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Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

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121–130 of 288 posts

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a network called K-Love that broadcasts contemporary Christian music across the United States[1]. It's the same programming in every market, apart from the occasional regional flavor in advertising and/or pledge drives. I didn't search to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure that federal regulations prevent fully syndicated radio stations across markets, but they don't apply to nonprofits. That's why you'll have…

Yes, well there are many different networks that are syndicated everywhere. The question is if they could control the same frequency everywhere, which I don't think makes sense with how our radio stations are structured.

Fair enough.

Just as banter, what other networks are syndicated everywhere? I drive a fair bit and will hear K-Love and NPR everywhere. Sports talk will sometimes syndicate later at night, and of course the political talk stations will have programming from elsewhere. But apart from the Christian stuff, I've never heard music syndication as I go between markets.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#122
post #66

As much as I like NPR, my politics have slowly drifted left over the years, and it's amazing how differently the same shows and hosts now sound to me through a more critical filter. To see what I mean, I recommend browsing through https://twitter.com/npr_watch (not my account, and I'm not affiliated in any way).

I would consider myself a progressive, and yet I find NPR to be a propaganda mouthpiece for the left. It seems that every other story is pushing some identity politics agenda with a puff piece for some liberal politician or a slam against some conservative politician, or a heart to heart interview with a transgender immigrant homeless playwright. I agree with the sentiment and the politics, but I disagree with the me…

Sounds like NPR is corporatist and part of the military industrial complex. They were pushing war in the lead up to Iraq War 2.

Note: Hillary was for the war, too. She's as hawkish as McCain.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#123
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your politics clearly lean left. I emphatically disagree with your assessment. Not surprisingly, I am center right/libertarian.

Is there a "right-wing NPR"?

Are you just referring to tone? Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson is right-wing and has a very mellow tone. Also check out the Federalist Radio Hour and Conversations with Bill Kristol.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#124
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny I remember when Cokie Roberts was pimping Bush during the 2004 elections. No, NPR's leadership since about the mid-nineties (at least) has been aligned with big business - they are part of the media elite, who collectively, despite the "liberal media" label are actually corporatists (because that's who owns them).

There are liberal corporatists. I don't know why that would be a contradiction.

It's not a contradiction, it's a clarification. Corporatist means liberal or conservative as long as it pushes the interests of the military industrial complex.

They are only as liberal as their funders permit and kowtow to conservative viewpoints as well.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#125
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider myself a progressive, and yet I find NPR to be a propaganda mouthpiece for the left. It seems that every other story is pushing some identity politics agenda with a puff piece for some liberal politician or a slam against some conservative politician, or a heart to heart interview with a transgender immigrant homeless playwright. I agree with the sentiment and the politics, but I disagree with the me…

Sounds like NPR is corporatist and part of the military industrial complex. They were pushing war in the lead up to Iraq War 2. Note: Hillary was for the war, too. She's as hawkish as McCain.

Whenever there's a big event that requires public support, they definitely do their part to push a particular choice. I also remember clearly NPR beating the war drum for war with Iraq. BBC too.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare costs a hundred times more. That makes it almost incomparable. And has knock-on effects like different people wanting different styles of coverage with very different price schedules. Courts/police are relatively straightforward and cheap, and act as an enabler for contracts and personal choice.

It's about 10x more if you count just police and fire; about 2x more if you count defense spending along with policing, using UK numbers. (Nowhere near 100x!) Of course, many more people spread colds, cause accidents, etc than commit crimes, so it makes sense that the cost of controlling their externalities is more than those of criminals. But your choice seems arbitrary: you couch it in pragmatic terms, because you'…

I would definitely not categorize defense spending as police.

Healthcare doesn't stop people from spreading colds. You're not actually reducing externalities with most categories of care. And if there were no police you would see a lot more theft.

Anyway, you can put it in cost-benefit terms, but you have to include a strong freedom factor. A government that takes 2% of GDP to keep public order is far better than not doing that. But taking a very large fraction of income to provide health care? That is an enormous cost to both spending and freedom, and reasonable people can see those costs as higher or lower than the benefits.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know if you can get it to play out-of-state NPR stations? I'm not a fan of my local affiliate.

I'm Australian, I understand how the affiliate stations work but can you explain what you mean when you say you don't like your local station? I'm assuming it's the same as wanting to listen to ABC Melbourne when you live in Sydney - but that means missing out on the local news or particular presenters.

Public radio stations across the US carry different programs.

After asking the question I thought about it more and I think I just need to fully commit to podcasts. I've pretty much stopped watching live TV (except for sports) and the same should probably be true for radio.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#128
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like NPR is corporatist and part of the military industrial complex. They were pushing war in the lead up to Iraq War 2. Note: Hillary was for the war, too. She's as hawkish as McCain.

Whenever there's a big event that requires public support, they definitely do their part to push a particular choice. I also remember clearly NPR beating the war drum for war with Iraq. BBC too.

This is why I support stations like KPFA [1], even though I don't support all their viewpoints. Helps me keep my corporatist-bias radar in check.

[1] https://kpfa.org

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#129
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever there's a big event that requires public support, they definitely do their part to push a particular choice. I also remember clearly NPR beating the war drum for war with Iraq. BBC too.

This is why I support stations like KPFA [1], even though I don't support all their viewpoints. Helps me keep my corporatist-bias radar in check. [1] https://kpfa.org

Yeah, KPFK is my go to in L.A.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#130

my dad is a fox news republican, a few years back we were driving for 5 hours and were listening to npr. he was basically waiting for the overt liberal bias, but instead we listened to a bunch of fascinating stories and interesting shows about a variety of topics. I read somewhere that npr isn't liberally biased, but their fan base is mostly liberal, because liberals tend to prefer news that has no bias. It's also no…

>because liberals tend to prefer news that has no bias

You have to be joking. Have you heard of the Huffington Post or MSNBC?

Even NPR is heavily biased at the editorial level. Most of the stories are intentionally selected to represent downtrodden folks, rust belt workers/farmers that realize they are closet Democrats, etc. The individual stories will be true but the representation of reality portrayed by the overarching theme of the stories will be a lie.

It's like a conservative station that constantly reports only crimes committed by Muslims. All of it can easily be 100% true, but the overarching theme will be complete BS.

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