when he was playing a straight republican on the Jon Stewart show. Yet, I can find that kind of thing funny because I thought Alec Baldwin was entertaining in his role on 30 Rock playing a slimy businessman who was no doubt a Republican. So I can find comedians funny if they poke fun at my people, but they need to be, ya know, funny.

[Alan]

and wasn't he the one who cried on camera at Trump’s re re-election?

I think that was the other Jimmy, the Kimmel one.

[iris lilies]

I think that was the other Jimmy, the Kimmel one.
Oh, ok! I can’t think of one thing the Kimmel Jimmy has done to make me laugh. But Fallon had some good bits when he was on SNL.

[Alan]

Oh, ok! I can’t think of one thing the Kimmel Jimmy has done to make me laugh.
He was pretty good on the Win Ben Stein's Money show about 25 years ago. He didn't cry much there.

[LDAHL]

Colbert was always an unworthy successor to Letterman, especially in more recent years. He seemed to be running a sort of petting zoo for Democratic Party panjandrums. We’re already seeing Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff insinuating he was canceled for political reasons. I think it more likely that CBS canned his show because they were losing money.

[rosarugosa]

It all goes on way past my bedtime, and I don't even watch TV in the earlier hours, so I can't get too worked up about it.

[Rogar]

In the world of Trump rules, you'd think PBS could cut off programing in red states in order to keep normal programing in blue states. But it probably doesn't work like that.

[frugal-one]

Colbert was always an unworthy successor to Letterman, especially in more recent years. He seemed to be running a sort of petting zoo for Democratic Party panjandrums. We’re already seeing Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff insinuating he was canceled for political reasons. I think it more likely that CBS canned his show because they were losing money.

Ha! That is why Colbert is nominated for an Emmy! Letterman sucked IMO. It will be “interesting” how many more of trump’s antagonists will be let go or disappear in the coming months.

[iris lilies]

Ha! That is why Colbert is nominated for an Emmy! Letterman sucked IMO. It will be “interesting” how many more of trump’s antagonists will be let go or disappear in the coming months.
I just want The View to be safe from the axe because they are so ridiculous. They provide great entertainment.

[LDAHL]

Ha! That is why Colbert is nominated for an Emmy! Letterman sucked IMO. It will be “interesting” how many more of trump’s antagonists will be let go or disappear in the coming months.

Crude philistine that I am, I go with what makes me laugh rather than industry insider logrolling. And there is a chance that there will be a pity vote. But in the final analysis it’s viewership that matters, and the Late Show just wasn’t performing and costing CBS money. The market for bias confirmation and obsequious interviews just wasn’t big enough. As NPR is now finding out.

There’s no need for conspiracy theories to explain the departure of unfunny clowns.

[ToomuchStuff]

I liked Leno's Headlines (pretty much the only thing/time I would watch him). Never was a big fan of Letterman (seemed sophomoric humor to me), but no one ever held a candle to Carson (although I don't remember his predecessor, Steve Allen).
Leno's car show, however I would like to continue to see (and watch on Youtube), but when Johnny retired, I didn't expect late night to continue as it did. I figured we would end up more with a Tom Snyder type of late night talk show. (different enough to be decent then everyone trying to be the new Carson)

Kind of amazes me how Carson, did a better job insulting both political parties, without really showing his politics, while other hosts just choose to specifically go after 1/2 of the population.

[catherine]

I enjoy Steven Colbert and always have. As far as the reasons for his departure, I agree that late night shows like the ones started by Jack Parr are probably declining and have all had their day, but here is what Time Magazine says:


Late-night TV has been on the decline for years, as viewers spend more time on streaming services and often favor late-show clips on YouTube or TikTok over nightly appointment viewing. But CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was still leading the race by a mile.

Second-quarter Nielsen ratings show that the program helmed by comedian Stephen Colbert had 2.42 million viewers across 41 new episodes, taking some 9% of the audience share and besting other shows in his timeslot. It was also the only show to rake in more viewers than in the previous quarter. And earlier this week, it received a Primetime Emmy nomination for outstanding talk series.

Given Trump's mafia don tendencies to cut people off at the knees if he detects any disloyalty, I suspect he had something to do with it.

[frugal-one]

I liked Leno's Headlines (pretty much the only thing/time I would watch him). Never was a big fan of Letterman (seemed sophomoric humor to me), but no one ever held a candle to Carson (although I don't remember his predecessor, Steve Allen).
Leno's car show, however I would like to continue to see (and watch on Youtube), but when Johnny retired, I didn't expect late night to continue as it did. I figured we would end up more with a Tom Snyder type of late night talk show. (different enough to be decent then everyone trying to be the new Carson)

Kind of amazes me how Carson, did a better job insulting both political parties, without really showing his politics, while other hosts just choose to specifically go after 1/2 of the population.

I enjoyed Carson and Leno too! You summarized Letterman to a T! I did not enjoy Conan AT ALL whenever he was on. He is in the same league as Letterman IMO.

[iris lilies]

Kind of amazes me how Carson, did a better job insulting both political parties, without really showing his politics, while other hosts just choose to specifically go after 1/2 of the population.

Carson was smooth and sophisticated, I’ll say that. I thought of him as an old guy and the late night talk show host for my parents generation. Conan may be more in that tradition, i’m not sure because I don’t watch late night anymore, haven’t for years, and I don’t even know what Conan is doing these days.

[iris lilies]

Ha! That is why Colbert is nominated for an Emmy! Letterman sucked IMO. It will be “interesting” how many more of trump’s antagonists will be let go or disappear in the coming months.

You keep mentioning this Emmy thing so it must be important to you.

Letterman won 12 Emmys in the first 20 years of his show.

Colbert won 0 Emmys in the first 10 years of his show. No doubt the sympathy vote will give him the win this year.

[LDAHL]

I enjoy Steven Colbert and always have. As far as the reasons for his departure, I agree that late night shows like the ones started by Jack Parr are probably declining and have all had their day, but here is what Time Magazine says:


Late-night TV has been on the decline for years, as viewers spend more time on streaming services and often favor late-show clips on YouTube or TikTok over nightly appointment viewing. But CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was still leading the race by a mile.

Second-quarter Nielsen ratings show that the program helmed by comedian Stephen Colbert had 2.42 million viewers across 41 new episodes, taking some 9% of the audience share and besting other shows in his timeslot. It was also the only show to rake in more viewers than in the previous quarter. And earlier this week, it received a Primetime Emmy nomination for outstanding talk series.

Given Trump's mafia don tendencies to cut people off at the knees if he detects any disloyalty, I suspect he had something to do with it.

I think the most salient number in this case was the forty million dollars CBS was losing every year on Colbert’s show.

[iris lilies]

I enjoy Steven Colbert and always have. As far as the reasons for his departure, I agree that late night shows like the ones started by Jack Parr are probably declining and have all had their day, but here is what Time Magazine says:

Late-night TV has been on the decline for years, as viewers spend more time on streaming services and often favor late-show clips on YouTube or TikTok over nightly appointment viewing. But CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was still leading the race by a mile…



Sure, so Colbert is the tallest midget at the Little People convention. That doesn’t mean they’re gonna hire him to play for the NBA.

[Alan]

Sure, so Colbert is the tallest midget at the Little People convention.
But that's not even true, the Gutfeld show on Fox News leads in both ratings and preferred advertiser demographics. Plus, I think he's only about 5'4".

[iris lilies]

But that's not even true, the Gutfeld show on Fox News leads in both ratings and preferred advertiser demographics. Plus, I think he's only about 5'4".
Haha, Greg is cute that’s for sure. I catch very occasional clips.

[littlebittybobby]

kay---of all the Educational stuff, steada propaganda, they at least coulda showed something about the 'partment building where Jack Ruby lived at the time o' the sassanation of J F "Lucky" Kenn-o-dee, on that dreadful day in downtown Dallas, Texcess. (*see photo). partment 107. Yup. There were or are two dive bars in Dallas, one is called "Lee Harveys" and the other: "Ozzie Rabitts". Isn't that unseemly?6449

[littlebittybobby]

okay---some more excess from Texcess---(see photos)64506451

[frugal-one]

Sure, so Colbert is the tallest midget at the Little People convention. That doesn’t mean they’re gonna hire him to play for the NBA.

What gobbledygook are you and Alan spouting now?

[Alan]

What gobbledygook are you and Alan spouting now?
I guess you have to read and follow all the posts in order to see how a conversation meanders. Catherine's Time magazine quote said that Colbert's show was "leading the race by a mile" to which IL responded with an apt analogy "so Colbert is th)e tallest midget at the Little People convention".

Now, since both the Time Magazine quote and IL's response were related to Colbert's ratings in the late night "comedy" programming space I felt it necessary to point out that the true program "leading the race by a mile" was an entirely different program on Fox, "Gutfeld" which consistently beats Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon in late night ratings as well as advertisers preferred age demographic. While Colbert led Kimmel and Fallon with a total audience of 2.42 million viewers with 219,000 of those viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic, Gutfeld led the pack with an average total audience of 3.3 million viewers with 238,000 of those viewers in the 18-49 demographic. (Note: all ratings numbers based upon 2nd Qtr 2025 results)

Does all that "gobbledygook" make sense now?

[iris lilies]

What gobbledygook are you and Alan spouting now?

I knew this would be exactly how you would respond. Sigh, we are all too predictable here.��

[bae]

I will confess that I haven't watched late-night talking-head shows for decades now, and have very little idea who any of the people in this dustup are.

I do listen to the occasional NPR station on road trips, and somehow NPR is a small part of my Alexa device's "news summary", if you ask it to give you one.

My community just went live with its own community radio station, KIXP, this year, and it seems to be entirely funded and staffed with local resources.

https://www.kixp.org/

[rosarugosa]

Believe it or not, my only experience with the late show was watching Jack Paar and Johnny Carson with my grandfather (who lived with us) when I was REALLY little.

[Rogar]

My father would rarely go to bed without watching the opening monologue for Carson. That's about my only experience with late night TV. Carson was a class act. I very vaguely remember Jack Paar. I do like Leno's Garage on uTube and suspect he was one of the better late night hosts. Leno must have made a fortune on TV. His car collction is amazing.

[littlebittybobby]

okay---as an impressionable teen, i sat-n-watched the johnny show up in Ak, even though it was about two weeks late. But yeah---i saw Jimi on there the night he appeared, and there was a mysterious sudden power failure to his amps and mikes as soon as he began to play. So, he sat-n-talked with johnny for awhile. also, janis was on there, too. but she was pretty----pretty skanky. Yup. Hope that helps you kids some. Thankk Mee.

[iris lilies]

Believe it or not, my only experience with the late show was watching Jack Paar and Johnny Carson with my grandfather (who lived with us) when I was REALLY little.

You are not plugged into tv culture and are better off for it

[KayLR]

Same here, we have a very local radio station now too, which is great because our weekly rag isn't even bird cage-worthy.

I was a semi-regular Letterman watcher. Seems like he didn't get too political, but got his jabs in. I liked his style, stupid pet tricks and other weird stuff he did. The guy under the stairs, etc. I was sad he left late night.

[littlebittybobby]

okay---will they be cutting the long-running,long-winded radio propaganda program: "All Things Liberal Considered"? I know that's one of the things that made NPR VERY tiresome to listen to. Yup.

[iris lilies]

okay---will they be cutting the long-running,long-winded radio propaganda program: "All Things Liberal Considered"? I know that's one of the things that made NPR VERY tiresome to listen to. Yup.
URI Berliner or some wag termed that program “ Very few things considered” or something like that.

Charles C. Cooke pointed out, and this rings true, Colbert made himself the center of the show while Carson made his guests center stage. Johnny was there to elicit dialogue, react, gauge audience participation, and guide his show accordingly.

They are all making themselves center stage now to an extent. Also, when Colbert has a parade of dull politicians on his show rather than wacky Tiny Tim-like guests, there isn’t much room for comedy there.

Jay Leno came off as nice and often funny because he had the best writers in the business.
Nice enough guy I guess, but the stories about how he cut off Conan and Letterman at the knees belie that.

the main problem with late night shows is that podcasts have far eclipsed them and taken over any potential audience. If you want to talk about the Giants in talk show format, it’s Joe Rogan. No one can touch Rogan in ratings, but of course his star will eventually fade and someone new will come among

[Tybee]

Shows how different people see things. I think Terry Gross is a national treasure. Doesn't seem like people here like NPR very much.

[Rogar]

Doesn't seem like people here like NPR very much.

NPR and PBS are my primary news source. I think it's great. I've seen charts that rate various news sources as to liberal or conservative. NPR rates slightly to the left of center and more conservative than the NYT or WP. I wonder where the WSJ rates these days. For news I prefer to read from their web site rather than listen, as it does drone a little. I send donations to a local community radio, which I think it under a different umbrella than NPR, but subscribes to some of their syndicated news and programs. They have a lot of volunteers. They recently said they will lose 10% of their funding and will cut back evening NPR news and replace it with local news and music. I suspect other stations will do similar.

[iris lilies]

I used to listen to tons of NPR, but mostly on weekends. And now, looking back, I realize they had their entertainment shows on weekends and the more politically slanted hosts were daytime programming.

I think Terri Gross is very very good. I loved Tom Ashbrook and would listen to On Point in the evenings during the week. I remember once he became almost apoplectic at a politically right view of something, and at the time I thought it was kind of cute because he usually maintained a neutral tone.

Then I began to see the shift, or maybe I just recognized what was going on. I remember distinctly a weeklong vacation where I was working out in the yard and listening to NPR nonstop. There was one day where honestly, the programming seemed to be “all about prisoners all the time” Because there were three shows in a narrow time frame about the social problems of America’s prisons. That subject didn’t sit well with me because my neighborhood was always involved in identifying criminals and working to keep them out of our neighborhood and that often meant trying to keep them in jail at least for a brief time to give us some relief from their shenanigans.

and then, somewhere in that same time Ira Glass did a program on his survey of NPR programming and declared it was not biased at all, and he was sincerely bewildered at that charge. At the time, I was still listening a lot to NPR, but I just sort of shook my head and thought, Ira. cute to be so clueless. But ok you do you.

And then there were the Schiller fiascos, Juan Williams fired, and our local station had an on-air woman who spoke Eubonics. At that point I stopped giving NPR money. I wrote to tell them as long as Virginia Schiller was heading up the organization I wasn’t giving any money. And that’s too bad for them because my mom died in that period and I disbursed some of her money to charitable organizations and NPR missed out.

In more recent time my local NPR,station has done some dumb stuff and I had to laugh when a local well-known TV personality retired from TV and went over to NPR and was accused of misogyny. Rather than play that out he just said buh-bye NPR folks I’m out of here. He was too old and wise to pit up with that hassle. And I watched how the new local NPR head bought a house in our neighborhood and paid the most per square footage anyone in their right mind would dream of paying. I mean, it was a nice little house, but good God. She had San Francisco money, so had money to burn. Guess those NPR folks are rich.

so this is a lot of detail, but suffice to say I was heavily invested in NPR, and This American Life is really a great show and laid the groundwork for narrative podcasts of today. If only current podcasters would pay attention to how they carry it off. Oh, and The Moth is a great show.

To be fair, for households such as ours that were radio households, we seamlessly transitioned to podcasts. We like audio media because we can cook, garden, clean,, and do other hand work while listening. Radio good or bad would have lost us anyway.

[Rogar]

A couple of our local Public Radio station used to have music programers, mostly volunteer, that would play various genres of music besides classical. You could listen to music without obnoxious commercials. They have gone full news and talk now, which does drone on. We still have a public funded jazz station that is very good. CPR does a lot of extended local stories and interviews among their news that you won't find anywhere else. PBS and NPR are a lot more that just the talking heads doing the national news. I suspect that programs like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, or what over other current programing they have for younger folks, is good wholesome entertainment, unlike some of the violent cartoons on legacy TV. I suspect they will adapt and some programs will go away.

[LDAHL]

NPR and PBS are my primary news source. I think it's great. I've seen charts that rate various news sources as to liberal or conservative. NPR rates slightly to the left of center and more conservative than the NYT or WP. I wonder where the WSJ rates these days. For news I prefer to read from their web site rather than listen, as it does drone a little. I send donations to a local community radio, which I think it under a different umbrella than NPR, but subscribes to some of their syndicated news and programs. They have a lot of volunteers. They recently said they will lose 10% of their funding and will cut back evening NPR news and replace it with local news and music. I suspect other stations will do similar.

I see NPR as biased, but not yet in the angry, brittle hyper partisan manner of an MSNBC. Their bubble is more affluent white progressive conventional thinking.

[iris lilies]

A couple of our local Public Radio station used to have music programers, mostly volunteer, that would play various genres of music besides classical. You could listen to music without obnoxious commercials. They have gone full news and talk now, which does drone on. We still have a public funded jazz station that is very good. CPR does a lot of extended local stories and interviews among their news that you won't find anywhere else. PBS and NPR are a lot more that just the talking heads doing the national news. I suspect that programs like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, or what over other current programing they have for younger folks, is good wholesome entertainment, unlike some of the violent cartoons on legacy TV. I suspect they will adapt and some programs will go away.
The St. Louis community radio station which had been going for 30 years that I know of, and probably long before that, just recently closed down due to, apparently, poor Management. Everyone on air was volunteer. They all had their niche and their dedicated listeners. There was a huge outcry about it.

our library donated our collection of 33 1/3 RPM records to them. It was a huge collection, of course since we were a huge library. It was great to have an organization take them off our hands.

Our local NPR station broadcasts St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts on Saturday nights and that is really nice.

[Tradd]

Chicago has a classical station owned by the same company that owns the PBS station, but the classical station is commercial.

[LDAHL]

Chicago has a classical station owned by the same company that owns the PBS station, but the classical station is commercial.

I grew up listening to WFMT.

[catherine]

TBH, I was never a big NPR fan on a regular basis. Not dislike, just disinterest. I do remember listening to a David Sedaris bit once. And now, I listen to Krista Tippett, on her podcast, but never listened to her on NPR. If I listen to the radio, it's only when driving.

There's a great classic rock station up here, and one of the DJs is Nancy Gordon--a woman my age. She's been a female DJ for decades, and she's great. I have to give her credit for having made it into a traditionally mostly male field and to have held on to it into her senior years. She's also an expert on the Beatles and every afternoon she does a "Beatles break" with 15 minutes of Beatles music. I try to time my shopping trips accordingly, even though at home I can ask Alexa to play the Beatles any time. There's something about not having to make decisions and just listening that keeps radio interesting and relevant.

[iris lilies]

I see NPR as biased, but not yet in the angry, brittle hyper partisan manner of an MSNBC.l..

hmmm, just give them time once they are not yoked to taxpayer dollars.

One of the many articles I skimmed this week says insiders at NPR claim editorial changes have already been put into place to address concerns of bias and it is tragic they weren’t given time to show them.

oh please, I think they had plenty of time to demonstrate change.

.

[Tybee]

Listened to many happy years of What Do You Know and Car Talk!
Saved thousands of dollars from listening to Car Talk.

[iris lilies]

Listened to many happy years of What Do You Know and Car Talk!
Saved thousands of dollars from listening to Car Talk.


The Car Talk guys were hilarious. DH loved them too.

I remember one of them had an MG that they often made fun of. Or maybe it was a Triumph, not sure, but I know it was one of my favorite little English cars.

[Rogar]

Sometimes after some useless meeting or other arrangement the phrase, "Wasted another hour of our precious time", still comes to mind.

[LDAHL]

Sometimes after some useless meeting or other arrangement the phrase, "Wasted another hour of our precious time", still comes to mind.

Sonja Henie’s tutu!

[littlebittybobby]

okay---i been bawling my eyes dry because this places my FAVORITE Tee-Vee show right after Gillygans Island in jeopardy. Yup. But yeah---my all-time favrite show is Mahstapiece Theahtah, broadcasted from Bahstun. Yup. I never miss an episode, unless i am busy. Nope. How do you like that? Also, the McGlocklin Group, where they bicker over stuff about like you kids.

[iris lilies]

I think the most salient number in this case was the forty million dollars CBS was losing every year on Colbert’s show.
Letterman is convinced CBS is closing down the Colbert show to avoid problems with the Trump administration in the sale, just as one narrative is saying.

Since I am a member of the church of Letterman, I have to give this weight.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kYpwujMwCSg

[Alan]

Letterman is convinced CBS is closing down the Colbert show to avoid problems with the Trump administration in the sale, just as one narrative is saying.

Since I am a member of the church of Letterman, I have to give this weight.


But that begs the question(s), if they were trying to pacify a tyrant as many people have suggested, why would they give Colbert an additional 10 months to double down on his "offensive" commentary? And why would they cancel the entire show rather than just replace the host?

I guess you could counter that if it was a financial decision, why would they allow it to continue until next year? Possibly because of Colbert's current contract which may contain language regarding early termination or breach of contract by either party?

I'm always confused in situations like this because no one seems to be asking the right questions, mainly because they have no interest in understanding something that may upset their preferred narrative. I guess I'm the same, my preferred narrative that it was a financial decision just makes more sense to me.

[LDAHL]

I don’t think it requires a fascist conspiracy theory to explain why a company would want to quit paying a guy twenty million dollars a year for losing them forty million dollars a year.

[iris lilies]

But that begs the question(s), if they were trying to pacify a tyrant as many people have suggested, why would they give Colbert an additional 10 months to double down on his "offensive" commentary? And why would they cancel the entire show rather than just replace the host?

I guess you could counter that if it was a financial decision, why would they allow it to continue until next year? Possibly because of Colbert's current contract which may contain language regarding early termination or breach of contract by either party?

I'm always confused in situations like this because no one seems to be asking the right questions, mainly because they have no interest in understanding something that may upset their preferred narrative. I guess I'm the same, my preferred narrative that it was a financial decision just makes more sense to me.

I assumed the 10 month continuance of the show had to do with Colbert‘s contract, but I can’t say I’ve read it as fact.