[BC] An NPR branded Internet radio

[Rich Wood]

------ At 05:31 PM 10/20/2009, RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote: -------

>Hmmm. The leopard shows his spots! Now, we all knew that NPR had 
>nothing to do with making a profit, didn't we? It was all in the 
>public interest wasn't it? I sure hope the free rent they get at 
>colleges and universities around the country, that subsidizes their 
>Socialist agenda, goes away real soon.

I worked for WGBH-FM/TV some time ago. I don't think there's any 
prohibition against merchandising divisions. We sold copies of 
everything, as they do today. You can buy DVD and tape copies of 
almost everything PBS broadcasts. From what I hear, NPR and its 
stations aren't raking in the "profits." Stations are using IBUZ 
receivers as premiums for contributions.

This WiFi "radio" is a double-edged sword. Every station that 
promotes it is promoting every other NPR station in the country. When 
my local NPR station is running a begathon, I'll have dozens of 
others running the programming I really want to hear. The upside is 
that you can count the IBUZ listeners without taking off your shoes. 
The WiFi radio has worlds more to offer than a couple of extra 
unreliable channels. It has thousands of channels. One day it'll 
truly become portable. You can do truly niche programming without 
crushing overhead.

On another matter: I'm curious how Socialist kidnapped Liberal. Has 
the right-wing opposition to health care reform ("It's Socialism") 
used the term so often to cover so many issues that it's the 
all-encompassing definition of "I don't agree with you?" Socialism is 
as  bankrupt as any social system that welcomes greed, corruption and 
inequality. We're all now living with the result.

Rich