National Public Radio: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|"This is NPR, the station where we talk very softly, directly into the microphone. Can you hear us? We're right inside your head..."|''[[~~Family Guy (Animation)|~~Family Guy]]''}}

{{quote|"This is NPR, the station where we talk very softly, directly into the microphone. Can you hear us? We're right inside your head..."|''[[Family Guy]]''}}

National Public Radio, or NPR, is the main non-commercial radio network in the United States, based in [[Washington DC]]. Technically, NPR only creates some of the programming, and the rest -- such as ''[[This American Life]]'' and ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' -- comes from other organizations like Public Radio International and American Public Media, or is locally produced. Still, most people just call it all NPR regardless since, regardless of the distributor, many of these shows appear often on the same public radio stations due to stations being affiliates of multiple distributors.

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* ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' -- Garrison Keillor's [[Affectionate Parody]] of old-time [[Radio Drama]] and [[Variety Show|Variety Shows]] (he cites the [[Grand Ole Opry]] as a direct inspiration), produced by Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media. Features musical performances, private eye spoof ''Guy Noir'', plugs for fake sponsors, and Keillor's monologues about his fictitious hometown of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. Based in [[Twin Cities|St. Paul, Minnesota]], they also do a few road shows a year. [[The Movie]] was released in 2006; it was [[Robert Altman]]'s final film before his death.

* ''[[Car Talk]]'' -- Call-in talk show in which two auto mechanic brothers (with MIT Engineering degrees and [[Hollywood New England|thick Boston accents]]) ostensibly give advice to callers about cars, but usually instead ramble about brainteasers, pop culture and whatever comes to mind (they do answer about five or six car questions a show, though).

* ''[[Wait Wait Don't Tell Me ~~(Radio)~~|Wait Wait Don't Tell Me]]'' -- The rare American [[Panel Game]], based loosely on the British ''News Quiz''. Aside from the regular rotating panelists, the show also includes call-in games and, [[Once an Episode]], "Not My Job", in which a celebrity, politician or other newsmaker calls in to the show and has to answer questions that fall well outside his or her area of expertise. (Think [[Stephen King]] on [[Tastes Like Diabetes|cute fluffy things]].)

* ''[[Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!|Wait Wait Don't Tell Me]]'' -- The rare American [[Panel Game]], based loosely on the British ''News Quiz''. Aside from the regular rotating panelists, the show also includes call-in games and, [[Once an Episode]], "Not My Job", in which a celebrity, politician or other newsmaker calls in to the show and has to answer questions that fall well outside his or her area of expertise. (Think [[Stephen King]] on [[Tastes Like Diabetes|cute fluffy things]].)

* ''Talk of the Nation'' -- A news-discussion show, hosted by Neal Conan (and previously by people including [[This American Life|Ira Glass]], [[PBS|Ray Suarez]] and [[Fox News Liberal|Juan Williams]]). Conan discusses the day's news topics with experts, public figures and reporters, and accepts call-in and e-mail questions and comments from listeners. The number of topics and guests per show varies. On Fridays, the show becomes Talk of the Nation Science Friday, hosted by Ira Flatow and dealing exclusively with scientific topics.

* ''Fresh Air'' -- A long-running interview show hosted by Terry Gross, produced by [[Useful Notes/Philadelphia|Philadelphia]]'s NPR affiliate WHYY. Gross presents new interviews Monday through Thursday and a [[Recap Episode]] on Fridays, presented by David Bianculli or Dave Davies. The interviews usually air for 50 minutes, with the last five to ten given to movie and music reviews and local news. The interviews are generally incisive and engaging, and occasionally get a bit ''too'' interesting, like the time that [[Kiss|Gene Simmons]] informed Terry Gross that if she wanted to "welcome me with open arms, you'll have to welcome me with open legs." Or that time when [[Bill O Reilly|Bill O'Reilly]] walked out of his interview in a huff...

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* ''World Cafe'' -- One of NPR's few distributed music shows to be syndicated nationwide, from WXPN (which actually ''isn't'' an NPR affiliate, but [[College Radio|the station for the University of Pennsylvania]]). It mostly skews toward performances and interviews by popular indie rock bands, but often has live performances by various world musicians.

* ''WTF with Marc Maron'' -- A radio adaptation of comedian Marc Maron's popular interview podcast, currently being aired by many NPR affiliates via Public Radio Exchange (PRX) on a trial basis, and consisting largely of anthologies of previously released podcast content (some of the newer episodes occasionally find their way in as well) along with content exclusive to NPR. Of course as is par for a podcast like this, [[Edited for Syndication|profanity is removed]] so it can be aired on the radio.

* ''Marketplace'' -- A half-hour economics, business and financial news show, produced by American Public Media and the University of Southern California. Usually airs immediately after, or sometimes during, ''All Things Considered''. Notable for use of more hip and/or ironic interstitial music; "doing the numbers" (i.e. reading the the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 indexes, plus some other stuff) to very identifiable tunes (three [[Jazz]] standards--"[[Gold Diggers of 1933|We're In The Money]]" for all indexes up, "Stormy Weather" for all indexes down, "[[Duke Ellington|It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)]]" for mixed or unchanged markets--plus that one song from ''[[The Good the Bad ~~And~~ ~~The~~ Ugly]]'' for certain odd situations like closed markets); and for having more corporate sponsors than other public radio shows. Its reports tend to be more focused on broad economics than your typical business show (which tend to focus on business and finance); liberal economist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is a regular contributor, as is conservative writer and former [[George W. Bush]] speechwriter David Frum. Also produces an hourlong weekend personal finance show called ''Marketplace Money'', and a short 10-minute segment called the ''Marketplace Morning Report'' that airs on some stations during ''Morning Edition'' instead of or alongside NPR's own Business News segment.

* ''Marketplace'' -- A half-hour economics, business and financial news show, produced by American Public Media and the University of Southern California. Usually airs immediately after, or sometimes during, ''All Things Considered''. Notable for use of more hip and/or ironic interstitial music; "doing the numbers" (i.e. reading the the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 indexes, plus some other stuff) to very identifiable tunes (three [[Jazz]] standards--"[[Gold Diggers of 1933|We're In The Money]]" for all indexes up, "Stormy Weather" for all indexes down, "[[Duke Ellington|It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)]]" for mixed or unchanged markets--plus that one song from ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]'' for certain odd situations like closed markets); and for having more corporate sponsors than other public radio shows. Its reports tend to be more focused on broad economics than your typical business show (which tend to focus on business and finance); liberal economist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is a regular contributor, as is conservative writer and former [[George W. Bush]] speechwriter David Frum. Also produces an hourlong weekend personal finance show called ''Marketplace Money'', and a short 10-minute segment called the ''Marketplace Morning Report'' that airs on some stations during ''Morning Edition'' instead of or alongside NPR's own Business News segment.

* ''[[The BBC|BBC World Service]]'' -- The [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|world service for BBC Radio]]. Most often aired at night on NPR and/or PRI affiliates, most of these affiliates carry a small clutch of the programs the World Service offers:

* ''[[The BBC|BBC World Service]]'' -- The [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|world service for BBC Radio]]. Most often aired at night on NPR and/or PRI affiliates, most of these affiliates carry a small clutch of the programs the World Service offers:

** The standard BBC News broadcast

** ''The Forum''