hi James,
I agree with you on one level: daytime NPR affiliates can be very sleepy. They seem to cater for an audience of retired teachers and academics who have the time to listen to the programs while they run their errands (I assume that 95% of people are listening in their cars, and the rest podcast and listen later). Still, you learn a lot about America listening to NPR, and it is miles better than the content on most commercial US radio. As I am sure you know, US commercial radio is either drive time political opinion (Rush Limbaugh etc), Christian evangelism or endless sports phone-ins. And for the most part, it is awful. The only exception I can think of is Bloomberg Radio, which is slowly getting traction. Their financial morning news program is superb: it assumes that its listeners are smart, and its guests are opinion leaders in the world of finance and business.

Major local public radio stations (NYC, Boston, Chicago, Philly, LA) often have one or two flagship shows which can be syndicated nationally. WBUR has On-Point, which is nearly always interesting, runs two hours every morning, and has pithy, substantive interviews with experts on whatever is the topic that is being discussed. On Point is syndicated in the New York area and probably other parts of the country too. New York’s WNYC has an excellent phone-in program in the 10-12 noon slot, hosted by Brian Lehrer, which deals with local issues.

Personally, I think the best current affairs programs on NPR are weightier and less poseur-heavy than those run by the BBC (Radio 4 particularly). They tend to be more balanced politically, and their hosts deliberately eschew the attitude that the BBC seems to require of its broadcasters. This may make it more boring, but you learn more from it.

As an occasional non-US NPR listener, there doesn’t seem to have been very much on the Vermont stations either – every time I’ve tuned in it’s been BBC World Service, although I’m impressed at how well resourced WNYC seems to be (and they also have a 4-hour show co-produced with PRI called ‘The Takeaway’ which acts as an alternative to Morning Edition and which I think I prefer, personally.)

On Saturday night I turned into a non NPR station in New York for a few minutes and they spent most of it moaning about how Hurricane Irene had been blown out of all proportion and was merely an opportunity for positive spin by Obama.

Hi from New York,

They’re called promos. “Commercial” implies money has changed hands (or someone fervently hopes it will). I guess “programme trail” means roughly the same thing in the UK.

Each station handles promo production differently. At large stations there’s an entire department in charge of writing and producing them. Sometimes it’s just the Production Manager, who does them in his or her copious spare time. Often one person writes the copy and another (sometimes an announcer) actually produces the promo.

Sometimes there’s no copy to write; the promo comes pre-packaged from the program’s producer, complete with a ten-second “crappy jazz” tail for a voice-over (“Tonight at 8 on WXYZ, your listener-supported NPR station.”)

The individual almost always missing from this picture is an editor. Rarely is the copy given to someone with the authority to say, for example, “Really? Only on WBUR? Are you sure that’s accurate, or even necessary?”

In theory the Program Director is responsible for all content that goes on the air, not only in terms of what it says but how it sounds. But few PDs I know of actually vet their promos before they’re broadcast and veto the ones with bad writing or production.

Coordination with the station’s web site is a whole ‘nother ball game as each broadcaster comes to terms with this World Wide Web thing, now twenty years on. That’s handled by yet another department, one that’s sadly not always in sync with what’s happening on the air.

All best,
Lars

Hi, Lars,

I think the term “commercial”, “promo”, “spot” and “trail” are interchangeable, being honest – but I agree that an editor would have been a good thing here.

Similarly, the same “coming up at 1 o’clock” information was repeated in four breaks between midday and 1 that I listened to. Again, this is treating listeners as morons: but what’s concerning is that clearly nobody’s actually listening to the ouput…

Going back to your original reason for tuning in, here’s how one very tiny local station reacted to the weather emergency: http://http//www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/nyregion/radio-dj-in-catskills-offered-a-lifeline-during-the-storm.html

For me, this is what radio is all about.