NPR Radio Ratings Collapse As
Pandemic Ends Listeners' Commutes
National Public Radio,
by
David Folkenflik
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
7/16/2020 4:56:25 AM
Broadcast ratings for nearly all of NPR's radio shows took a steep dive in major markets this spring, as the coronavirus pandemic kept many Americans from commuting to work and school. The network's shows lost roughly a quarter of their audience between the second quarter of 2019 and the same months in 2020.
People who listened to NPR shows on the radio at home before the pandemic by and large still do. But many of those who listened on their commute have not rejoined from home. And that threatens to alter the terrain for NPR for years to come, said Lori Kaplan, the network's senior director of audience insights.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
chumley 7/16/2020 5:44:54 AM (No. 479802)
They lost a quarter of their listeners? Gad, that must mean about three. Seriously, with all the good choices out there, including satellite radio and all sorts of local stations, who really listens to NPR?
24 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Petronius 7/16/2020 5:58:16 AM (No. 479809)
35 years ago I was an avid NPR listener and supporter. I can't listen to their dreck for more than 5 minutes now, just awful.
36 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
nina584 7/16/2020 6:01:52 AM (No. 479812)
Stop the government from funding npr !
45 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
StormCnter 7/16/2020 6:33:05 AM (No. 479818)
I've never been an NPR supporter nor a regular listener, but sometimes when I am preparing dinner I turn on NPR to listen while I work. I'm with the earlier poster. After only a few minutes, I activate the Off switch. NPR is not worh anyone's time any longer, unless the listener is addicted to the KoolAid.
27 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Rather Read 7/16/2020 6:33:48 AM (No. 479819)
I used to listen to NPR back in the early 1980s. It didn't last too long, I couldn't take the veiled anti-semitism. I listened to the classical music for a while longer, then I gave it up entirely.
14 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 7/16/2020 6:43:46 AM (No. 479824)
It's the lack of commuters that is killing them? Really?
Buried in the article is "a significant minority of public radio listeners said they would tune in more often if NPR shows offered a greater variety of news coverage". If NPR stopped being shills for Leftist dogma, other people might listen but then they would lose people from the "Ten major stations" in the heart of liberal cities. The CEO says sees "a situation driven by habits of consumers that are not related to the content of our programs", which immediately allows him to ignore NPR's Leftist tilt as a possible cause for decline.
Here's a clue. In the extreme polarization leading up to the election and the Left's frantic attempt to get an issue that gives them traction, they have gone nuts and they have gone from annoying to offensive. NPR reflects that insanity, flooding their programs with environmental and social justice warnings and clear bias against Trump, and people are shutting them off.
It's time to eliminate their (and PBS) public funding. It's only 2% of their funding so it's only symbolic but it's the right message.
36 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
GO3 7/16/2020 6:47:11 AM (No. 479826)
They don't have radios at home?
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
ramona 7/16/2020 7:07:17 AM (No. 479833)
I grew up with MPR/NPR (along with WCCO and a classy Cristian radio station). On my own the morning started with Garrison Keiloor's quaint morning show which morphed into The Prairie Home Companion. After work it was NPR for news. I was comforted by the familiar and often soothing tones of great announcers. I contributed to their fundraisers and wore clever PHC sweatshirts with pride. When I moved to Western New York I would take NPR-sponsored bus trips to Lake Chataqua for summer performances. I could detect the liberal (and sometimes far left) bias in the news but didn't mind getting another perspective because I could also hear great classical music. When Bill Clinton was impeached I listened to the Congressional/ Senate hearings on NPR. My blood began to boil as the announcers gleefully interviewed the horndog's loyalists in congress and when one of his lawyers, a pal of a big NPR announcer, just ignored all the evidence of his many creepy behaviors (( I read most of the Starr report online so I knew what Congress knew). I immediately ended my long-time support for NPR. Never went back. Wrote them a letter and told them why I would not renew my membership.
There are so many other radio options today and NPR is just more noise from the far left. Their disdain for Christians and other traditionalists had begun to drip from nearly every news broadcast by the time I lef; now it flows freely. I will not feel an ounce of sadness when NPR folds.
Ramona (the Pest)
29 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
doctorfixit 7/16/2020 7:09:01 AM (No. 479835)
De-fund NPR. End taxpayer-paid commie propaganda
28 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
edgar 7/16/2020 7:40:04 AM (No. 479867)
#4 - I am with you. I learned years earlier, during the GOP Presidential Primary in NH. I listened to NPR 'educate me' about the candidates. Based on NPR coverage, I was thinking Lamar Alexander was the one. Then, on a day off from work I was listening to Rush and he explained how Alexander was the least conservative candidate in the field. The light bulb went off then. Now, I turn on NPR to get a chuckle on their perspectives that are completely devoid of diversity. Oh, and to hear them preach to listeners to become a 'sustainer'. You gotta love that left wing lingo.
15 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
MickTurn 7/16/2020 8:21:30 AM (No. 479918)
National Pubic Radio, in the Dumper just like every other Communist 'news' outlet
16 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
udanja99 7/16/2020 8:46:42 AM (No. 479956)
#7, the don’t listen to the radio at home because they’re too busy streaming show on Netflix. Why listen to the radio when you can watch the latest superhero remake?
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
mathman 7/16/2020 9:06:50 AM (No. 479985)
NPR (National Propaganda Radio) is a non-profit which is quadruply funded: money from the National Endowment for the Arts, sponsors (they are not called that, but they are sponsors), public contributions, and secret donations from Soros and his ilk.
And they are SOLID endorsers of Communism and Socialism. And no conservative voices are ever heard on NPR, not ever. NPR follows the narrative, as scripted by ValJar in the Alternate White House.
Defund the National Endowment for the Arts.
14 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Gallo3 7/16/2020 9:30:26 AM (No. 480018)
De-fund, schme-fund.
Revoke their broadcast licenses.
9 people like this.
Unfortunately, they are atop the podcast ratings ladder, meaning much of the listenership either shifted their habits before or during the pandemic.
But a state broadcaster in the US remains an incongruent joke along with its listener base.
8 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
joew9 7/16/2020 9:43:18 AM (No. 480038)
NPR feminists gave a fawning review of the movie Showgirls in 1995 and how great it was for feminism, women's independence, and their self esteem. A few months later I remembered the review when I saw it on cable. OMG! SMH! NPR feminists had it completely backwards. The male director had spread a bunch of BS propaganda about the film and the NPR feminists totally bought it. They had seen the movie and yet they bought everything he said. NPR's Feminists can't think for themselves. They need to stay off the radio and rest their tiny little brains.
BTW, I rate Showgirls as the worst movie ever made. And any intelligent woman will see it as totally offensive soft porn. Sad that Berkley got roped into staring in it.
7 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
HotRod 7/16/2020 10:34:00 AM (No. 480137)
We don't need NPR any more. It's an anachronism. Let it survive without taxpayer funding, if it can. There are plenty of other sources for communist propaganda now.
6 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 7/16/2020 10:37:56 AM (No. 480149)
At the recycle station yesterday, as I was putting my cardboard into the bins, a Volvo SUV pulled up and a guy near my advanced age got out of the car, left motor running and radio blaring so he could unload his stuff. When I heard the NPR station break, I laughed out loud. Tout naturellement.
7 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Kate318 7/16/2020 10:46:00 AM (No. 480172)
I actually think that’s not the reason. To a person—liberal or conservative—those I’ve spoken to about COVID all say that they don’t listen to the news anymore. They simply shut it off. Now, I don’t listen to NPR, but I imagine it’s like all lefty mouthpieces: constant drumbeat of body counts, and gloom and doom.
5 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Starboard_side 7/16/2020 10:46:06 AM (No. 480173)
Tough to keep an audience when it's not in a capture environment?
5 people like this.
National Pinko Radio strikes again!
4 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 7/16/2020 10:49:44 AM (No. 480184)
Now end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is, as everyone is told on PBS shows, who funds the shows, "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American People."
A PRIVATE CORPORATION FUNDED BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
Leftists would lose their minds if there was a conservative private corporation that was funded with tax dollars.
Cut the head off the snake.
7 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Strike3 7/16/2020 11:06:09 AM (No. 480226)
When you hear the liberal, anti-Trump bias in the first sentence of the news, the automatic reaction is to turn it off. Other than Car Talk and the classical music, NPR has been a waste of taxpayer money for years.
6 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Ken M. 7/16/2020 11:06:38 AM (No. 480227)
Well, there ~was~ Car Talk (RIP Tom). Many years since I've commuted, but nowadays if out on a shopping run I listen to Dennis Prager or Mike Gallagher.
Lots of better radio than NPR: https://radio-locator.com/
5 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
SALady 7/16/2020 1:11:05 PM (No. 480397)
It's nice to read some good news coming out of the Coronavirus for a change!!!
3 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Smart11344 7/17/2020 1:53:58 PM (No. 481633)
Only time I heard NPR when my neighbors were playing it on their radio one summer day. I finally went inside to play my kind of music. Oh, how sweet it is!
1 person likes this.
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