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Jeffrey Williams

November 26, 2008

Creative project

The Need for National Public Radio

National public radio has been a reliable source of unbiased news and other cultural programming since the early seventies. Since its creation, National Public Radio has grown tremendously to include 860 radio stations nationwide, with an ever expanding number of programs. The idea for such a radio station arose after congress passed the Public Broadcasting act of 1967. The goal was to create a radio station that would provide educational information to the masses.

It was 1967 and the Vietnam War was in full swing. Lyndon B. Johnson was the current President, and it was a time of free love and free thinking. Preceding President Johnson was President John F. Kennedy and his short term due to his assassination. The tides of the west had overtaken America’s opinion and it was time to open up the media to the public. Both the House and the Senate had been voted democratic this year. It was President Johnson, a democrat, who signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 in action. Everyone felt it was time for a clear voice. It was the idea of congress in this act that

“… it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes; … public television and radio stations and public telecommunications services constitute valuable local community resources for utilizing electronic media to address national concerns and solve local problems through community programs and out-reach programs; … a private corporation should be created to facilitate the development of public telecommunications and to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control.”[1]

It only took two years until the NPR had educational information penetrating the waves of radio. The first broadcast was live coverage of the United States Senate deliberations on the Vietnam War. This was the beginning of noncommercial radio reaching the people who needed it the most.

At its beginning National Public Radio had only thirty workers and around 90 charter stations. The first radio program broadcast on these stations was Robert Conley’s All Things Considered an afternoon program directed at commuters and other afternoon listeners. It was the first noncommercial radio news program reaching Americans. It was a newscast that included not only the news, but special live broadcasts, different commentaries and analysis, as well as interviews.[2]

Commercial advertising plays a large role in everyday life in an American society. To have a successful media corporation in today’s times that is not driven by commercial sponsors is a remarkable feat. National Public Radio has been doing this for the last thirty-eight years. Commercials and advertisements are placed in every modern day media available by almost every business out there. This is one big difference between most commercial radio and NPR. Today’s “entertainment” radio stations try and maximize profit by creating a balance between advertisements and music. These stations are owned by large corporations such as Citadel or Clear Channel Radio. More and more independently owned radio stations are being bought up by these mega-corporations. This creates one great big radio station. This takes away the diversity of radio and the diversity of information reaching listeners. These major corporations institute mandatory guidelines of broadcast material resulting in bias radio. The one voice that remains unchanged since its creation is National Public Radio.

The way that NPR can get by without these commercials is by having underwriters or donors. These underwriters donate money to the programs and in return get to broadcast short statements about themselves. The difference between this and commercials is that these underwriters cannot be advertising an actually product or have a toll free number to call to purchase a product. These underwritten “plugs” are also governed by the Federal Communication Commission unlike commercial advertisements. NPR does not rely on these underwriting slots to completely fund their programs. They also receive many donations from listeners and endowments.[3]

A lot of the money that National Public Radio takes in is from fees it charges the radio stations to broadcast its programs. Some of the money that NPR receives is from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is government granted money that goes towards these educational outlets. National Public Radio also does pledge drives to raise money for public broadcasting.

The news voice of All Things Considered is still a powerful influence on the nation today. It wasn’t until 1979 that the morning news show, Morning Edition, was created. This was a morning news counterpart to All things considered. Morning Edition wad a program originally hosted by Bob Edwards.

Over its years of broadcasting NPR has had shows not only educational but entertaining. It has grown to include more cultural shows such as Car Talk with hosting brothers, Click and Clack. This is a show where listeners call in and talk about car problems with the always joking hosts. Another show that inspires cultural thought is American Routes, hosted by Nick Spitzer. Luckily Nick Spitzer is my uncle on my mother’s side of the family, so I had a chance to ask Nick about his affiliation with National Public Radio and his opinion on the need for a cultural and educational source of media.

One question I had for Nick Spitzer was , “How did your show get started and where did the idea come from?” Nick responded, “Well the show [American Routes] started as a loose idea of mine I had been kicking around for years. It grew more as I became more engrossed with public radio through my work as a professor of musicology at Tulane University here in New Orleans.” Professor Spitzer’s show American Routes is a look back at American culture through music. He looks at all genres of American music including jazz, the blues, Cajun, Creole, and many others. It is cultural roller coaster through American music history. I also asked Nick Spitzer how he liked working with NPR and his feelings toward it. Nick told me “I love NPR; I think it is a great outlet for educational media reaching listeners who are actually interested in today.”

NPR has brought forward some of the most ground breaking radio in its time and has continued to remain a driving for in news media still today. It is safe to say that educational and cultural media have a pretty solid place in society today. NPR has been a reliable source for Political news and no doubt will be there when History is made and America’s first African American President is sworn in. NPR is not only a strong force of cultural information, but it has almost become a part of American culture itself. I personally will donate to NPR any chance I get because a noncommercial, educational media source may be hard to find in another 30 years.

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[1] Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

[2] www.NPR.org

[3] NPR Treasurer’s Report