Having developed good relationships with the member stations and with the African American Public Radio Consortium, I have seen a trend towards some "mavericky" stations walking away from big NPR shows and doing either local broadcasts, BBC, CBC, etc. Of course, the basic concept of this mix is nothing new. But people listening often don't understand the difference between a member station and NPR. The licensing/distibution model is so different from, say, network TV.

My indecent proposal is that NPR consider lowering the per-listener charges for some of the shows in exchange for the inevitable audience loss to podcasting/streaming.

One of the things that has bothered me for some time about NPR programming is the almost total lack of coverage of classical music. Occasionally there will be a piece about some superstar with an intriguing personal story like Yo Yo Ma, but generally this half a millennium of human achievement is essentially absent from programs that have names like "All Things Considered." I know that your most of your demographic is more thrilled by heavy metal than Bach, but it seems to me that in addition to your entertainment function you also have a certain obligation to acquaint your listeners with spheres of intellectual life they might possibly be interested in if they knew they existed. There is plenty of time devoted to light weight fun and to political babble on NPR and that is as it should be, but it seems to me that with a little effort some time could also be found for classical music, if only as interludes between stories as in the Susan Stamberg days.