Tavis Smiley has the most annoying voice in public radio. That is the one show I run to turn off. Also, my god, is he a sycophantic interviewer.
In love and service, Brother. In love and service.
Of those, I've only heard Car Talk, which I used to love, but grew disillusioned with when it began to seem that their personas were mostly shtick (yeah, I'm a sucker for authenticity).
This American Life, This American Life, This American Life.
Worst, besides GK: that execrable puzzle crap with Will Shortz and the woman announcer who giggles like an idiot at everything he says. "Take a fifteen-letter word that contains the syllable "cat" in it. Now alter all the letters whose position in the alphabet corresponds to a prime number; you should come up with a word that describes a bizarre form of foot fungus. Write in with your answers . . . " "He he he he, ooooh, that's going to be a hard one!"
AHHHHHHHHHHHH
Okay, I have a suggestion: I'd like for ALL of the NPR news shows, Weekend All Things Edition, etc., to stop having musical guests. If you hate the music, you know right away and you're stuck with it for the rest of the segment. If you like the music, you have to deal with the fact that merely being played on NPR is draining the coolness out of it.
Also, they should not let stupid people play the puzzle on Sunday Morning Edition.
Ogged, I thought you'd love CT for the residual sexism.
I like car talk. It's shtick, and I don't listen to it religiously or anything, but it's fun to hear them give one another crap and try to figure out bizarre car problems.
Word, Bitch.
I don't like the Tavis Smiley show, but I love listening to him talk. It's like he's constantly on the verge of kicking your ass.
Also, my god, is he a sycophantic interviewer.
More or less sycophantic than Juan Williams?
I kind of like the music on NPR. God knows I'm not hitting up the clubs to discover all the new bands these days. Also, there's something positive to be said about NPR's recognizing that their medium does sound well; they're not hosting regular critical discussions of the visual arts, for example. The only downside is that I always instantly forget the names and albums of the music played, even the ones I like and would consider looking further into.
Yeah, I kinda like Brother Smiley my own damn self.
Speaking of interview shows, I initially found Terri Gross irritating but have come to really love her show. On the other hand, though Talk of the Nation was required listening when my boyfriend Ray Suarez was on it, once he left it pretty much slipped right into the gutter.
5: That giggling woman is the absofucking worst. She's also the host of a show called "Good Food," which is on weekends after "This American Life" in Los Angeles. I love hearing, thinking, reading, about food, but the sound of her voice makes my skin crawl.
Juan Williams really is reason #1 not to listen to NPR. What a blight.
13: Haven't listened to Tavis Smiley, but is it even possible to be more sycophantic than Juan Williams?
That giggling woman is the absofucking worst. She's also the host of a show called "Good Food," which is on weekends after "This American Life" in Los Angeles.
No, no, no. Not the same. Annoying for the same reasons, but not the same. Splendid Table is a better food show than Good Food, anyway, although Lynne Whatshername can lay on the salt-of-the-earth schtick a little heavy.
Yeah, I used to react violently to Terri Gross's voice, and now I think her show is pretty good. I think having a psychotherapist with very similar mannerisms may have softened me to her nervous laughter and too audible attempts at empathy.
Terri Gross (I have long maintained) has great guests and asks some ok questions (as well as the awful ones) but her manner always reminds me of a very, very uncomfortable white person trying to interact with some non-white person.
The female NPR voice I like best is Brooke Gladstone, one of the hosts of "On The Media." You can just hear the arched eyebrows.
(yeah, I'm a sucker for authenticity)
I can't decide if this is really supposed to surprising. I can't really decide if it is surprising. I guess that means it's not.
Since the true horror of the Bush presidency first started to become apparent, the best coverage of it on radio has far and away been on the entertainment, rather than the news shows. I think of This American Life's stories on the war or Katrina, or Terri Gross's interviews with authors who have done critical reporting. Far better than anything you'll hear on the drivetime shows.
Daniel Shorr is an embarrassment--I can't believe he's still on the radio.
JM, are you serious? It's like interviewing some dude at the retirement home; I'm always wondering if he's going to snooze off before the end of the segment.
I detest The Diane Rehm Show. God she's awful. And no, not her quivery voice. Her interviews just plain suck.
Anyone hear Frank Luntz on her show this morning? Christ he's an oily motherfucker. The part that cracked me up, "we were middle class, so we could only afford to have the maid come every other week".
Juan Williams is bad, but Mara Liasson, Steve Inskeep, and Renee Montaigne are bad too. They're all pretty much rubbish, except for the oldsters.
27 to 22; was supposed to follow 23 but I'm too slow.
Daniel Shorr is an embarrassment--I can't believe he's still on the radio.
Oh, sure. I'll bet you didn't take no lip from Grandpa when you put him in the home. Who's gonna tell Shorr to get off the radio? Not me...
Not the same. Annoying for the same reasons, but not the same
Damn it, you've just turned my world upside down. You don't know how much energy I expend hating on the "Good Food" host every Saturday, and you're going to tell me it's not even the right person? They sound exactly the same.
I've been trying to play nice with Labs' post, but the fact is that NPR kinda sucks.
21: I'm with you there.
Any of the New Yorkers have a problem with Brian Lehrer?
35: Maybe, but it's better than anything else available.
I do have a certain weakness for Fiona Ritchie, or at least her accent.
Daniel Shorr is an embarrassment
But I thought you were into authenticity! Look, the reporter emeritus gets only about two minutes per day. He's got some nifty old stories of being chased around by Nixon's executive minions, and he's allowed to use his experience and (comparatively leftist) perspective to talk about whatever he damn well pleases. Guys, he's on our side!
(Even if he does sound like that crazy old dude in the faculty lounge who eats all the cookies, doesn't seem to go anywhere and leers at the female grad students.)
I've been trying to play nice with Labs' post, but the fact is that NPR kinda sucks.
YES. It especially bugs because I feel like it shouldn't have to suck this bad. Why does god curse liberals with shitty media?
Oh Christ not the Thistle and Shamrock. Terri Gross dancing her fucking pot of gold to the pan flute.
Ogged, look, I know it's not ideal, and since I found out about the Farrakhan Podcast archives I don't listen to NPR that much, but some of us live(d) with pretty crap commercial radio, and it's the best we can do.
33: I dunno, I think Leanne Hanson on the sunday show is a little gigglier, kinda zany a la Julia Child. Evan Kleiman on the food show is a little flatter, and like she's still a little impressed with herself for being in the radio.
43 to the contrary, I am completely sober.
Anyone hear Frank Luntz on her show this morning? Christ he's an oily motherfucker.
No fucking joke. I heard him on "Fresh Air" a few weeks back; he actually had the balls to redefine "Orwellian" when Terri Gross said that people called his work "Orwellian".
Thistle and Shamrock.
The very worst. I'd rather listen to GK's nose hairs whistle. Instant brain death. Ugh.
I like Brian Lehrer. He can get a little too clever for his own good, but I generally trust him to put together a good and fair show. He was one of the first media people I noticed who was willing to gather interviewees and story ideas from blogs. He does have a slight tendency toward reactive qualification of his leftier instincts, which I'm hoping won't get worse as he gets older and more comfortable.
The thing that cracks me up about him is that his voice doesn't at all match his picture. He's got a very confident, broad-timbered voice, but he's a seriously funny-looking skinny guy.
I don't know which is worse: that jig stuff on T&S, or "music from the hearts of space" or "echoes with john deliberto" or whatever the new agey thing in the area happens to be.
50: AAAAAAAAAAIGHHHHHH!! Stop it! Stop it!
Ageism, DaveL!
I guess I just find it comforting that someone as ancient and as experienced as Daniel Shorr also gets deeply concerned about the same things I do, even when I don't entirely follow the logic of his analysis.
He does have a slight tendency toward reactive qualification of his leftier instincts
Yeah, that's kind of what I'm talking about. I've noted a number of times, too, when he takes a guest's side over a caller's, even when the guest is being a dick. He also does a lot of lazy political-narrative-churning of the variety that Bob Somerby is always raving about.
I very much like it that every time I hear Chris Lydon, I suspect he's done a couple lines of blow before the show.
53: That's because there isn't a whole lot of either logic or analysis there. I'm sure he's had a marvellous and distinguished career and all that, but at this point in his life he ought to be spending his time annoying his great-great-grandchildren. If that's ageism, so be it. No need to turn on the radio to get chased off the grass by some Metamucil-flecked curmudgeon.
Here's what I fucking HATE about NPR, besides the cock-sucking pledge breaks. I hate the goddamn local commentaries from various hopelessly banal radio "essayists" around the country that they sandwich in between the reportage in a desperate attempt to produce something of a local flavor. "All Things Considered" will be humming along just fine, perfectly interesting, and suddenly they'll serve up a steaming pile of sub-Andy Rooneyish crap from some person--a "philosopher" who has noticed that modernist buildings look all the same, as in one recent one, or some middle-aged person in Shilo who tries to do a faux-folksy thing on her local supermarket, or whatever.
Car Talk reminds me of being a little kid and listening to it with my dad and learning about cars, namely, that they break all the time but part of what it means to be American is to have a car that breaks. It's like civics, but with cars.
I also like Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me, but it is pretty much only funny about once an hour.
57: Oh good lord yes. Heard a 2-3 minute commentary the other day on how traffic in Hilo isn't as much unlike traffic in Seattle as it used to be. Noted.
Wow, Tim Burke hates America. Who knew?
WWDTM has some bad moments, many of which involve Roxanne Roberts.
Brian Lehrer is a neighbor, and the one time I met him was very gracious to a somewhat overserved friend of mine trying to pitch himself as a guest. But I hardly listen to the radio at all -- if I'm not focussing on it exclusively, I can't follow anything, and there's never a time when someone isn't talking to me.
I do love Car Talk. I'm a sucker for people who crack themselves up.
hen he takes a guest's side over a caller's, even when the guest is being a dick
This is the kind of thing that I can sort of forgive him for, though. The guest is in front of him and will be there for another 10-30 minutes. If Lehrer makes a referee's judgment that the caller was 100% right and the guest wrong or insincere, there's a real possibility that he's end up without a guest, with a whole bunch of dead-air to fill.
Managing a call-in show has always seemed to require some of the same sort of orchestration as teaching; you have to modulate all of the various tones coming in to try to come up with something comprehensible, but at the end of the day, you have to hope that your audience got enough information that they can make up their own minds.
The media-narrative stuff is more serious.
57: Ironically, of the two local NPR affiliates, the less-corporate one is better in that regard. They just run Jim Hightower's syndicated column during "Morning Edition"; KQED (the corporate behemoth of Bay Area public media) makes us listen to "Perspectives", which is exactly what you're complaining about.
(You know, Tim, in over 10 years of reading you online I think this is the first time I can ever remember you cursing. You should do it more often!)
But Daniel Schorr, as long as we're at it? Fucking embarassing.
Also, for another person in my parade of NPR hate, Dan Gottleib of "Voices in the Family." I dunno if that one is syndicated nationally or if it's just a local Philly WHYY affliction. He's so goddamn understanding about everything.
I do not get the affection for Car Talk. I can listen to it for about five minutes if I'm driving somewhere and don't feel like listening to whatever's in the CD player, but it moves into fingernails-on-the-chalkboard territory pretty quickly.
Burke, maybe you'll recognize this complaint. There's a local announcer for WHYY who's got a seriously annoying breathy tone, in particular when she says "WHYwwhhyyyyyyyy" in a kind of parody of a radio announcer's voice. It makes me crazy.
It may just be possible that I have an unreasonable affection for old people I can listen to for brief periods.
Because to have a car is to be American, and free, and to make funny noises to imitate your timing chain slipping.
Only when they insist on getting on my car radio and talking like the last new experience they had was having H.R. Haldeman make spooky faces at them from a White House window. Or arthritically walking their shopping carts in front of me when I'm trying to actually get to the products I want.
Only some of them. Others stay in nursing homes where they belong.
I'd put Carl Kasell out to pasture before Daniel Shorr. But that may be due to my deep seeded hatred of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me..."
JM's (and B's) taste in voices is the same as my wife's, which doesn't surprise me a bit. I no longer listen to CT, which I used to in order to anticipate the diagnosis and answers, because I've become addicted to This is Hell which runs along side it and is produced in my neighborhood. The best voice not yet mentioned is Jackie Leyden's. Her memoir of her mother's insanity, Daughter of the Queen of Sheba was moving to me.
Marty Moss-Coane at Philly's WHYY is extremely good; she deserves to have a national show. I'd rather listen to her than Terri Gross, who often strikes me as a mega-tool when she's interviewing someone who needs a bit of tough questioning.
But WHYY's local radio news coverage is easily one of the most embarassing things I've ever heard in any mass media anywhere: some of Comcast's amateur hour news and features stuff is better than that. And I think I know *exactly* who FL is talking about. (I think.) WHYY's local radio coverage is substantially: "Hey, today the state government of Pennsylvania or New Jersey issued a press report that says jelly bean production is up by 12.5% in southeast Scranton! We talked to the Jelly Bean Minister in Harrisburg/Trenton for some information on regional jelly bean manufacture. Q: Are jelly beans awesome or what? A: Oh my yes! New Jersey is full of jelly beans!!! Q: Is Pennsylvania hoping to have more red jelly beans soon? A: A new line of red jelly beans is being debated in committee right now, but we have to consider the feelings of people who like green ones."
Le Show, on Jan 28, had a segment called "All in All" that, if I worked for All Things Considered, would make me resign or kill myself.
I hate that fucking NPR radio enunciation. I used to tell my Cleopatra joke in an imitation of it.
Carl Kassell's voice on your answering machine! An awesome prize.
Car Talk is awesome.
This American Life is the greatest thing ever.
The Splendid Table is good.
Thistle & Shamrock is...well, all those songs sound the same to me, so who knows. This is also true of the 27 1/2 hours of bluegrass music we enjoy every Sunday.
Rhythm Sweet & Hot should be a must-listen if it's syndicated in your area. You can get it streaming from wduq.org if you're into listening to obscure 65-year-old pop and jazz tunes during prime-time on Saturday night.
Fresh Air is almost always interesting.
Those segments at the end of All Things Considered where some random person talks about a random noise are great.
I even like the two-minute commentary at the end of Marketplace where some investment banker or credit card executive explains how some Democratic anti-monopoly proposal is undesirable because it would interfere with the laissez-faire workings of the free market. It just doesn't seem threatening in the context of NPR; even "Marketplace" isn't right-wing in nature.
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is unbearable.
That's really my only complaint, except for those "essays" during Morning All Things Considered Edition in which some person reads one of his one-page magazine articles out loud. For sports, this person used to be Frank Deford, but I haven't heard him recently.
Too bad that harridan at KCRW fired him and Sandra Tsing Loh.
For sports, this person used to be Frank Deford, but I haven't heard him recently.
Sadly, he's still on. I want to stab him in the eyeball with a fork every time I hear one of his commentaries.
29--Ditto on the horror that is Diane Rehm. Here in Iowa, all the public radio stations consolidated into one major network at the beginning of the year and revamped their schedules. Diane was added January 1; she was off by January 21.
Also, Music From the Hearts of Space. Please send it back there.
And I like GK. Somebody's got to.
Frank Deford, but I haven't heard him recently
I have, and he fucking sucks.
I do not want to hear about another farmer's collective. I really don't.
This American Life is the only one I ever make a point of listening to.
I'm seriously considering subscribing to Showtime to see the TV version of This American Life. It definitely is one of the greatest things about American culture in the last decade.
OH YEAH, "LE SHOW". I heard that when I was working in the lab at 1 AM this Monday night and was angry at the world, and I just could not contain my rage at how annoying it was. It's a smug guy gloating about the problems of others, making inside jokes, and pausing for seconds between every sentence with nothing but silence behind him, in what is either a bored stream of consciousness or the result of comedy writers with incredibly bad timing and no sense of humor. It has the frighteningly claustrophobic feeling of the Jim Rome show. I had no idea what it was for the first 10 minutes and got more and more confused by its total lack of entertainment value; I thought it was some local guy who was babbling in an effort to get fired or win a bet, before Shearer finally deigned to introduce the show.
Music breaks were nice, though.
Agree with Burke about Marty Moss-Coane; she's been the sub on FA for about 20 years and I always like hearing her. My wife likes WWDTM, and I can take it over breakfast that she's prepared while listening. NPR is not worth fighting over, unless I'm unusually peevish.
I can't really decide what to make about Le Show. Like, it must be funny, but I'm unable to get the funny, so somehow I'm defective.
Oh, I totally hate "Whattaya know? the comedy quiz" because it is completely unfunny.
Harry Shearer is shockingly talented. Once upon a time, when he still wrote regularly for SI, I though the same of DeFord. Sadly, everyone here is correct: he now sucks.
In fairness to Frank Deford, it should be noted that Stephan Fatsis also sucks.
WWDTM is worth listening to whenever Adam Felber's on. Especially if he's opposite Charlie Pierce and the English woman who's terrible at the lightning round and likes to suggest "squirrels" as an answer.
Le Show is great, Ned. I would say that Harry Shearer and Joe Frank are the only reasons not to blow up Los Angeles.
I think DeFord is a guy who just doesn't make the transition to radio (or TV, if you've seen him); his written SI work was extremely good, and I suspect he could still write some powerful things.
Stephan Fatsis does not suck, and this is because he does his segments in the form of being interviewed rather than reading a magazine article out loud. I liked him more when I thought he was the same guy who draws "Pearls Before Swine", but he's still good.
Oh, the guy that does the American Roots show--love that.
43, by the way, made me giggle through the next thirty comments. It's true. So true. Jig, jig, jig!
19's an apt description, except that I maintain that actually Terri Gross is a first-rate interviewer; she manages to get people to say actually interesting things. Her manner is weird, but it obviously works very well.
Le Show is great
I notice that you rebut none of my points. Is it the smug gloating at the problems of others, the awkward silences, the monotonous droning, or the total lack of objectivity that you like? I know we're all fans of inside jokes here, but that can't be the ENTIRE appeal.
72 - "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me..." is reason enough for the FCC to shut down all radio.
The following article (sorry don't know how to link) provides spot on criticism of NPR despite being a little dated. Nutshell: too many essays from bilingual amputee Ghanain poets and other such stuff that just panders to instead of challenges its affluent middle aged white liberal audience. For the challenging stuff, there's PRI.
www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0301.montopoli.html
97: How can you not like the Dick Cheney bits? Or when 43 talks to 41? (I guess I really like the skits; the rest is eh.)
Whaddya Know? is hell on earth, but I have to admit that Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is amusing to me.
On a more serious note, I've only listened to "Le Show" once, and it appeared to be devoted entirely to pointing out news stories about shockingly awful behavior by US soldiers and the US government, followed by sarcastic quips. It reminded me of Little Green Footballs, but with a focus on the Department of Defense in place of Islam. ("greatest country in the world, people, just keeping telling yourself that" vs. "once again, ladies and gentlemen, the religion of peace")
Seriously, Michael Feldman makes me switch to top40. It's like he's enjoying the badness of his monologue because it demonstrates his hipness.
I'm a fierce partisan of both Joe Frank and Harry Shearer, but they're a taste many people can't acquire. Deford is of uneven quality, sometimes lame and sometimes good. His history of big-name stars who were expected to make the pro version of theretofore obscure amateur sports as big as they were, delivered apropos of the signing of Beckham, which referred to Bill Tilden and Red Grange in the twenties, was vintage for him. Maybe they can get Costas to do that after Deford is no more, although they kept Red Barber for a damn long time.
Teo will make fun of me for being an affected white chick, but I like Latino USA. Speaking of Faith, which I hear when I'm in Minneapolis, is a great *premise* for a show, and yet...
Oh, and the only thing worse than Talk of the Nation is Talk of the Nation Science Friday. Did they go out of their way to hire an idiot on that one, or what?
The sketch comedy wasn't terrible. But I don't like impersonations anyway, unless they're absurdist.
102: Listen to the link from w-lfs-n in #75. Specifically, listen to "Dick Cheney: Confidential." I haven't listened to that one, yet. But I usually like those, and I often laugh every time he says "secure undisclosed."
I guess I don't see it as smug gloating. Perhaps this is a failure on my part. But, you know, reading the trades, the apologies, etc. The monotonous drone and dead air are features, not bugs.
WWDTM is funny when the news has been funny.
I have a hard time listening to NPR because our local affiliate made its radio equipment out of used duct tape, and the coverage is spotty unless I stand near the radio just so.
There's some wine show that's on sometime midday and I always want the hostess to choke on a cork.
I will concede that Whaddaya Know is more mind blowingly annoying that Wait Wait Dont Tell Me. But Wait Wait has a dumber name.
Actually, those two shows kind of run together in my mind as the reason you don't turn on the radio in the middle of a Saturday.
Sunday, on the other hand, I can listen to bluegrass all day. Its the only Jesus music I can stomach.
Does no one else listen to The World? Good show. Not as good as TAL but still decent.
Talk of the Nation Science Friday should be awesome, but yes, basically most of the time it doesn't help that the host seems fundamentally dim-witted. I think sometimes he's just playing at that so that the show is "accessible", and it doesn't help that some of the scientists he rings up on the phone about their latest discoveries have the personality of an oak tree that fell over in 1945 and has been growing shelf mushrooms on it ever since. Sometimes he honestly just seems dim to me. There was a thing recently where he was talking to some guy about nanotechnology safety standards that was just *painful*. The guy he was talking to basically made reading a 75-page briefing document from OSHA seem like a summer beach-novel--it was all about establishing adequate standards to know whether nanotechnological factories were adequately respecting respiratory standards. But Ira Flatow was doing this weird mutant combo of "drunk and mentally defective" in the manner of his replies.
Listening to Whaddya Know? is like being skinned by weasels. So too with the twee little essays from around the nation, which seem specially designed to make me think that listening to NPR, ever, makes me a horrible human being. Thistle and Shamrock doesn't even bear thinking about. I confess to enjoying Marketplace. I love This American Life. Nothing else is remotely as worthwhile.
Half this stuff is actually PRI, but it all gets mushed in together on one's local affiliate.
Brian Montopoli! Talented young blogger of about 5 years ago; what happened to him? I liked his take on Tavis and NPR.
Just about every show mentioned, and there are dozens and dozens, has entertained me sometimes and bored me more often than not. TAL, Le Show and Joe Frank demand the most attention and self-confidence to listen to, but are capable of the best rewards. I've switched away from every show on this list at one time or another.
Do you get that Rock criticism show with Greg Kot and another guy where you are?
1) Sue Ellicott (Englishwoman used to play WWDTM) has a voice that is composed entirely of butter and sex
2) Terri Gross is a fine interviewer, but I cannot abide any more retrospectives about dead jazz people.
3) Listen about 8 hours a day, if I'm at my desk instead of in the lab.
4) The World is a good program.
Thistle and Shamrock doesn't even bear thinking about.
I agree, but my aunt and female cousins plan their weekends around it and when I used to visit them we had to stop whatever noise we were making so we/they could listen to it. Visit after visit, year after year, I thought "Wait...does this song actually sound different from the last song? I think it...no, it doesn't. They're all equally good."
I like Fionagh O'McIrishScotTaffy's voice, though. It's much nicer than my aunt's imitation of it.
I agree, but my aunt and female cousins plan their weekends around it and when I used to visit them we had to stop whatever noise we were making so we/they could listen to it.
Isn't it like fourteen hours long? It sure seems that way.
You folks sure listen to a lot of NPR.
That's because we're all shut-ins, Teo.
98 - That was a good link. It made me realize that most of the shows I think I link on NPR are actually from PRI.
I got mad when my local affiliate pushed back Marketplace another half-hour and stuck in another half hour of All Things Considered. That really screws with my commute.
Just catching up with this thread.
Everything about Cornell West seems like a 1973 revival. (Can I say that as an academic whose identity is easily discernible?) That's why he did well in the Matrix movies: he contributed a blaxploitation movie vibe that fit the general atmosphere.
Also, B mentioned him as a counter example to Biden's weird clean and articulate remarks, but I have to say that in person he looks like another rumpled academic, just like the rest of us.
I've read this blog for years, but only this thread is making me come out of a lingering shyness. Specifically, to complain about "As it Happens," the Canadian ersatz version of All Things Considered. Does anyone else get this? Can anyone share my pain?
To my ear, this is clearly the most insanely rage-making aural product ever devised by man. The accents! The unbelievably smug yet also unbeleivably stupid lead announcer! The stories (told in a smug accent) about how the local fisheries council in West Newfoundland is shockingly having a dispute with the east Newfoundland fisheries council over . . . . . It's like, just when I worry about my country and think that I'm too left to be a part of it, I can turn on NPR and start shouting USA! USA! USA! by the end of the day.
End of rant, and back to lurking.
But is JM both affected and affectless?
Sue Ellicott was on AA's first attempt at a morning show; I like her voice too, maybe not that much.
The amusing thing about Thistle & Shamrock was that it used to be based North Carolina, an admittedly rather Celtic place.
Teo: it's surprising how many of these shows have not really changed in years. In 25 years you can build up a lot of knowledge if the shows are still reliably the same, which many of them are.
Here's one for you NPR listeners. Is it just me, or is the Piano Puzzler on Performance Today really fucking hard? Labs, you know classical music, can you guess these things? The melody is normally buried in, like, the middle note of every fifth chord, so even if it is "Mary had a little lamb" you'll never pick it out. And the composer, well, the song is always based very directly on the arrangement of a particular piece, but that never seems to make a difference, because you can't recognize it anyway.
mmph.
I like Harlan McCassitoe. Is he still on?
Lurking, I am myself a Canadian who despises As It Happens, whose worst feature is indeed the insufferable Barbara Budd. And the parochialism, maybe necessary in a national broadcaster but useless for us.
Terri Gross blows goats.
To expand on ben's compelling argument, what I dislike is that she often seems to lead the witness with her own self-apparently brilliant theory. She'll say, "You know, I noticed that you portrayed Character A in Movie X and Character B in Movie Y—and both of them really struggle with abandonment issues. It made me think you might have struggled with abandonment yourself at some point. Can you talk about that?"
Sometimes she nails it, though, so not all bad. Just annoying.
I liked As It Happens. Don't hear it anymore, though.
Also hateful is Prairie Home Companion. GK sounds like he died some time ago.
When it comes to bizarre radio voices, it's hard to imagine anyone surpassing Nellie Moore.
Rob: I've sometimes gotten it but it is indeed hard. I like shows where the questions are hard, suggesting everybody on earth might not know less than I do. I'm happy it has an audience, if it has one.
It's true that most of the best programming comes from PRI.
Brian Lehrer is a neighbor
okay, I feel poor.
This is the kind of thing that I can sort of forgive him for, though. The guest is in front of him and will be there for another 10-30 minutes.
Okay, but see, it's public radio, and his show is for the public. Not some dude trying to sell a book.
104: joe frank is so weird and so great that I can scarcely believe his show ever existed. It's a pity that it's so difficult to hear it anymore.
105, 115: Spot on about Ira Flatow and Science Friday. Does it seem like he frequently isn't even listening to his guests talk?
I can't remember his name now, but the guy who does the local call in show for Wisconsin Public Radio is really a master of the form. Every time some libertarian crank calls in to bitch about liberal media, he takes them apart like a dog with a feather pillow. It's awesome.
w-lfs-n, are you trying to flirt with me?
the Piano Puzzler on Performance Today
Where does this show air? I've never heard of it.
127: "As It Happens" and "Cross-Country Checkup" can both make a body want to spoon out their eyeballs. But, not to speak ill of the dead or anything, neither of them could compete for sheer annoyance factor with "Gilmour's Albums." I'm sure Clyde was a nice guy and all, but damn was his vast record collection gratingly dull. Worst CBC show ever.
133: what I dislike is that she often seems to lead the witness with her own self-apparently brilliant theory
I hear you on this one, but you know, sometimes that's what it takes to get an interviewee to say something interesting. Artists (of whatever sort) in particular are not always the ones you want to hear talking about their work.
They're all equally good.
Which is to say, awful.
124: My standards have probably gotten pretty low over the years.
127: I can't decide if I hate As It Happens more or less since living in Canada. However, I have to mention that while there, I had a colleague whose partner *loved* Celtic music; their house was full of weird string instruments and when you'd go over for dinner the background music was all jig, jig, all the time. I really liked my colleague a lot, but the combination was like being waterboarded by homey leprechauns.
The problem with As it Happens: the puns.
139: I don't know where it originates from, but it plays on any NPR station that focuses on classical music. I heard it in Texas, Alabama, and now here in northern New York. It's a good show, but aesthetically conservative.
I like As it Happens and their Newfoundland fishing controversies, but only because I hear it so rarely, and well after midnight when I am loopy enough to appreciate it. I can't imagine listening every day.
Puns are only rarely a problem with anything. Eg, the British show whose name I've once again forgotten had some great shaggy puns.
JM, I didn't think I was trying to flirt with you in 128, precisely because I know that you aren't both affected and affectless.
Let's say, though, that I was trying to flirt with you—how would you say I was doing?
KNME in Albuquerque also has Performance Today. They don't have a whole lot of other syndicated NPR shows; I've never heard of some of the ones mentioned in this thread. They also don't have any PRI shows, since there's a separate PRI station in town. My parents mostly just listened to Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Wait, I mean KUNM. KNME is the PBS station.
The thing to remember about Terri Gross is that a good interviewer doesn't make herself look interesting, she makes the guest look interesting. Almost every dumb thing I've heard her say elicits a good response.
When she interviewed Stephin Merrit of the Magnetic Fields she started out emphasizing how he switches randomly between gay and straight perspectives in his songs. She clearly wanted him to say something about some kind of polymorphous, perverse sexuality, but she was so far off base it was ludicrous. He explained that the songs weren't about sexuality at all, they were about the form of the love song. The whole thing was really enlightening, even if Gross was wrong with her pet theory.
141 and 143 are exactly right. Sign me up for the Cerebrocrat fanclub.
For an open thread, this has stayed remarkably--perhaps even uniquely--on topic.
But rob, as your second paragraph indicates, if TG doesn't make herself look interesting, it's despite her own best efforts.
Another thing that is annoying about TG: how she giggles as if she were saying something naughty whenever she talks about a subject adjoining sex. (I can't really defend that "whenever"; I've noticed it a few times, though.)
WAMU in Washington used to play As It Happens at 11 p.m. and I'd listen to it to fall asleep. Strangely awful yet seductive. A Canadian friend explained that Canada is a big country with few people, so they need a radio program that takes very local concerns very seriously for the whole nation -- or else there'd be civil war or something.
Cerebrocrat, did you read the rest of my comment about Lehrer? It's not a big deal if we disagree on the degree to which call-in talk show hosts should take sides with their guests and callers, but I don't think you're being entirely fair when you reduce the calculus to pandering.
It's not an open thread, it's an NPR slagfest.
152: We've had this same discussion at least twice before. It's a topic the Unfoggedtariat seems to really like.
Let's say, though, that I was trying to flirt with you--how would you say I was doing?
You'd be doing fine if we were in the same room, I were 22 again and single, and the goal was a competitive and ultimately unsatisfying one night stand.
That might have come out too harshly.
158: All right, all right, walk it back w-lfs-n. JM: what if the goal were simply to sleep with your feet?
JM needs to broaden her definition of "room".
And "single".
Huh, it seems KANW is actually not purely a PRI affiliate, as I had thought, but rather plays both NPR and PRI content. We hardly ever listened to it, so I hadn't known.
TAL is great. Other than that, most of NPR is a like a watered down version of CBC ... and CBC has been in decline for 10+ years.
Now that I've read the post, I see that there's an extraneous hyphen between "thinly" and "disguised".
137 - WFMU still airs Joe Frank, don't they?
TAL is good. It is not NPR, it is PRI. Brian Lehrer is good. He is not NPR, but WNYC. Michael Krasny is good. He is not NPR, but KQED.
I believe we have proven that Car Talk is the best program on NPR.
159.--Ack, sorry. I'm usually a much better person than I was at 22, really.
168: Wow, and Car Talk ain't what it used to be.
Delurking to hate on Marketplace. It took me a short while to hear beyond the hip 'n' breezy delivery and generally slick production values, but Christ, if I wanted cheerleading for capitalism, I'd subscribe to Forbes.
Also hate Performance Today, which has at last been booted off my local affiliate. The Piano Puzzlers are okay -- Bruce Adolphe is great (and a genuinely great and totally smart guy) -- but they're always in the style of one of maybe eight composers. Fred Childs' breathy, full-of-wonder voice makes me want to kick the radio out of my truck.
Yay! A fan!
155: Yes, I read your comment, and it's not that I really disagree with you; I was being a little flip. But I would still rather have a host whose default reaction is to put his guest on the spot when a caller actually has a point, whereas on several occasions I have felt that the caller wasn't even being given a serious hearing.
On a related, but separate point, did you happen to hear Chuck Schumer on Lehrer the other morning? All the people were calling up to agree with him, and yet he kept talking over everybody to yap about his stupid book.
WNYC-AM now airs Joe Frank. He's been growing on me.
This is going to be cathartic, since I probably listened to about 4,000 hours of public radio programming as a child -- seriously, there were radios blaring it on every floor of our house. Even in the basement. Where nobody was.
So here's the things I like/d about public radio:
1. Ask Dr. Science
2. As It Happens (fantasizing about a world that does not so closely resemble Hell).
3. The lyrics to the "All Things Considered" theme song that they used to sing on the morning show here: "All Things Considered/All Things Considered/All Things Considered/Well, almost!"
4. Car Talk
5. Sound Money
Here's the things that irritate me:
1. Pledge week. Do you know how much MPR, the local NPR affiliate paid for the 99.5 FM frequency when they took it over from the commercial top 40 station to play classical music? $35 million! And they're bugging me for 35 bucks in exchange for a lousy totebag?
2. Gobbling up smaller, independent and public stations.
3. Using their clout in the NAB to shut down community/micropower radio legalization efforts.
4. Pledge week. Especially because they send out these catalogues full of overpriced tchochkes and DVDs and whatnot at a rate of three per month if you are unlucky enough to be on the mailing list. Clearly, they're making money hand-over-fist on a lot of this junk that they're the exclusive distributor for, but they're conveniently "non"-profit.
5. Maintaining a sanctimonius fiction of "objectivity" in their reporting. They should begin every news program with some kind of caveat, like: "The information you are about to receive would constitute a grave indictment of capitalism in general and US political economy in particular, but we have decided to soft-pedal it in hopes of retaining as much public funding as possible, and because after all, we have 403b accounts too, you know."
The world is flat, you hosers. Step up to Melvyn Bragg on Radio 4.
171: Given the upscale demographics of NPRI, it's amazing that only a half hour of most stations' news programming is dedicated to "cheerleading for capitalism". And Marketplace is mostly segments that are 100% informative, and rarely if ever goes into the terrifying pattern of saying "Anglo Airways has received permission from its bankruptcy court to unilaterally abolish the pension plans its employees bargained for and have worked for, which is great news because its stock will go up. In related news, investors breathed a sigh of relief yesterday at news that productivity has risen 1% in the last quarter, which experts attribute to employers squeezing more work out of more poorly-paid employees."
The Kojo Nnamdi Show, on WAMU in D.C., is good. It's not nationally syndicated and has a local focus, so a lot of the content wouldn't be relevant for people elsewhere, but it's really well done. Good coverage of local politics. Kojo also has a cool voice (he's from Guyana), and doesn't always do the "NPR enunciation", particularly when talking to callers. It's a nice change of pace.
I listen to a lot of C-Span in the car -- it's much better on radio than on television -- especially when Congress is in session. Or for Prime Minister's Questions.
NPR is better than 'all oldies all the time' but only barely.
The Kojo Nnamdi Show, on WAMU in D.C., is good.
Agreed. "Join us, won't you?"
Prime Minister's Question Time is great. It's still good, bu I particularly liked it when I started watching back in high school, when Tony Blair was still a bit of fresh young upstart.
Has anyone else heard that one show (NPR? PRI?) with the two guys taking questions from aspiring entrepreneurs? I don't catch it regularly or know its name, but it's amusing.
176: I mostly agree, and I often find Marketplace informative even while hating its commentators, many of whom should be set upon by dogs. The series about the potential benefits of climate change, however, was the clincher for me. That was just appalling.
Kojo is also better on radio than he is on TV. I never knew until just now that Kojo is a pseud.
What would be great would be a station that played all Jena and Gomorrah, all the time.
Dear god, how could I forget the most hateful of all public radio shows?
Sound & Spirit.
The description from their own website tells the story:
"Sound & Spirit weaves history, myth, and spiritual traditions together with music to take listeners on a journey around the world and through the ages. With subjects ranging from pilgrimage to family relationships, Shakers to Buddhists, and births to funerals, there is always something new to explore. "As long as there are human topics, there will be topics for our shows," says Ellen Kushner. "People from every culture and every generation have always marked their life experiences with rituals, stories and music."
Shakers and Buddhists! Birth and death! Rituals! Generations! Stories! Weaving! All set to dulcimer music!
It's like Unitarians on ecstasy. Barf.
His name is actually Rex Paul? That's funny.
Sound & Spirit is really awful. Much in the same way that On Religion, or whatever it is, is.
But I'll live to get my revenge, in the form of five red onions reduced over the course of two hours over low heat with a thai bird chili and thyme, to which was added at the end some diced ginger and a bit of pomegranate molasses.
158/185 -- Is "winning" a competitive one night stand like winning the internets? Or is it more like winning in Iraq?
Apropos this thread, you might enjoy these three entries from the occasionally brilliant 5ives.com.
I have an unrequited crush on Terri Gross's voice.
dob, that is the most perverted thing I have ever heard.
I used to play poker with both Ira Glass (TAL) and Peter Sagal (WWDTM). Ira is expert-level, Peter (like me) is a newbie. But both are wonderfully charming and witty in real life.
Or was that not the topic?
Now I have to try to go to sleep with images of a sad, lonely w-lfs-n dancing in my head. Life is suffering, I guess, but still -- that was cold blooded.
Sean, I'm so envious. Also impressed.
I don't think that 158 was that harsh, but I do think that 187 is both admirable and concise evidence of the downside of frathouse joshing.
Stan, comment 182, that show is called the motley fool and it has been dropped from the schedule on public radio in our neck of the woods.
but it is a great show and you can podcast it. it's very positive and informative.
That's right, ladies. I'm a sensitive fellow.
187 is always the payoff when you try to flex on Nina "Death Mountain" Totenberg.
203, 204: That's pretty mean. If it's uncool for me to hurt your feelings by calling you sexist, it's uncool for you to laugh when someone else's feelings are hurt, even inadvertently.
Unless, of course, they act like an asshole about it, in which case, carry on.
Oh, well then. Back to business as usual.
"Yo"? What is this, the Ali G show?
A nice try, B. The problem with calling us sexist isn't that it hurts our feelings, which are manly and unhurtable, but that it's incorrect, you unnurturing sexist.
I was considering apologizing a third time, but, no, twice is enough.
"Yo"?
And you claim to be down with the gente.
Vale puella, iam Catullus obdurat,
nec te requiret nec rogabit invitam.
At tu dolebis, cum rogaberis nulla.
Scelesta, uae te, quae tibi manet uita?
Quis nunc te adibit? cui videberis bella?
Quem nunc amabis? Cuius esse diceris?
Quem basiabis? Cui labella mordebis?
At tu, Catulle, destinatus obdura.
169(13**2!) was confusing because it appeared that you were apologizing to yourself.
Once a guy has admitted hurt feelings, having a girl come to his defense only serves to unman him further.
At tu dolebis, cum rogaberis nulla.
This is most aptly translated as "but you will be sad, when you are rogered by noöne."
216: That's because, not being an affected white chick, he feels no need to.
219: Duly corrected, I shall in future keep my decorative status in mind and stand by fluttering and cooing instead.
Unless I'm in one of my down with the gente moods, in which case I'll cut you.
OT: The new Sarah Silverman show fell below even my exceedingly low expecations.
158 renews my faith in humanity. An act of Real Genius, even.
noöne
This could not possibly be whiter if it tried.
I had imagined a different etymology for scélèrat, so I'm glad I looked that up.
And to 217, I was apologizing for my past self, a trace of whom appeared earlier.
There were some comments a while back about whitening up some bit of text, but now I can't find them.
229: Perhaps you were thinking of this et seq.
Ok, that was awesome. It's the choreography, as always.
As I've said before, I prefer PRI to NPR.
Limiting myself to NPR, my favorite reporter/ personality is Sylvia Poggioli. Her reporting on the Yugoslav wars was really superb. Sadly, she isn't on as much anymore. I am glad that war is not raging in Europe, but I do miss her.
I used to like This American Life a lot, but now--apart from its very good politically-themed shows--I find it predictable and kind of boring.
I am always a little bit embarrassed by how many Americans say that they love Prime Minister's Question Time.
Having said that, I am a huge Radio 4. I like the guests on In our Time, but I sometimes finf Melvyn Bragg irritating. I love Start the Week. I don't mind Libby Purves's Midweek, but it doesn't touch STW.
The Westminster Hour can be good, and I like The Week in Westminster from time to time. I like Any Questions a lot and, somewhat less, its television cousin on BBC 2, Question Time. (Confession: it took me a while to figure out that Jonathon Dimbleby and David Dimbleby were different people.)
146: The BBC show was probably "My Word", which I used to hear a couple decades ago. I believe the regular panelists were Dennis Northern & Frank Muir (spelling approximated). The puns seemed brilliant to me when I was a smartass kigh-school nerd. Oh fuck it all, I'd probably still love the show.
As to NPR: There's a wider gap between good & bad Terri Gross interviews than with almost anyone I've ever heard; it's easy to tell when she really is interested in the guest and when she's utterly clueless. Maybe I have a high tolerance for interviewers who tend to fumble, though; I used to watch Charlie Rose faithfully, and I loved the way he would ramble on ungrammatically while glancing across the table until he could see the guest had something to say... I saw a couple of actors tell the same canned anecdotes on two or three shows (okay, so I had no life in the mid-90's) and then surprise themselves by getting onto a topic that had nothing to do with the Product they were supposed to be flogging.
This is way too long a comment already, so I won't tangle over radio humor--de gustibus non disputandem est, right? I will, however, note that Ira Flatow (IIRC) got his start doing a PBS science show (Newton's Apple, I think) for the under-12 set. Obviously he's still pitching his discourse a bit low.
Personally, I grind my teeth at every call-in show (except one), because I can't bear listening to perfectly nice and probably smart people who know they're babbling like idiots and can't stop until the host puts them out of everyone's misery. (Why this experience distresses me I will not explore.) The exception is Car Talk--I give credit to the hosts, but I expect it's largely because callers (literally) know what they're talking about. Asking about a particular mechanical problem with a car lessens the chance of trotting out a pet theory about the Trilateral Commission because it suddenly feels relevant.
Ned, is Rhythm Sweet & Hot the same as Hot Jazz Saturday Night? That would be a must-listen for me, but they dropped the transmit-rate to 16Kb/s. It was more-or-less OK at 21. They must be really short of money.
I am always a little bit embarrassed by how many Americans say that they love Prime Minister's Question Time.
Isn't it just the fact that it exists? If Bush had to stand there and take sarcasm from the House for 15 minutes every week, it wouldn't solve anything, but it would be good for the soul of America.
I don't love PM questions, but on the radio, Sunday night, driving to the grocery store or whatever, it's a pretty good diversion.
As a general proposition, I prefer our Pacifica station to either of our NPR carrying stations.
Labs: ever notice on the Travis Smiley Show that they have Joseph C Phillips (who played Denise's husband Martin on the Cosby show) on a lot and he's uber-conservative?
I always thought that was weird. An actor, connected to Bill Cosby, being conservative.
I do remember one As It Happens from many moons ago that I have real affection for. During the Falklands War, they called up a pub in England, a bar in Argentina, and connected them with each other live, with a translator helping out. That's kind of clever, and as it turned out, it was a funny conversation.
Hey, can we branch out to hating on PBS television? Because my hate for certain NPR programming on the radio is but a candle to the burning torch of some of my hate for PBS television. NPR and PRI radio clearly still occupy a radio niche that would be otherwise unoccupied were they not around. PBS television is just one more channel on a crowded cable spectrum, and is as necessary as an infected appendix in terms of the programming it offers.
174: The information you are about to receive would constitute a grave indictment of capitalism
Pacifica (KPFK in LA) is much better at that. They can manage to inject an indictment of capitalism into a segment on the extinction of dinos by asteroid. Except it didn't really happen that way, it was the Mu people from Mongo who caused it and then covered it up, and there's this secret group screening the reseach ...
The exception is Car Talk--I give credit to the hosts, but I expect it's largely because callers (literally) know what they're talking about.
I think the other reason is that it's as heavily and expertly edited as any episode of This American Life.
Christ, I go to bed early and 250 comments spring up about NPR.
I haven't read the rest of the thread yet, but Car Talk would be entertaining, except one of the psychological symptoms left over from my childhood is that I really, really don't like people yelling and those guys holler their way through 2/3 of the show.
Don't go hating on Big Bird, Burke, or Grover will cut you.
Yeah, as a parent of a small child, children's programming that doesn't include screaming toy commercials every ten minutes is worth the funding.
247: Second. Except for Elmo. Who on Sesame Street does he have the goods on to hook up a 15-minute segment of his own for every damn show?
137: You have a vastly overstated sense of how rich you need to be to live near Brian Lehrer. Really, not very rich at all. (We're doing fairly nicely, what with the BigLaw thing and all, but we could be making a hell of a lot less, down to working poor, and still live in this neighborhood.)
Delurking to hate on Marketplace. It took me a short while to hear beyond the hip 'n' breezy delivery and generally slick production values, but Christ, if I wanted cheerleading for capitalism, I'd subscribe to Forbes.
This is true. In fact, of the negative comments on NPR, specific shows, hosts, etc., in this thread are true. And yet I'm surprised that no one (as far as I can tell) has mentioned how fucking annoying it is when Bill Littlefield comes on to do his stupid little sports commentaries in fucking verse. Because that's really annoying, especially when you're driving in heavy traffic and can't change the channel. Stop rhyming, asshole.
NPR is especially worthless on the weekends. No particular program, just the whole thing.
To my recollection, I've never once listened to NPR. I don't even have any idea what the broadcast frequency is. 250 opinionated comments here makes me wonder if I'm perhaps missing something and ought to tune in.
Don't go hating on Big Bird, Burke, or Grover will cut you.
Big Bird's a greedhead. An institution dedicated to early childhood education (to be vague) that I know was doing a Sesame Street exhibit a number of years ago and tried to get him to come. Turns out Mr. Bird, in addition to a hefty fee, had a series of demands, including assistants (actually not that unreasonable to a point, considering the giant bird suit, but my vague memory is that he wanted multiple ones), a cell phone, no brown M&Ms, etc. All for one short appearance. They wound up getting Gordon instead. A lot cheaper, and he was really great and hung out all day doing stuff with the kids.
OT, but wow, that new a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/science/earth/02cnd-climate.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=7f0ce59ee7d312e5&ei=5094&partner=homepage">UN climate report sure is a depressing way to start the day, huh?
Something went wrong. Now I'm even more depressed.
that new UN climate report sure is a depressing way to start the day, huh?
They're promising to talk about it all day on NPR. You should tune in.
Once upon a time Car Talk was a live call-in show. I liked it better when they advised people to avoid buying new cars. Now that they've gotten old and rich, they've gone soft. It's also the case that cars are a lot more complicated than they used to be, so Tom and Ray are less likely to be able to provide a substantive answer. You get a lot more questions about marital disputes, fewer about carburetors. The latter, of course, can be attributed to the fact that newer cars don't even have carburetors.
A lot cheaper, and he was really great and hung
I would not have guessed that.
My kids are past Sesame Street now, but man has it gotten dumber since we were kids. Elmo is seriously braindamaged, and there's hardly any of the witty stuff there used to be.
258: The part aimed at adults has gotten dumber. I think that the math has gotten a bit more complicated. When I was a kid, the counting segments didn't count above 12. I think that they might even do multiplication now.
I really liked Kermit the Frog a lot, although I think that I've mentioned that before. Yes, I have. It was in the same thread where I admitted to having owned Sesame Street Fever. You should all click on the link in Standpipe's 63 of that thread.
Kermit the Frog made cameos on Sesame Street? I didn't know that.
I'm pretty sure we have a copy of Sesame Street Fever as well.
Also as a parent of a small child, can I suggest something? Noggin. No commercials, case closed, PBS go bye-bye. Graduate up to Nick, not too many commercials and the programming makes the very best that PBS can offer for kids look like the noxious, unimaginative, bargain-basement, kiss-up-to-guilty-white-professionals, reheat the leftovers of Canadian TV, dreck that it is.
There are a few vaguely bright spots on PBS Kids, I grant you. In Between the Lions is actually way better than Sesame Street. If PBS wasn't run by a bunch of cowards who fire a well-liked host because she made a vaguely amusing short about sex toys some years ago, Postcards From Buster would be a good achievement. Teletubbies and Boobahs have some spark to them.
But otherwise? Let's not dwell on that crime against humanity, Barney. How about Caillou, aka, the only kid on earth who might actually deserve to be abused. Clifford the Big Red Dog, a program that puts the "d" in "didactic". The Berenstein Bears. Arthur. And oh my fucking god, Dragon Tales.
What's over on Noggin and Nick? The Backyardigans, which is just great. Max and Ruby. Oobi. The Upside-Down Show. Wonder Pets. Maisy. Dora. Oswald. Little Bear. Blue's Clues. Cripes, you can even get some re-edited Sesame Street. Now there's some turkeys here too, I grant you: Miffy is utterly boring, and Lazytown makes me feel kind of squicky deep inside quite aside from the transparency of its attempted manipulation of kids. Franklin feels like a show that wandered over from PBS Kids. But the range of visual styles, narrative modes, themes, is way broader. The Noggin/Nick stuff is frankly just better made, more entertaining *and* more educational. And it gets done without pledge breaks or without guilt-tripping sanctimonous white liberals into jeremiads about the eeeeevils of commercial television.
that new UN climate report sure is a depressing way to start the day, huh?
Don't worry, the cavalry is on the way to spread happiness and cheer.
256: And what the newer cars do have can't be handled without a lot of specialized tools and electronics. And the clearances under the hood and such were designed on a computer to be just adequate for a genetically engineered micro-person with eyeballs on stalks.
(Even if he does sound like that crazy old dude in the faculty lounge who eats all the cookies, doesn't seem to go anywhere and leers at the female grad students.)
Hey, stop messing with my career goals.
What I'll refer to as the "vitality" issue Tim and LB are alluding to is why I was happy to let my kids watch regular cartoons, back when we just had broadcast, over Barney et. al. Back then, ten years or so ago, classic WB cartoons, or Tom & Jerry, etc. were often on Broadcast. I don't know now but I fear not. Noggin's a premium channel under our plan.
You know what my kids do watch? Current. Remember how it was panned as incomprehensible, etc., when it came out? They'll occasionally pipe up when a subject is being discussed that they've seen a video about and they know a lot.
Like Dr. Science, Al Gore is smarter than you—That's Right!
What's over on Noggin and Nick? The Backyardigans, which is just great. Max and Ruby. Oobi. The Upside-Down Show. Wonder Pets. Maisy. Dora. Oswald. Little Bear. Blue's Clues. Cripes, you can even get some re-edited Sesame Street.
What are your thoughts on "Higglytown Heroes"?
What's over on Noggin and Nick?
It's been a pretty long time since I slashed my cable to the absolute minimum, but Noggin hit a pretty bad stretch for a while where the programs were mostly murmuring cut-outs and talking socks. Also, they spent a significant effort channeling kids toward the commercial shows on Nick.
I'm glad to hear they've picked it up a bit. I've got no great love of PBS, but we do still use it in a vain attempt to anesthetize our kids most days. Also, as far as I know Noggin is a joint venture of Nick and PBS.
Caillou, aka, the only kid on earth who might actually deserve to be abused.
Good god do I want to smack that whiny little shit.
Also, that amorphous little star blob in the interstitals on Sprout.
The absolute best kids television programming I've ever seen is TVO Kids. I'm working on putting together a deal with a friend in Canadia so I can get a "snowbird" dish down here....
What are your thoughts on "Higglytown Heroes"?
Any show who gets They Might Be Giants to write their theme song is cool by me.
I'm working on putting together a deal with a friend in Canadia so I can get a "snowbird" dish down here....
Aha! The Maple Leaf Forever!
Hey, if Noggin wants to insidiously direct kids to their commercial offerings on Nick, all power to them. At the very least, the kids might then find their way to televisual goodness like Avatar, which blows my mind regularly. But then I let my six-year old feast on Batman kicking the crap out of the Joker and watch Aragorn split open some orc's head, so the thought that she might see commercials for toys doesn't even faze me in the least.
But then I let my six-year old feast on Batman kicking the crap out of the Joker and watch Aragorn split open some orc's head, so the thought that she might see commercials for toys doesn't even faze me in the least.
That's a non sequitur.
We watch the noggin shows online and on DVD, and a lot of them are first rate. I am entranced by Oswald. Evan Laurie's soundtrack helps *a lot*.
Also, damn good kids music on Noggin. Noggin doesn't have my children's music hero, Dan Zanes, who has made an alliance with The Mouse. But it does have a lot of other good stuff. Check out the first season of Jacks Big Music Show. (I know, Laurie Berkner has every other video on the show, almost literally, but I like Laurie. )
262: The thing that depresses me about Lazytown is knowing that it encourages kids to be active by pushing them into youth athletics, which is really just a festival of pain and humiliation. If the show were true to reality, people would mock Stephanie for throwing like a girl and Ziggy would know the crushing humiliation of being consistently picked last for every team.
a festival of pain and humiliation
Only if you suck.
One of the things I liked about Canadian kids tv is that unlike Americcan kids tv, it makes a genuine and successful effort not only to be ethnically integrated, but also to avoid gender bullshit. Coming back to the states was really shocking all over again: oh, the girl characters all have to look like they're wearing makeup and have pink, or bows in their hair. Barf.
That plus the whole commonwealth thing means they have programming from lots of different Anglophone countries, which is a nice way to get at multiculturalism without the condescension of American liberalism--"in other countries, people are different! But we're all the same under the skin!"
As It Happens is on here from 5 to 6, so I've had ample opportunity to study why it sucks. It's not just that Barbara Budd is insufferable, or the puns, it's that Barbara Budd gets this tone in her voice as she comes up on the puns, like, listen, listen, oh this is so clever, here it comes, here it comes, OH! Aren't I clever, even though someone else wrote this for me?
I don't get all the Wait Wait Don't Tell Me hate, although every time Paula Poundstone comes on, I wonder, "why are you still here? Wasn't your career over?"
Pledge is especially noxious here -- KQED's one of the top two or three NPR stations in the country, both in terms of listenership and funding (they just finished a $70 million digital conversion for both radio and TV), while KALW, the station run by the SF school district, has a transmitter powered by hamsters. And yet KQED's fundraising borders on blackmail; they spend the week before pledge telling you that you could help shave a few days off the end of pledge week by donating NOW NOW NOW, which doesn't really cut down on pledge time at all, now, does it? One year they sent me "my membership card" and only inside did they acknowledge that I hadn't signed up but that I could if I sent them a check right now. That was the year I vowed not to send them another dime.
And the Pacifica station? Forget it. It's based in Berkeley, with programming designed to appease aging white radicals, and the people running the station have had some of the most insular, factional and vicious disputes in the history of the far left. It's pretty much a petri dish for everything conservatives hate about the other side.
Since I don't have small kids, public TV is pretty irrelevant to me. I like History Detectives and watch Nova or The American Experience maybe once a year, and that's it.
How's "Pancake Mountain"? I remember being awfully amused by the concept when I first encountered the Evens doing their "Vowel Movement" song.
Public TV has some real gems. Frontline can be top notch. The quality varies a lot, because all of the producers are independent contractors.
I kind of like NOW actually. It can be annoying, but it makes sure to cover important stories: women working for minimum wage and the campaign to raise it, the number of people who are strapped because of interest-only mortgages, the moral hazard of flood insurance which leads people to rebuild on the Mississipi coast. I loved watching, by which I mean that I am disgusted by, the woman who was not only planning to rebuild her beach-front second home that had been washed away by Katrina but also believed that she was absolutely entitled to cheap flood insurance.
I have to admit I stopped giving to NPR stations when, in graduate school, I called to pledge $10 (which was a huge amount on my grad student budget) and the person I spoke to made it very clear that my pittance wasn't worth their time.
KUOW in Omaha's pledge drives were a model of how to do it right: they never used the hectoring "you owe us" tone, preferring instead to acknowledge that not everyone is rich, and that every little bit helps, and we'd really appreciate your support, please and thank you. A datapoint in favor of midwestern manners, maybe.
A datapoint in favor of midwestern manners, maybe
What?!
BG, since you're still around, let me assure you I've been hearing regular pronouncements that the day of the backyard mechanic is over all my life, and it's still not happened. It always takes awhile, a couple of years, but ways of diagnosing and repairing, or at least narrowing down with certainty which electronic part needs replacing are found. And this process is often led by the dealers, who would just as soon not pay for expensive test equipment, and who share knowledge between each other, and have lots of mechanics who observe correlations. In some respects, cars are simpler and easier to work on today than they were thirty years ago, when they had many retro-fitted items of non-harmonized emissions equipment, and even new cars often ran poorly.
824: KALW's got a similar approach to pledge. I feel better giving money to them because it will go a lot farther, and, more to the point, they are actually happy to receive it instead of treating it as some sort of liberal guilt tax. David Sedaris did do a benefit for them a few months back, but that was probably because he visited the station and saw what a pit their facilities are and how much they needed the money (in contrast to KQED and its ilk, presumably, though that went unstated).
I recall once, many years ago, sitting in a kitchen with dob and listening to Terri/y Gross interview Willem DeFoe and dob writhing with pleasure at hearing both of them at the same time. As I assume it will amplify one's like or dislike of this idea and the perversity of dob's Gross-crush, the interview in question was in part meant to flog Speed 2.
No real slagging, as I like the NPR I listen to (WWDTM, Marketplace [yes, I like Marketplace], Car Talk, Prairie Home Companion, Sound Opinions). I grasp that taste is subjective and I can see why someone would hate everything listed, but the only show that I really loathe is Diane Rehm and I don't have to listen to her anymore because my hours changed. I just really, really hate her. Ugh. UGH. OK, so I guess I have some slagging to do.
What pleases me most about WUNC is The State of Things, which is NC-only, and The Story with Dick Gordon. I really love The Story. I'm not really sure why, either.
When I worked third shift at my old job I would listen to As It Happens every night on the way to work. I loved it. It made everything stupid and stressful about that job seem so remote and inane when juxtaposed with listening to stories about fish hatcheries pissing down each others' legs over someone's model moose or some shit.
Hello, my name is Will and I am an NPR addict.
This American Life is outstanding. It is far and away my favorite part.
I listen to Morning Edition and All Things Considered regularly, despite my belief that both have been watered down/pull to the right/afraid to challenge the Administration.
I cannot stand Thistle and Shamrock.
I enjoy the silliness of Prairie Home Companion. We go to Wolf Trap every year. (I first heard Old Crow Medicine Show thanks to PHC.)
The State of Things, which is NC-only
That is indeed a really top-notch show.
I am also pleased with WUNC's new "virtual pledge drive." They set a goal and track donations made online and then note how many days of on-air pledge drive they won't have to do. They also set targets during the on-air drives of "when we get X amount online we will drop one day from this on-air pledge drive" and they are currently breaking their previous record pretty much every time. (This all assumes I am remembering it correctly, but it's something like that.)
Not that this is important to anyone else, but we have Morning Edition on the radio most mornings. I'm usually tuned out paying attention to the kids, but every time Soterios Johnson says his name, I desperately want to respond "My God, man, you can't be Soterios!"
292
paying attention to kids?!?!?!? What kind of parent are you?
Soterios
That's how his name is spelled? I'm so disappointed. I'd always imagined it "Satirious."
I feel compelled to share my favorite Nina Totenberg story. A few years back she was on Charlie Rose for some reason, and mentioned that she had often visited retired Associate Justice (and hero of the left) William Brennan in his last months. Rose, eager for a bit of judicial dish (band name?), asked if Brennan had shared any opinions on the direction of the court since his retirement (this was after Bush v. Gore IIRC).
Totenberg paused. "No," she said. We really never talked about that sort of thing much." Another pause, lit by a surprisingly warm smile. "Actually, he used to like it when I would sing to him." And that's when I wept like a little child.
291: How often do they mention it on-air? KQED mentions it at pretty much every opportunity, which completely misses the point.
Come to think of it, I'm not clear on why we don't listen to Morning Edition on KALW. There will be a conversation about this.
The virtual drives only get mentioned during the times when they used to run mini-drives in the off-season. They do mention it alot, but somehow knowing that they're mentioning not running a drive salves the wound. It's like the knife was dipped in Bactine.
While NPR is more watered-down than I'd like, I recall seeing them credited more than once with breaking major stories in the past few years--and while the regular poor-mouthing of affiliates can seem like a bit of a Kroc, it's worth noting that they're bucking a big trend when it comes to supporting actual journalists reporting stories on the ground.
(Apologies for the year-old link; I'm lazy.)
Didn't they recently get a gigantic donation from someone like the McDonald's estate?
300: Wow, I never though of my punning as "too subtle" before...
Yeah, sorry, I just googled it and realised how silly I'd just made myself look.
Hey, I'm still feeling all warm & fuzzy because you liked the Nina story. So of course I have to spoil it with snark.
This is what drives me crazy about NPR:
Guest: "And then Franklin Roosevelt created . . ."
Interviewer (interrupting): "That would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States."
Guest: "Yes. Anyway, then FDR created . . ."
Interviewer (interrupting): "FDR being Franklin Delano Roosevelt."
Guest: "Yes. Then FDR created the Works Progress Administration . . ."
Interviewer (interrupting): "Commonly known as the WPA."
. . . and so on . . .