Too many obituaries this week! Three great people to celebrate and another whose career got screwed over.
By the way, I did listen to the first new episode of On the Media minus Bob and Brooke did address it. Unfortunately, she agreed with the verdict, then spewed legalese and stabbed him in the back which was expected. People who work in the media shit on each other all the time to move up the food chain (I saw it firsthand at WQFM) or they do whatever it takes to cling to their volatile jobs. I guess Brooke and Bob weren’t really friends. Well, it’s one less podcast I need to bother with now.
Speaking of NPR, May 2021 is the 50th Anniversary of the Public Network’s infancy. I think the term is appropriate since the new network started off with just one show, the afternoon-drive-time-based All Things Considered with its first show on May 3, 1971.
It’s somewhat of a big deal because unlike Europe, US radio (and TV) started with commercial stations only. Gilded-Age mentality continued to pervade in the Twenties when radio was allowed to be a civilian technology and Corporations always knew best. A century ago, Corporations via radio stations were more often department stores (WLS Chicago); major newspapers (WGN Chicago); wealthy, shitbag families (KLBJ Austin); or the manufacturers of radios (WNBC New York) with the evil Hearsts being a combination of several. Governments doing this? God (of Money) forbid! Given the Palmer Raids, this stunk of Communism! However, universities managed to get positions on the dial and I’m confident the FCC (née FRC) made this happen. Sidenote, my alma mater Marquette had one and then blew it while two lesser institutions got stations which makes MU’s broadcasting program a sad, overpriced joke.
Our neighbors Canada and unwanted ally the UK set up state-based stations instead. Last time I checked, neither evolved into Red Menaces. Yet through the following decades, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) continued to bring up their straw-man argument until JFK. That president’s assassination derailed any immediate plans to create an American equivalent since LBJ was the NAB’s bitch. Surprisingly, LBJ did lay down the groundwork of what would become PBS for TV and NPR for radio, probably through his War on Poverty St. Reagan waved the white flag on.
NPR’s beginning and growth followed the same pattern as the commercial networks ABC and Fox. Find affiliates willing to join (99% of which were associated with a university) and introduce one show at a time. Within years (or decades), NPR had a whole catalog to offer. Today you can reliably count on all to start with Morning Edition around 5 AM and wind down with All Things Considered at 5 PM. At other times they carry Fresh Air, On the Media, The Prairie Home Companion (maybe under another name) and reruns of Car Talk. Most I’ve followed tend to carry the BBC in the wee hours or play Jazz.
It stumbled for a while too. NPR didn’t have any hosts with the gravitas of Walter Cronkite or Edward Murrow so it took a while to build its audience. The Washington affiliate threatened to quit after a year unless the programming improved. Once NPR’s coverage was winning awards and being another thorn in Tricky Dick’s side, the fledgling network was here to stay.
Today NPR is incorrectly associated with Liberals and the Left by MAGAts, Rednecks, Conservatives and Libertarians. Liberal radio? Only for the Neo-, MSNBC- and Brunch kind who love their tote bags yet voted for Prop B, are core demographic. The Left? We may listen at times but we remain critical of when their coverage wastes energy on false equivalency (an economist isn’t equal to a scientist on any Science); kisses Darth Cheney’s ass as Juan Williams did; or gives the microphone to nihilists, namely any asshole from reason and domestic terrorist Grover Norquist. To be fair, I also wretch when they fawn over Slick Willie, Grampa Brunch, the Great Equivocator, Bilary and Zero-Support Harris. I will give NPR credit. Unlike the Corporate-Owned Bullshit Networks, NPR issues corrections, says who sponsors them if something appears to be a conflict of interest (e.g. stories involving FeceBook being brought before Congress, they will say, “FeceBook sponsors this show…”) and in the ongoing lawsuits against low-powered FM stations run by high schools, NPR admits they’re on the team out to destroy these tiny outlets of freedom and creativity. If you need an example an actual Left Wing station, hunt down the few remaining Pacifica stations or download the podcast Democracy Now!
Still, NPR remains a good, more accurate source of information when it’s time for their top-of-the-hour newscast. I may grow tired of their boring stories about some obscure Jazz shit or a form of basket-weaving only found in the remote Asia, but they don’t waste time on runaway brides.