Since the invention of the iPod, car radios have gradually been becoming obsolete, due to the availability of more preferable music without advertisements.
However, one station, NPR, is still going strong, although the introduction of the internet has forced it to add podcasts and a website to its repertoire of entertainment.
NPR is falsely perceived as entertainment for old people. Sure, a good deal of the weekday broadcasting can suck, but anyone who feels strongly about staying informed should sit through it. NPR’s website, on the other hand, is a treasure trove of unknown arts, ranging from music to movies, performing arts and even recipes.
National Public Radio is a federal and listener funded, non-partisan news broadcasting service with the goal of “becoming the most relevant, trusted, and consumed news source in the United States, ” a part of their mission statement.
NPR is technically neutral, although it receives some flak from the far right for being biased to the left.
While it provides extremely accurate news, NPR’s most appealing broadcasts are their Saturday programs, with entertaining shows such as This American Life, Snap Judgement or Car Talk. The most informative and entertaining Saturday program is Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, a radio game show that quizzes participants on the remarkable events of the past week.
“They have a lot of interesting opportunities to listen to live performances from a lot of bands that don’t get a lot of airtime on regular radio,” said Matt Cesari, sophomore. “Recently, they did a live podcast from SXSW (pronounced south-by-southwest) which is a huge music festival in Austin, Texas. It was cool to get to watch those concerts because I couldn’t really go.”
I recently attended a show by Ira Glass, the host of NPR’s This American Life. He explained why NPR is a different news source: they don’t just cover the dark, noteworthy stories of the major news companies, they take a different, happier approach to the news that everyone needs to hear.
All neutral news sources have lately been replaced by opinion based programming, except NPR, which is thriving on listener funding. The fact that NPR is funded by listeners means that their programming is special and truly deserving of the listener’s money.
NPR is unique because they don’t just provide the facts; they tell the story.
