Folks;

I urge you to post comments about my letter here, and should you, too, be moved to contact NPR with your thoughts on Mr. Dvorkin’s column, please post a copy of it here in the comments section so other readers can be inspired to write their own.

   I am certain you are buoyed by your recent press release proclaiming “Morning Edition” with a 6% gain. Indeed, the claptrap posted this week by the “Ombudsman” made it clear you are thrilled to the point of gloating. I hope your new listeners are as generous as those of us who for almost thirty years supported NPR through member station donations, volunteer work, and “word-of-mouth” advertising to anyone who would listen. Of course, after last year’s disaster where NPR (and in many cases those individuals I write to now) did everything they could to alienate those long-term supporters, many of us have refused to give a dime to member stations. We refuse to funnel support to an organization we can no longer trust.

   I only mention this because some of you sarcastically commented at the time that Mr. Edwards would be nothing but “a footnote” in a year. Mr. Dvorkin’s column clearly shows that to be a wild underestimation. It’s been a year, and for many of us, your “dumbing down” of the morning program with the “Barbie-and-Ken-happy-talk” nonsense, apparently to match the limited intelligence of your management and target listener pool, is something we will neither forgive nor forget. The fact you were forced to drop that insipid format and essentially emulate Mr. Edwards’ version of the program with a lesser substitute is a clear acknowledgement that you were wrong, and achieved nothing but his removal. Congratulations, because in the process, you also achieved the removal of many longtime listeners…and supporters.

   Mr. Edwards is indeed as Mr. Dvorkin says a, “very classy guy.” He compliments those who treated him (and his listeners) so shabbily. I choose not to be so charitable to an organization that was determined to make it clear to me and tens of thousands of others that our interests are irrelevant. NPR told us in no uncertain terms, “just shut up, stop complaining, and pay for us.”

   That’s not going to happen. For many of us, monies previously donated to member stations are now being spent in XM subscriptions. You have also pushed me to direct my donations to PRI, an organization who hasn’t yet gotten, “too big for its breeches.” I can assure you because of the hubris of NPR management, I will NEVER personally donate to NPR member stations again; and I will continue to recommend to others they not support your organization nor the member stations broadcasting your flawed product. If alternatives are nourished and flourish, perhaps you won’t be so patronizing to your listeners.

   Unlike your Ombudsman, who brazenly admits he doesn’t know what the devil he’s talking about yet comments anyway, I have personally heard every one of XM Satellite Radio’s “The Bob Edwards Show,” so I actually have the right to comment on it. A major correction to Mr. Dvorkin’s error-of-ignorance: Like any other program, some days are better radio than others, but even on the show’s worst days Mr. Edwards doesn’t need the, “heft and backup of NPR News.” He’s clearly a much more professional interviewer than those left at NPR, with an exceptional production staff that provides plenty of “heft and backup.” Indeed, it is exactly the freedom from NPR’s constraints that has allowed “The Bob Edwards Show” to soar - the suggestion that he, and by extention his listeners, somehow “need” NPR for legitimacy is only another example of NPR’s unbridled hubris.

   Finally, regarding Mr. Dvorkin’s desperate need for, “closure:” you gave us closure last April 30th; only you seem to need the closure of fooling yourselves into believing that Mr. Edwards’ removal was the right decision. I will cheerfully continue to support XM with my subscription dollars to start each weekday with Mr. Edwards’ quiet professionalism and in-depth interviews, while forsaking the diminished clone version of his original program that NPR has decided to force-feed to the masses.

         Sincerely,

         Charlie Summers
         York, Pennsylvania

Former listener/supporter of KUOW, WAMU, KPUB, KNAU, KSFC, WUGA, KSFC, KCRW, and many other News/Talk NPR stations; the Internet has destroyed the provincial concept of listening to or supporting only a single “local” station, even though you folks haven’t yet caught up and still think geography matters…