Ira Glass: Public radio can capitalize on its popularity without selling out

Re:Ira Glass: Public radio can capitalize on its popularity ... by kbenson on Tuesday May 19, 2015 @04:40PM (#9572997)

Do you listen to TAL much? I ask because if you find it bland when you do, I can't imagine you listening to it much, and if you don't listen to it much, I'm not sure I trust your appraisal to be accurate. Not every episode is interesting to me, so I skip some, but others I find extremely interesting (Radiolab, Planet Money and Freakonomics are my bread and butter NPR shows). To me that just indicates that have a fairly wide set of topics.

Generally I find they try to go fairly deep on both sides of topic where they can, or at least put disclaimers in that there may other explanations for what they are reporting. The recent multi-part set on police is a good example, they spent a fair amount of time talking about the police perspective on some recent events, and how and why it diverges from public opinion. To me, assuming it's pandering to a "middlebrow" audience would have me believing in a much more informed public than I think actually exists.

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Re:Ira Glass: Public radio can capitalize on its popularity ... by pervycreeper on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @07:27AM (#9575596)

>if you find it bland when you do, I can't imagine you listening to it much, and if you don't listen to it much, I'm not sure I trust your appraisal to be accurate

I've heard enough of it to form a decent impression. I don't agree with that kind of argument, otherwise no one would ever be able to criticize any piece of media for any reason.

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Re:Ira Glass: Public radio can capitalize on its popularity ... by kbenson on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @12:23PM (#9577366)

I tried to make it clear that my statement was predicated on whether or not you've listened to it much. Not because it's impossible to be correct in your appraisal of something with little exposure, but the weight I give your opinion is a function of both your exposure to the topic, and the variation the topic exhibits. I think TAL has quite a bit of variation in message, topic and to a lesser degree quality. I don't think limited exposure will, in the average case, produce very accurate opinions about it. Of course, I don't truly know how much exposure you've had (which I also tried to allude to by using "I can't imagine," which is meant to be left open for correction).

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Re:Ira Glass: Public radio can capitalize on its popularity ... by dublinben on Tuesday May 19, 2015 @06:17PM (#9573537)

>Radiolab, Planet Money and Freakonomics are my bread and butter NPR shows

It's interesting that you list those three (excellent) shows as examples. Only Planet Money is actually produced or distributed by NPR themselves. Radiolab and Freakonomics are both productions of WNYC.

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Re:Ira Glass: Public radio can capitalize on its popularity ... by kbenson on Tuesday May 19, 2015 @07:39PM (#9573841)

I imagine it's not quite as simple as that. I imagine NPR member stations that broadcast those programs kick back some portion of their donations/underwriting to help fund them, and that gets passed along to WNYC/Radiolab/Freakonomics. I know there are some programs that bill themselves as joint ventures of the local station and NPR, PRI, or APB.

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