Radio's New Wave

2

PUBLIC RADIO IN CRISIS

Jason Loviglio

 

 

 

Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change.

Milton Friedman¹

Crisis, however, is something that public broadcasting has never been able to escape.

Broadcasting Magazine, 1973 ²

Introduction

One of the earliest and most persistent viral hoaxes to circulate through American email inboxes at the dawn of the internet age featured the alarming claim that National Public Radio (NPR), the US public radio network, was on the verge of elimination through federal de-funding. The email message’s origins were sincere: In 1995, a Florida undergraduate, concerned about culture war rhetoric, responded to a very real proposal in Congress to radically defund public radio, television, and the arts with ...