QOTD: Best listening?
by Dale Hobson on March 8th, 2012
We do our best at NCPR to provide a great and varied line-up of public radio programs for our listeners, but from time to time a gut check is in order. We want to know what programs keep you riveted to the radio.
From now through our Spring fundraiser (the week of March 26) we are asking listeners to let us know which one of our programs serves them best, and (most importantly) why. You can let us know via our toll-free listener comment line: 1-866-233-1420. (Please leave your name, and where you listen, along with your program pick. And say if we can use your message on air.)
Or you can answer today’s Question of the Day in a comment below:
Which program aired on NCPR is the most
interesting/important/entertaining for you? Why?
Tags: qotd
That is a real doozie (spelling?) of a question because NCPR carries so many excellent, interesting and informative programs.
If forced, I would have to say it’s a toss-up among On Point, Fresh Air and To the Best of Our Knowledge. That is not to say I like every story featured on each of these programs (or even that I listen all the time) but, when it is a subject that interests me (and often even when it’s not) I usually find that I’ve learned something new, or had to re-think a belief I held about something, or just were truly entertained for an hour.
The hosts of these 3 programs are a significant part of why I said what I just did – they are well-spoken (good diction but not overpowering voices); knowledgeable (they must spend most of their lives reading); and they ask questions of their guests that feel I might like to ask if I were talented enough to be in their position.
Oh, but I haven’t even mentioned the great local music programs you folks carry….
Dale, My sentiments are with Hank. How about asking for a pick from each of the various program genres?
I agree. I was going to make a list of ten shows and simply say: “Take your pick,” but I hate to cop out or to parrot, so I began thinking and trying to find a philosophical angle.
NCPR presents some important syndicated music shows, but their own stable of locally produced music shows has two things that stand out to me: genre variety and exposure for undervalued musics. From among them, the jazz shows are the ones which are important to me personally, but, as a whole, the lineup strikes me as some kind of mission. A mission to preserve, to inform, to keep something alive, and to show us our American roots, and in a couple cases, the results of the fusion of two or more ethnic styles in a world where everything in the arts will soon be, or is already, a fusion, eg., Latin with pop, jazz, or funk. Only a public radio station will provide such a service.
Got that off my chest, now I can cop out (sheepish grin): BBC World Update (when I’m not up with the roosters to hear NCPR, I catch it via streaming), Morning Edition, On Point, Fresh Air, A Way With Words, TTBOOK, Being, TAL, ATC, The World, On the Media, Wait-Wait Don’t Tell Me.
Okay, twelve, and not a single locally-produced show among them. That seems sad. I feel unworthy. Guilty. Ashamed. But I don’t think this is a reflection of NCPR. Most of my life I lived in Chicago, the home of WBEZ — a major metro station with, I presume, financial resources that far exceed those of NCPR. Did they produce shows I’d put on my fave-list? Just two, TAL and Wait-Wait. Other shows on the list were produced at some NPR affiliate after all, so what gives? WHYY Philadelphia, WBUR Boston, WNYC New York, etc. Big stations, all. WBEZ has local news magazines too, but I was not loyal. I’d tune in to hear a panel of local newspaper reporters (or mixed, reporters and municipal officials/politicians) try to tear off each others’ heads. That I found entertaining, but compelling, I think, more for the style than the issues.
Locally produced music shows and locally produced news are gems of NCPR. I depend on the weather reporting for a 60 mile commute among other things. I like to get my national news on Wait, Wait because Peter Sagel doesn’t pretend that it’s rational. If I thought that you had the funding for it I’d ask for a variety show like Vinyl Cafe to feature North Country culture. Part of why the northern NY area has unique and interesting aspects is the networking, reporting and local focus of North Country Public Radio.