Public radio in the United States was created after the passing of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The first public broadcasting station was NPR (founded in 1970), which is still on the forefront of public radio. Public broadcasting is unique because its mission is public service, and it is non-profit. As president Lyndon B. Johnson said: "While we work every day to produce new goods and create new wealth, we want most of all to enrich man's spirit. That is the purpose of this act." In regards to public service, public radio broadcasting aims to use the radio as a tool to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes. Public radio stations fulfill this by providing news, music and talk shows for the public. NPR alone has 14 news programs, five arts and life programs, and 8 music programs. Public radio ranges from serious to silly, including the variety show "A Prairie Home Companion" (distributed to over 500 public radio stations), news discussions on "Talk of the Nation", and everything in between.
Since its inception, there have grown to be 1,460 public radio stations in the United States. While most of these stations are run by universities and public authorities, the programs mainly come from NPR and PBS. Some public radio stations in Washington D.C. are WAMU, run by American University, WSCP, run by C-SPAN and WCUA, run by the Catholic University of America. All of them cover more or less the same three topics: news, entertainment/culture and education.
As we move to a more tech-oriented world, we might wonder what will happen to radio, and public radio specifically. While it might seem that public radio is at a disadvantage due to the fact that it mainly relies on listener contributions in order to keep running, it is also very high quality and trusted radio. It is held to higher standards than commercial radio stations and doesn't have annoying commercials.
Beyond this, the major public radio stations have up-to-date websites with news articles, videos, interviews and more. You can even listen to the programs from your computer if you don't have a radio. On American Public Media's website you can click to listen to podcasts of their programs. These stations have also expanded to include other forms of media. For example, above is of one of the videos NPR has on YouTube. It is an amusing video called "The Astronaut's Guide to Life in Space" and is just one of the many videos you can find on NPR's YouTube page. I believe the future of public radio lies in this integration of radio broadcasting and the internet. While people like me might just enjoy listening to top hits in the car, I know I can come to NPR online for pertinent and relatively unbiased news, as well as other interesting science and entertainment information. Public radio is succeeding in making itself accessible, and I believe this is why it remains relevant today.
Very informative blog post. The Youtube video was very appropriate with the content data. I now know much more about NPR and public radio than I did before. In terms of suggestions, including more information on public radio in the current light (post-scandals on politics, etc.) would add more content to your piece.
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