More Public Radio Ranting

Andy Ferguson over at the Weekly Standard has thoughts on the impending change in format of my local public radio station from classical music to a wall-to-wall yap fest, something I've been ranting about for a week or two now.

Ferguson goes into the larger philosophical question behind why we bother to continue throwing tax money at NPR and has some hard thoughts about the new breed of public radio station manager uniformly assimilating themselves into NPR's newstalk collective in pursuit of ratings. As I think I mentioned before, I find it particularly ironic that it is these very same people typically man the Diversity Barricades whenever the issue of media consolidation comes up at the FCC. One wonders why they bother.

I'm not suggesting that NPR should not supply programming or that local affiliates should not take advantage of it. In fact, two shows that Ferguson notes, Car Talk and A Prarie Home Companion, are exactly the sort of thing that NPR can do best. (Yes, Garrison Keillor gives me the guts-ache, but I enjoy his show nonetheless.) But the wholesale jettisoning of local classical and jazz programs in favor of ratings-generating national bloviation-fests is a sad, sad thing.