Perhaps, it's time for this to happen. NPR has got too big.. There was once a time when college radio stations were actually located at the college and were programmed by students and members of the community at large. But these stations out of greed towards the promotion of other university programs got bigger. Transmitter antennas moved off of campuses and on to mountaintops. Powers increased and suddenly public radio was big-time. With that, stations sprouted formats. Gone are the day of local music, local views, local people and most importantly, the students. This has been taking place for a long time now with the latest victim of this vicious cycle, the University of San Francisco.
The FCC requires Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) radio stations to "further an educational program". This is something that the mega-NPR affiliates are failing to do. Instead of keeping their budgets low and educating their community as well as the university students, they are courting after the wealthier underwriters of the community for large donations to pay overblown salaries and to support activities that do nothing but quietly promote the underwriters and do nothing for the local community.
I am not conservative in any way and my reasons for supporting reduction in CPB grants to NPR and the "mega-stations" have nothing to do with the "left vs. right" debate of NPR's news programming but it has to do with the fact that because of the expansionist agenda of NPR and it's large affiliates, community radio has been relegated to the internet and radio transmitted on wires that can't be heard outside the college campus. This disenfranchises the community the station was entrusted to serve.
With internet radios being put in upscale vehicles and more homes with broadband access, it's time we shift the elitist programming off of the FM stations and onto the internet (since the more wealthier people can afford that). The FM stations operated by the colleges need to be toned down. Move the transmitters off the mountains and back on the colleges. Restore broadcasting workshops in colleges and give the entire community their radio stations back.
If the large universities cared about their communities and not greed, they would have not fought for the virtual elimination of the Class-D small college stations back in the 1970s and NPR would have not spent a lot of efforts in the late 1990s to fight the Low Power FM radio service.
I feel that CPB funding needs to go first to smaller stations that serve communities at the local level and who demonstrate the most need.
NPR needs to be scaled back to provide news and limited programming and create a fee structure that would make it easier for smaller stations to become affiliates in order to enhance their service to the public with a national news source.
When your local major NPR affiliate has their next mixer to woo large underwriters, just think about the farmworkers, the minorities, the GLBT community, the disabled, the homeless, the oppressed, the struggling local artists/musicians, the enthusiasts of music genres other than classical and jazz and the students who just want the training to work at a "real" radio station. Thanks to the greed of the local stations, the encouragement of the large underwriters and the overall attitude of NPR, these groups have been forgotten about.
Scale down NPR and the university affiliates.. and then we will talk about funding.
