I'm moving this discussion from b.a.broadcast.moderated after
one of my fellow moderators pointed out that my posting had
drifted away from a Bay Area focus. :-)

Someone else had said about the cancellation of Talk of the
Nation: "many/most NPR affiliates wanted a stronger news show
in their afternoon schedule than what TOTN was providing."

My reply follows:

Well, that's certainly NPR's party line. They said they got that
information by talking to some of their "largest stations," yet
the CEO of the largest one [KQED in San Francisco] said a couple
of months ago that they had not talked to him. Nonetheless, perhaps
he would have said that KQED wanted the same thing.

Personally, I'm not concerned about what NPR's largest stations
need or want. It's the little stations I worry about, especially
the ones in rural areas where every other talk station is filled
with either Bible-thumping preachers or right-wing blowhards.
Those are the areas that need a sane call-in show. I sure hope
that those stations can afford to pick up The Takeaway or some
other news/talk program to replace TotN.


Patty

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 18:58:02 EDT, (Patty Winter)
wrote:

Well, that's certainly NPR's party line. They said they got that
information by talking to some of their "largest stations," yet
the CEO of the largest one [KQED in San Francisco] said a couple
of months ago that they had not talked to him. Nonetheless, perhaps
he would have said that KQED wanted the same thing.

KQED already has continually top or near-top ratings, and everyone
there and at NPR knows that TOTN is a great show. I can't imagine
KQED suggesting differently. Why mess with success.

Personally, I'm not concerned about what NPR's largest stations
need or want. It's the little stations I worry about, especially
the ones in rural areas where every other talk station is filled
with either Bible-thumping preachers or right-wing blowhards.
Those are the areas that need a sane call-in show. I sure hope
that those stations can afford to pick up The Takeaway or some
other news/talk program to replace TotN.

It's hard for me to imagine the demographic dynamics of public
stations in less populated areas. I was moreover suprised to find
that there are many such areas that have no NPR coverage at all. I
was participating in a Texas related blog recently and remarked that
even a larger area such as Laredo, TX has zero NPR coverage, not even
with a big rooftop FM antenna. The greater metro population is more
than 250,000. I got negatory replies suggesting that they didn't need
no Eastern talking heads telling them how to think in Texas.

I'd like to get more inside NPR insight on exactly why they feel the
need to water down the format with lightweight fluff such as "Here and
Now". Maybe they have to do that to break into the Laredo market.

I've speculated to myself that this may be a continuing trend related
to the dumbing down of all broadcast media. Complex music such as
classical is long gone, and the more intense dramas, films, and arts
that used to be on public TV are mostly gone now. Short attention
span is in, viz. "Here and Now". It's not a net loss however since
all of this is easily available on the Internet including 400+
classical radio stations from around the world. It's a shift, not a
disappearance. I'll really miss TOTN though. It was unique.