Question of the Day | 02/23/2009 11:00 pm

Today is NPR's 39th anniversary. What do you like most about it? Is there a favorite program?

Mary Wells | 02/24/2009 12:00 am

Mary Wells: The Cool Treat That Is NPR

The only radio I listen to is NPR. Most radio makes me think of baseball and screen doors slamming in the summer and June bugs and how slow the world used to be. NPR is about today. It moves. And I like Tavis Smiley and the entire cultured crew. I am surprised that it has been on-air 39 years. It feels so contemporary. It’s cool radio and that is a treat.

1 Comment

Liz Smith | 02/24/2009 12:00 am

Liz Smith on the Last Bastion of Culture

What I like best about NPR is the width and breadth of their excellent coverage which, unlike the newspapers mentioned earlier, is being subsidized by the government. I always learn something when I turn to NPR and, generally, it is not tainted by politics, partisanship, publicity or advertising. I feel like it’s almost holy writ.

And NPR seems to me to be a last bastion of culture. Maybe I’m naïve.

Click here on this text to read my New York Post column.

1 Comment

Joan Juliet Buck | 02/23/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Juliet Buck Misses 'Native American Calling' on NPR

I used to like "Native America Calling" on NPR in Santa Fe — oddly you can’t get it in NY. We need NPR. We need more NPR.

4 Comments

Joan Ganz Cooney | 02/23/2009 11:00 pm

Two Reasons Why Joan Ganz Cooney Likes NPR

I like NPR for pretty much the same reasons others do: It is intelligent and civilized.

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Read more about: Journalism, Media, National Public Radio, NPR, Radio

34 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I usually learn something! I like the talk show on how to ‘fix things’ around the house, and yard….learned when to water and fertilize from NPR…oh I like other stuff too…for instance, I was listening to a critique of Obama being given by an elderly female, who had been a political commentator for a very long time, addressing things that country-clubbers in my parents day would talk about, but are not relevant in todays’ world..it was obvious she was a Republican, too….the moderator of the show (2 Saturdays’ ago), just let her talk…then without any comment at all…thanked her for being there and whoosh! she was gone…no embelishment at all! of her commentary….I really liked that part..;-D

By Patty E on 02/23/2009 11:30 pm

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I love NPR !

I wake up to it in the morning and have it on in the car. My favorite show is "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross. She is the best interviewer in the business and has the most pleasing voice on radio. I can’t even remember how many books I went right out to buy after one of her interviews. She is smart, funny and hip … love her !

I also love "Wait, Wait, don’t tell me " , especially with Paula Poundstone who cracks me up.

I also love "Car Talk" with Click & Clack . … I could go on and on. I love it all. How many times have I pulled into the driveway and sat in the car to hear the end of a story, or missed a green light because I was paying attention to the radio, or gotten strange looks because I was obviously alone in the car but was laughing hysterically. ( I sound like a fundraiser ! )

Rush Limbaugh and commercials OR NPR ? Is it possible to one further extreme from another ?

By EKA - on 02/24/2009 12:26 am

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The only thing I’d add is the Diane Rehm Show and Garrison Keeler. The only radio I listen too.

By JeJe De on 02/24/2009 8:54 am

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I agree, she is teriffic … but she is not on in my area when I am usually in the car. I usually hear her on my husbands satellite radio when we are traveling on the weekend. My son lives in Boston and loves her !

By EKA - on 02/24/2009 1:54 pm

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Love my NPR; glad to be a KQED’er as well… I love that the BBC has to have 2 channels. Wish we had half the radio dial for NPR!

By Mugsy Peabody on 02/24/2009 12:33 am

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I LOVE NPR. Have my car radio set to it, and my Bose kitchen radio also. I learn so much more from listening to it than from any cable TV station. The commentators are so informative and most are quite non partisan. I adore "Wait,Wait,Don’t Tell Me" - it cracks me up,and "Car Talk" too. Garrison Keillor’s program is also great, and if I miss him on Sat. I can get him on Sunday. There are so many non political programs that are both interesting and informative on such a variety of subjects. It’s like sitting in your car and attending a wonderful lecture. Sometimes I come home and sit in my car in the garage listening to the end of a program

By Lizzie R. on 02/24/2009 12:47 am

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Guess EKA and I have the same ideas. I seem to have repeated a lot that she said without even meaning too.

By Lizzie R. on 02/24/2009 12:50 am

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;-) … great minds think alike … with the help of NPR !

By EKA - on 02/24/2009 12:55 am

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Gee, 39th anniversay, same age as me! I like Garrison Keillor. He told all you English majors out there (of whom I was one), just enjoy yourselves because you’re never going to find a job anyway.

And EKA, I love Paula Poundstone. She once did a routine about the fine glassware in her home as a child. Turns out they were small jelly jars, and when one of her siblings broke one, her mother angrily chided, "Now, see, that’s why we can’t have nice things." My family members still say that whenever any silly little something gets broken.

Peace and grace

By beth willis on 02/24/2009 12:49 am

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We are so lucky in this area. Three - count ‘em three NPR stations. The only radio listening time I don’t have an NPR station on is to listen to the traffic report.

http://www.whyy.org/91FM/radiotimes.html talk and news

http://www.xpn.org/ music and news

http://www.wrti.org/ jazz, classical and news

Public radio needs our support more than ever right now.

By E . on 02/24/2009 12:50 am

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I seldom listen to NPR any more because the programming here in MS is not nearly as good as it was when I lived in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.

My favorite classical station was the former WGMS FM in Bethesda, Maryland. Yet, the NPR programming, which I liked best of all used to be Sunday afternoon live broadcasts from New York’s LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, featuring great Opera, and excellent classical symphonies with introductions by great stage, film, concert, and media personalities from every specter; including politicians!!!

Wow! It was wonderful.

By Maizie James on 02/24/2009 1:54 am

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Love it! Period! Our nation is far better off for the PBS. Without it we’d be a truly dumbed down nation. It’s soothes the savage beast in us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NPR ~ WE LOVE YA (Submitting my contribution, today!)

By C jay on 02/24/2009 4:23 am

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I love Moring Edition and All Things Considered plus all the fun Saturday shows. My least favorite is Terri Gross.

My favorite station is WKSU in Kent, OH. It has all the great news and entertainment shows and the best classical playlist around. Sorry I can’t say the same for WGCU in Ft. Myers, FL—my winter station. They dropped their classical music and are now all talk.

So I stream WKSU over my computer and play it through my stereo, using a nifty wireless gadget called a Lyra. It’s shocking to hear the weather report for Cleveland (always awful) when I’m headed to the beach! In the car I’ve gone to using an ipod.

By Lee Harrison on 02/24/2009 6:42 am

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NPR!

The shows I could listen to were either while I was driving on a trip or at lunch time when I could turn the radio on and listen while I ate my pitiful lunch. Teaching gave me little opportunity during the day to hear any news. The teachers at my school usually didn’t hear what was happening in the world unless someone quietly passed a note around because they got a call from a husband, mother or someone who was at home. That’s how I found out about the disaster at the World Trade Center. When you’re teaching small children, adults try to keep mum about things so the children won’t panic. I never got to hear the full story of the disaster until I got home to see the t.v. Our library had a t.v. with cable, but that day the cable was out. Anyway, these are the shows I listen to (or watch on PBS).

People’s Pharmacy: I usually watched this on PBS rather than heard them so much.

The Diane Rehm Show: as a teacher, there was only time at lunch to catch her show but she had/has interesting guests and people can call in to ask questions. She moderates the show extremely well.

A Prairie Home Companion Garrison Keillor, and I loved the movie they made of that show.

Talk of the Nation Neal Conan,

Fresh Air® with Terry Gross Terry Gross,

All Things Considered with Robert Siegel, Michele Norris , Melissa Block and finally, a show usually on Sunday night that has Celtic music. I can’t recall the name of it, but I love it.

These are not supposed to be underlined, but somehow I can’t "un-underline" them.

By Murphy Mac on 02/24/2009 7:14 am

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Don’t try to listen to NPR as you drive cross country. It’s amazing the range of programming on NPR stations nation wide. I love NPR here in Dallas/Ft. Worth, but in West Virginia, there was a lot of classical music and a man explaining why you should enjoy it. Very little of what I have come to associate with listening to NPR. Guess it could be the local funding for the station.

By Mary Anderson on 02/24/2009 8:03 am