NPR

At some point early in my commuting career, I discovered National Public Radio, known to its legions of listeners as NPR. Unlike local radio with its repetitive traffic reports ("congested everywhere") and juvenile attempts at humor (with way too jovial co-hosts laughing at each other) interspersed with an occasional record, NPR's "Morning Edition" on the way to work, and "All Things Considered" on the way home, had national and international news headlines and brief, well-researched feature stories. That said, NPR has some quirky and even annoying features, that my wife never fails to point out to me.

• You don't have to have an unusual name to work at NPR, but it seems to help. A few examples:

Titra Paprikash - she spoke with what seemed to be an East Asian accent. I found it interesting when NPR sent her to Louisiana to report on shrimp fishing issues. I'm sure she bonded with her interview subjects.

Sylvia Poggioli - I got the impression she was based in Italy and she got all of the Eastern Medditerranean assignments from Greece to Turkey to Azerbaijan and to the never to be forgotten Ngorno Karabakh.

Don Gonyea - when I first heard Don, he was reporting on issues related to the auto industry. He was probably based in Detriot because his "beat" expanded to include Michigan politics, then other Midwest issues. He now seems to be based in Washington covering national issues.

Michelle Norris - this doesn't look like an unusual name, except its pronounced "Me Shell." In a profile, she said she took this on-air job because the powers at NPR didn't ask her to alter her "smokey" African-American delivery. Until that profile, I didn't know she was smokey or African-American.

• If you're reporting from the field, you gotta have sound effects! Because it's radio, listeners can't tell whether the reporter is sitting in the studio or actually out in the field - thus the sound. If the report is from Iraq, lets hear the sound of boots crunching on the desert floor; if its from a port, let's hear the sea gulls and the waves lapping against the pier.

• If you're based overseas, you've got to use the local pronunciation. The afore mentioned Sylvia Puggiolli would spill out names of people and places that had me scratching my head. Even worse were the reporters based in France and the Far East.

There is a hint of pretentiousness in the news/semi news programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered (eg., "Arts" corresdondent Susan Stamberg never encountered an art or artist that she didn't gush over.) The pretentiousness comes out in full in some other NPR offerings. There's the food show (can you imagine a food show on the radio) humbly called "The Spendid Table" hosted by the three named, Lynn Rosetto Casper, " Piano Jazz", hosted by Marian McPartland, who sounds old enough to have changed Fats Waller's diapers and who speaks like someone from an old Noel Coward movie. The one that really jangles my nerves is not technically "NPR" but from something American Public Radio. "Market Place" is broadcast on my local NPR station and is hosted by Kai Rizdall (an NPR appropriate name if I ever heard one.) Every evening, Kai gives the financial headlines, then promises to give the details of movements in the stock market when "we do the numbers." I'm not sure what he does to the numbers, but based on recent market performances he'd better stop.

NPR is always fund raising from its listeners (OK, its only twice a year), but it seems like the bulk of their funding comes from corporations and foundations. When NPR acknowleges the support, they read a brief touchy-feely tag line that's related to the supporter's "mission." My current favorite tag line is from the Charles D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, which says it's "committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world." To which I say, "Me too!"