I love my local public radio station in the Northwoods. WXPR, located in Rhinelander, is unique in public radio as it’s independent, not part of the Wisconsin Public Radio Network. For Madison readers, think of a mash up between WERN and WORT. XPR takes some of the NPR feed, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but much of the rest of the time local, volunteer hosts run the music shows.
It’s wonderful. There’s dead air as the volunteer hosts search for the right button to push. They play the wrong song. The classical musical hosts struggle with the pronunciation of the names of French composers. But the music they select is usually terrific and even when it’s not, I hear something I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t tuned in. It is the furthest thing from slick, the furthest thing from market-studied-to-death demographic-targeted schlock. It’s real. It’s even, and I gag as I use this word, authentic. You can hear for yourself right here.
But while I love WXPR, I’m no fan of NPR. For me, NPR is the very voice of what put the convicted felon Donald Trump back in office. As I wrote the other day, Trump can be thought of as the disaster (more gently described as a “correction”) that happens when the economic advantages and cultural idiosyncrasies of relatively affluent, college-educated elites go too far afield.
Even that wouldn’t be so bad if taxpayers weren’t forced to support it. NPR lost its legitimate claim for taxpayer support long ago when it shed even the pretense of objectivity. It is, as former NPR editor Uri Berliner described in a brilliant piece last year, “the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.” Predictably, Berliner’s critique got him forced out at NPR. So much for welcoming diverse points of view.
So, now that the Trump administration has gotten around to defunding public broadcasting — I’m only surprised that it took them so long — I’m conflicted. On the one hand, NPR should be defunded. But on the other hand, I want to save WXPR. What to do?
There’s an obvious solution — though since Trump is not about solutions but simple, raw and stupid retribution, it’s exceedingly unlikely that he’ll pursue it. The solution is to end direct support for NPR. That’s only one percent of its budget anyway. It’s important symbolism, but NPR would go on without even feeling the cut.
But here’s where things get tricky. While NPR only gets that one percent directly from the taxpayers, they get much more through the back door. That’s because the taxpayer money that goes to WXPR and other local public radio stations comes with a string attached. They are required to spend some of it on national programming, which means, in most cases, NPR.
So, what would make sense is to keep sending that money to local stations, but to eliminate the requirement to spend some of it on national programs or even to require that all of it be used for local programming.
Not only would this plan end taxpayer support for a biased media outlet, but it would support and encourage more local programming — especially local news programming. WXPR does a nice job of covering the Northwoods. But with only a few reporters and a huge region to cover, its reach is limited. And I don’t need NPR for national coverage anyway. I have the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the AP for that. And frankly, NPR spends so much of its time covering what was reported earlier in the week by the Times that I don’t think I’d miss a beat. I suppose you could make a case that NPR is free while the Times costs something, but if you can find me one NPR listener who couldn’t afford a newspaper subscription I’ll give you a free one-year subscription to YSDA.
Moreover, even now listeners can access NPR on the web and bypass their local stations altogether. Given that, even with this bigger blow to its funding, NPR would probably continue in a reduced form or maybe it would become a commercial network. I assume they wouldn’t become any more objective, but as a private entity that would be fine.
So, this could work. But I doubt it will. Trump and his people have no time for actual public policy making. They just go at everything with an ax and an ax to grind. It’s all about Trump’s many grievances. And so I’m afraid that my Mirror on the Northwoods and Window on the World could be on the chopping block. And all because the powers at NPR didn’t take Uri Berliner’s legitimate criticisms to heart.
On this website we believe in:
Free speech.
The rule of law.
Reason.
Tolerance.
Pluralism.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
I love it when I agree with you, which is almost always. Thank you for continuing to write this blog!!!
LikeLike
Funny you still don’t get it. It’s guys like you that put Trump back in office (Thank you very much). You thought the “convicted felon” label would do him in but you didn’t understand that most of the country saw it as lawfare. The label didn’t do him in, it made him invincible.
Look up Antifragility (Taleb).
LikeLike
Um… what? I recall reading almost exactly a year ago on this blog how despite Trump being rightfully convicted of a felony he still had better odds than not of beating Biden. The amount of falsehoods you spout is embarrassing, but not surprising given Trump is the current leader of the right wing and blasts lies like a fire hose.
LikeLike
As someone who studied at UW (radio/tv/film) and worked my way through college working at Wisconsin Public Broadcasting, I not only disagree but you got it wrong all around
WXPR was created with expansion funding from CPB (and likely the support of Congressman Dave Obey), an independent nonprofit that gets a tiny portion of $ from the Federal government, mostly to enable the laws Congress already enacted to sustain the TV and radio networks that cover territory underserved by commercial radio, i.e. Rhinelander/UP…not a profitable area by any definition.
You are making a mistake by culling the Trump narrative and confusing further the clear differences between WPR, NPR, CPB, PBS and local affiliate obligations. On that note, I cannot find any reference to being “forced” to pay backdoor fees as a local radio station. If you want to air national programming as an affiliate you pay for the license agreement, how is that bad or abnormal? Sounds to me like good old market based pricing.
All of the founders of WXPR came from Wisconsin and Minnesota public radio backgrounds. In short, the paltry amount of assistance from Federal and State taxpayers is so marginal when compared to the long term benefits of more FM coverage in rural areas of Wisconsin and America. In case you need proof that the private sector has no commercial use for Rhinelander/UP, just look at how smoothly broadband coverage was progressing without Federal and State support.
As someone who has been knocking on doors for various legislative campaigns in the last 20 years, I met exactly ZERO people of any political viewpoint, begging to shutoff government funding for public broadcasting. And, yes, both public TV and radio include educational programming that is not tied to any “progressive” or partisan slant.
We’re at a point in time, where AM radio is in front of Congress to preserve local community access, given how much of the spectrum has been auctioned off to facilitate broadband expansion. And, unfortunately, the internet has been overrun with disinformation, opinions, rumors and other distractions from actual journalism. AM radio since Reagan’s elimination of the Fairness Doctrine, allowed right wing talk radio to flourish and pave the way for FOX News. Heck, maybe even the McLaughlin Group helped create the FOX news format?
My first experience with conservative politics was while working at Wi Public broadcasting and while operating programming, I got to also watch and learn from John McLaughlin and his early format of talk show battles between liberals and conservatives, it was informative and entertaining all at once watching Pat Buchanan go after Eleanor whatsherface from when Newsweek was a liberal publication or Freddie the Beadle Barnes, who worked at Weekly Standard and has been on FOX News with Brett Baier and (drum roll please) he is on VOICE OF AMERICA!
I digress. Is the configuration of public broadcasting difficult to follow? Probably for most with limited attention span. And that’s fine with me. I don’t quite understand how the Federal Highway funding formula works but I still drive on the Interstate everyday and pay taxes to do so. Trump and company going after public radio and TV is yet another way to irk the Left into defense mode, burning energy otherwise better spent going on the offense to his agenda of stupid destruction and revenge.
There is a long history of FCC law, state funding for Wis Public Radio and TV, and all of it tied to the University system in one way or another. Early development of radio transmission was done via America’s universities, and included ties to US military to improve wartime communications in WWI and WWII. Public Television helped pioneer automated robots to switch tapes from TV show to TV show, and use of Internet, satellite feeds. This was done strategically, to iron out kinks before commercial application — and to provide the Federal government with satellite access should it be necessary during time of disaster or war. (this is all before wireless and dipshits like Elon Musk)
These things have all been done with plenty of public transparency, routes to engage and include public input, and with bipartisan support in Congress. If you believe that the airwaves are a public good, worthy of oversight via representative government and important to the 1st Amendment…then, lay off public broadcasting and worry more about how the Fairness Doctrine repeal has damaged public discourse. Or how digital and social media has warped reality and manipulated news coverage, to the point that a day after day liar can run something called Truth Social.
LikeLike
Good points, Josh. Thank you. I did confirm with the WXPR station manager that part of their federal support must go to purchase national programming — not necessarily NPR, but that’s how the station uses most of it, as do most other local public radio stations. I don’t understand that requirement, unless it was intended to bolster NPR — and in the early days that may have made sense. But today, NPR has developed robust support from commercial sponsors and foundations. I don’t see why it would be bad to give local stations the option to use all of the money for local programming if they so choose.
LikeLike