Posted 6/07/2004 05:36:00 PM by Douglas

I never thought I'd link a piece from The Weekly Standard, but I think they're on to something with this rant about NPR. So Houston might not be the biggest market from NPR's key demographic group of "Liberal Affluent Boomers," but they have some really interesting stuff sometimes, and many nationally syndicated shows that don't get picked up here in lieu for classical music.

"You do get the feeling a little of being an anachronism," Glerum said. "There's no question that there's less and less classical music on the radio now, and more and more programming that's produced somewhere else. The trend seems kind of overwhelming at times, like something you can't overcome.

ClearChannel has pretty much killed any competition among radio stations, so we're all reduced to the bile that industry consistently churns out. If I want to hear actual music? I find a CD, so I can't get too upset for people that want to listen to classical music having to do the same thing. But if you want to listen to Car Talk, All Things Considered, or Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, you're pretty much hosed if you live in an area that either doesn't have NPR, or has an NPR station that would rather play classical music.

And yet--so what? A reader with small-government, libertarian-conservative sympathies will raise the inevitable question: Why should government-supported radio exist at all? For those who look to public radio for classical music (or for any of the other traditional, minority tastes that are being purged from its airwaves), the principled small-government man will ask, Scrooge-like: Are there no CDs? Is there not satellite radio? Aren't there many other private means by which such eccentrics may satisfy their craving?

Exactly. The libertarian in me see everything worthwhile on NPR getting easily get picked up by commercial radio. Wait a second, that's how it is now. Most NPR shows have corporate sponsors (read: Commercials) right now. So what's the freakin' hold up?

Yank NPR's public funding and give me back the 17¢ a year they extort from my taxes. Now!