Amy Goodman's is a good one. I listen to her Pinnacle of Public Affairs Shows every day on the way to/from work.

I think of telling stories and turning up the music during little interludes. Or not.

I'm the same way, bigmusic; I've gotten into the habit of only being able to clean or cook when TAL's on in the background. Recently, though, someone posted a link to Radio Lab on metafilter, and I've found that's a nice way to change things up. It's sort of TAL-ish, but all the episode themes are science-related.

I've been listening to TAL forever and I'm afraid the bloom is off the rose. I'm starting to find Ira's halting monotone grating. I still tune in for the new weekly show, but for work-listening I like Studio 360 or the randomness that is to be found browsing at PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. Reg req but free, no spamming, and worth it.

They are now offering free podcasts. I downloaded it and it crashed my ipod. Gotta try it again. It is hard to be near a radio between 10 and 11 on a Sunday morning; I only catch snippets of it.

So I hope that the downloads get fixed. But, yeah, I can see where it might intrude on the way one sees the world.

am I the only person left who dosen't listen to NPR? even my Dad (who used to listen to Morton Downey Jr) listens now.

It's just that NPR is almost the last outpost of interesting broadcast radio. Almost.

While listening to pledge drive last week I learned the interesting and somewhat encouraging fact that All Things Considered has more listeners than Fox TV News has viewers.

It's just that NPR is almost the last outpost of interesting broadcast radio.

I miss 102.7 WNEW and 101.1 CBS-FM. They were the beginnings of my musical education. I was saddened as hell when I learned Scott Muni had passed last year.

One time in the 80's me and my dad were driving through the city, and I asked if I could put my station on. He said sure so I put on 102.7 and my dad said "this DJ sounds familiar." I said "That's Scott Muni." "Scott Muni??" he answered "You gotta be kidding! That guy was old when I was a kid!"

(I will never become an NPR listener. Too sober and sedate for my taste.)

Yeah, there are some good music shows on various NPR stations (American Routes, Mountain Stage), and some NPR affiliate stations have a music-based format, but it's primarily not a music source in most locations. Still, not all the programming is sober and sedate. There's a lot of comedy programming and a lot of media/arts-focused stuff. But then I like talk-based shows.

I think of music radio and NPR like I think of restaurants - you need pizza places and you need Irish pubs and you need fine dining now and then, not just one or the other. Those two commercial stations you mentioned were behemoths, and two of my favorites, too, and I've always dial-jumped to catch the best stuff or whatever I'm in the mood for. But even those sorts of stations are dying off in the age of Clear Channel and Time Warner AOL.

But even those sorts of stations are dying off in the age of Clear Channel and Time Warner AOL.

Sad but true. One of my long time dreams was to have my own radio station, a believe me the one I've created in my head is better than either commercial or NPR or college radio. But my Johnny Fever fantasy is not to be. *sniff*

This does give me hope, though, bless his do-ragged little head.