From The Washingtonian: Has Success Spoiled NPR?

From the article: “A troubling footnote to Giovannoni’s report is his finding that listenership is down for NPR’s flagship newsmagazines, All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Listening to the two shows declined nearly 6 percent between 2004 and 2005…The decline may reflect fallout from NPR’s decision in 2004 to push out Bob Edwards, Morning Edition’s first host. Management thought the show needed a nimbler host who could handle breaking news and report from the field. Edwards, who’d been hosting NPR programs for 30 years, seemed wedded to the studio. The handling of his departure—he was demoted to correspondent before he left for XM satellite radio—outraged many NPR diehards…Says Tom Thomas of the Station Resource Group, a Takoma Park–based coalition of stations: ‘Personality is a huge factor in radio, and when you change personalities, there are some listeners for whom it’s just never the same.’ The show, he adds, ‘has lost half a step.’”

Of course, the problem is specifically tied to a few brain-damaged executives at NPR, in this writer’s opinion. Remove them at long last, and perhaps NPR can return to its days of respectibility. Meanwhile, many of us still start every weekday morning with Bob Edwards gently leading us to wakefulness, and have grown past the need for National Public Radio.