John Proffitt:

>NPR and PBS will always be niche programming.  Both Morning Edition and
>All Things Considered, the flagship programs of NPR, reach a very small
>segment of the national radio audience.

What is the audience size, and who knows?  (That's a question, not a
challenge.) I haven't followed the radio industry much for some years
now, but it used to be that because ME/ATC showed up on hundreds of small
stations that didn't subscribe to Arbitron and hence had no published
ratings, the numbers were considered vague even by the already amorphous
standards of the ratings biz, and added up to a significant number in
metro markets and, cumulatively, nationwide.

Bernard Chasan:

>the other (WBUR) has immersed itself in news, news, news.  What a bore,
>but the Stepford listeners - very educated Stepford listeners, keep
>contributing.

WBUR scarfed up a couple of AM radio stations in Rhode Island, and I
listen to one of them from my aerie in Connecticut.  Maybe you think I'm
a Stepford listener.  Maybe you aren't interested in Morning Edition,
or you have issues with WBUR's management; fine.  But flippant insults
of the station and its listeners don't add anything to my perception of
what the real problem is, and the implication that it's inherently
brain-dead to keep up with current affairs is outside my comprehension.

Karl Miller:

>acclaimed news, but...on the other hand, I wonder if the British listen
>to NPR news...I certainly listen to the news on the BBC.

Do you find that BBC is dumbing down?  I started noticing a change ten
years ago or more, when my shortwave was still plugged in every day.  I
still hear them on the infamous WBUR, and it seems that they are gradually
dropping more "news from obscure places" in favor of football standings
and Spice Girl misadventures.

>My frustration isn't just that some NPR stations avoid classical music.
>It is far deeper, when I hear a station dumbing down classical
>programming to increase the numbers

Fortunately, not a problem here, though I can imagine how frustrating that
would be.

Karl -- and John, and anybody who has been in classical radio from the
other side of the soundboard -- one thing I'm very interested in, and
don't have a lot of information about, is what kind of feedback you get
if you try to alter anything in your presentation.  If you try to mix
in some more contemporary or "threatening" music, do you hear about it?
Or do you get complaints for being too "easy listening" if you program
an extra Vivaldi?  I always had the idea that the heaviest part of the
classical radio game was not the small audiences, but being unable to
do anything without aggravating 30% of that already small audience.  I'd
dig hearing war stories about that.

Eddie