They fired Ketzel Levine. I am not feeling very kindly to them these days.

Oh, bummer. I noticed that they cancelled "Day to Day," too, which was one of my favorite programs. The whole thing part of a 7% budget cut.

Maybe I should finally (cough) pledge...Here's an article about the budget and financial situation at NPR which answers most of my questions about the nuts and bolts of their budget issues.

NPR is a godsend for me for news and information. I was enjoying this playlist today on their music site: Viking's Choice: A Year Of Beautiful Noise. The NPR player doesn't work for me in firefox; probably some plugin incompatibility. So I have to listen with internet explorer.

I like it during pledge drives when they say, "If you listen to NPR two or three hours a day..." Heh! Our evenings revolve around the radio for four to five hours per weeknight. No joke, we schedule dinner for sometime during "Performance Today" depending on if we're ready to turn it off in the middle or not, and never before "Fresh Air" ends unless she's talking to people from a sitcom or something.

Add to that an hour in the morning, some times in the car, the Saturday morning block from 9a-noon and Prairie Home Companion (sometimes) and Bob Edwards (always) on Sundays, and it's like, what did we USED to do before we started listening to NPR? (Which we only did in the last 7 or 8 years, I think.)

We do pledge, though. *ahem*

cough

It was the best of songs, it was the worst of songs.

I still love NPR, and I still support. Stories like this are what separate NPR from the other media. In depth, interesting, and challenging your thought. They're the lone ones that still do this regularly, and while I'ts sad that they had to lay off some people. It sucks, really, but it's a testament to Ketzel that she made it a part of her ongoing story. And definitely, Bob Edwards' show kicks ass. He's got some kind of supernaturalness about him that makes him great. I'm glad he's on NPR and not FOX news. I've been listening for over 20 years from when I had so many great local stations in the bay area. I love it!

I gotta admire Levine's dedication to storytelling. I really do.

*hearts, and will go donate during next drive*

Sometimes, I just want to slam NPR against the curb and then curbstomp it something awesome.