Ok, kids. Now I’m steamed.

It seems that Bob’s departure from the morning program is not voluntary; instead, the morons at NPR have decided to “take the show in a different direction:”

From Detroit Free Press: Bob Edwards pushed from NPR a.m. show

From Seattle PI: Bob Edwards dumped as host of NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’

From MLive.com: Bob Edwards will be replaced as “Morning Edition” host

“Edwards said he was disappointed by the move, particularly that he won’t be host when the program celebrates its 25th anniversary in November.”

“Different Direction?” Which way is down again?

You know, I should have seen this crap coming. First, the geniuses in charge of NPR make a big deal out of opening a studio in California. Newsflash, guys…you have studios at every NPR affiliate station you can use any time you want, so this ain’t no big deal. In fact, your desperate struggle to use those studios, even when it isn’t necessary and nothing’s happening within a bazillion miles of HollyWeird, is an embarassment.

Speaking of embarassments, how ’bout that “Day to Day” show? A “newsmagazine” which appears to be designed for the MTV-generation…no, scratch that, I like kids. This show is designed for droolers who can’t keep up with anything approximating information, but like to hear loud noises and funny voices. If I were going to design a show specifically to alienate the NPR core audience, this is exactly the show I’d produce. Short pieces with no real newsvalue seperated by loud stings and opinions from Slate, which used to be pretty good but is now pretty worthless. (I know, I know, gotta come up with an excuse to use those new-fangled studios we wasted all that money on, but geez…)

Next, these self-same tinkerers replaced Edwards during his annual August vacation last year not with a host, but with a “Barbie and Ken” pair, Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne (Renee reporting from…yeah, you guesssed it, NPR-West, starting on the air at 3:00 am reporting on stuff happening in…er…Washington and Iraq). I have nothing whatsoever against the two of them, but good grief, in the mornings I can barely find my glasses - I don’t want to be confused by local-news-staion “happy-talk” crap and a gaggle of anchors, I want to hear one re-assuring voice walking me through what happened yesterday, what happened while I slept, and what I need to be concerned with today.

And let’s take a quick gander at the recent record. Listenership is up 41% percent in the last five years according to NPR’s own figures. Wow…get rid of that guy quick, before even more people start listening!

The show has changed a lot over the years. I remember listening to the show over shortwave on AFRTS, and being amused that Edwards used to read, during the local station dropins, weather reports and temperatures around the country. Those stopped (and caused some small stir when they did, in fact), and the world didn’t end.

So certainly tanking Bob (and right before the twenty-fifth anniversary, no less!) isn’t going to end the world, either. NPR will probably go on, and a couple years from now people will remember him fondly but maybe no more so than Noah Adams (someone I am still missing on All Things Considered).

Speaking of that twenty-fifth anniversary, I’ve missed over the last years the Ted Koppel talks. See, Morning Edition and Nightline were both started the same time, and it was always fun to listen to the two of them talk about the beginnings of the two wildly different news shows. Hey, somebody better warn Koppel that his head might be on the chopping block, too.

Darnitall, I am seriously ticked off.

How ticked? Ticked enough that I am contacting the two local NPR stations I support (neither of which, BTW, are my geographically-local station, since we disagree on programming decisions) and telling them that this year, they won’t be receiving my annual support. And telling them exactly why.

I urge you to do the same. Certainly this decision has been made and will not be resinded, but we can let them know that we actually pay attention to bone-headed decisions made by Wile-E-Coyoteesque executives like Ken Stern, and can react unplesently when they do something this moronically stupid. Which they appear determined to do consistantly and frequently lately. I mean, now that they’re nice and cocky with Joan Kroc’s millions, they don’t care about the money…but maybe putting the squeeze on the locals will get their attention.

Assuming, of course, that they have a longer attention span than the listeners they seem to be courting…