BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Can you hear me?

15 comments on Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

: I’m starting to see/hear more good audio work from audio amateurs on the web.

Jay Rosen‘s independent study student, Linda Blake, has an audio blog with stories about and from people affected by AIDS. I listened to some of it (downloaded on my iPod) and it’s very good.

It’s very much in the style of Ira Glass on NPR’s This American Life: Let people narrate their own stories but make sure it is told as a story (not a ramble).

Transom.org — which features Glass right now — does a good job of telling you and me how we can create such online radio ourselves. And it has some of the radio that has resulted; I listened to a report about a German rider lawnmower race, also good.

Now that I have my iPod, I was hoping to hear more Chris Lydon interviews but, unfortunately, his work is now streamed instead of downloadable. Which leads me to a minor rant:

Why can’t we download all of NPR?

: I don’t understand why NPR streams most of its programs or sells others via Audible (about whose product and customer service I’ve had a few minor rants as well).

Of course, I understand why record companies don’t want songs downloaded; they want to sell records. I understand why, say, Stern doesn’t want his shows streamed or downloaded; he doesn’t want to undercut his syndication.

But isn’t NPR’s mission to reach the largest possible audience? Why not make all shows downloadable? It’s not as if that would undercut advertising revenue; they have none. It’s not as if they’re making a fortune from Audible; I can’t imagine they are (or they’d be offering more shows there).

In fact, I’d bet that if NPR made all its shows available for download as MP3s — freely shared — it would increase not only its audience but also its donations: More grateful listeners means more bucks, no? And by making shows available for download instead of streaming and allowing them to be shared (or BitTorrented), NPR would save a fortune on bandwidth. Can’t lose.

So open the gates, NPR, and let us listen: MP3 it!

: UPDATE: I had mislinked to Linda Blake’s site. It’s here.

15 responses to “Can you hear me?”

  1. Mike G Avatar
    Mike G

    No, you can’t download, but you can capture anything that streams using various programs. I get lots of NPR and other radio stuff using a Mac program called Audio Hijack. Very simple.

  2. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Mike: I used a similar program for windows. Not simple enough. Just downloading would be a lot easier.

  3. A.H. Avatar
    A.H.

    Are there agreements between NPR and all of the member stations around the country?
    Also, if there are no ad revenues, why do I have to listen to “NPR is brought to you by…GE, Wal-mart, Bachelor Arts Program at [insert school name], etc??”
    Honestly not knowing the answer – is Non-Profit the same as Non-Revenue-generating?

  4. akb Avatar
    akb

    Not only do they not rely on ad revenue, your taxes went to support the production of the program. Personally I think any production funded with CPB or any government money should be licensed under so flavor of Creative Commons license, that at minimum allows noncommercial distribution. Why should thousands of hours of PBS documentaries rot in storage
    The BBC seems to understand that their programming is produced for the public, something public broadcasters in the US don’t seem to get.

  5. superfly Avatar
    superfly

    A. H. there is a slight difference. Corporations underwrite public broadcasting. That means they give the money to the stations with no official strings attached. The stations then thank them by saying on air who underwrites them. Commercials on private stations come with official strings attached for the money. They have to run the commercials the buyers demand. That might seem like just a technical difference that does not really mean much, but it is a legal difference.
    Public broadcasting underwriting announcements usualls say something like “brought to you by G.E. maker of ….” instead of “Buy this stuff from G.E.”. Again not much of a difference, but there is a difference. If I recall correctly from my days in college radio, the FCC reserves everthing under 92 on the FM dial for non-profit/educational broadcasting.

  6. Robert S. Avatar
    Robert S.

    Great point, Jeff.
    I heard a few months ago that the BBC plans to digitize their ENTIRE archives and make them available for free. In other words, you’ll be able to download anything they’ve ever aired for playback, including TV shows, documentaries, etc.
    Why leave home again?

  7. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    Having seen what PBS did for Jim Henson and how Congress got so upset at the loss of future revenues; EVERYONE discovered copyright and residuals.
    NPR is a commercial enterprise. They exist to make money. They have a morality “hook” that brings them listeners they would not otherwise have. If it ain’t hitting the ratings numbers it will be gone. Why should a morally pure broadcast care about ratings?
    As they say in professional sports: “When you want to talk money, they say its the game. When you want to talk about the game, they say its the money”
    Which is it with NPR (and PBS) money or morality?

  8. nash Avatar
    nash

    Maybe it’s to conserve bandwith? You used to be able to stream NPR over the internet 24/7. Now they cut off the feed after an hour. You have to listen to a brief message before your feed starts that tells you it’s to save money. It also means you miss a few minutes of programming every hour. I stopped listening after that.

  9. jaed Avatar
    jaed

    is Non-Profit the same as Non-Revenue-generating?
    No. Nonprofit just means the corporation doesn’t return a dividend to the stockholders. Nonprofits can make as much money as they like. (To get the tax deduction, the purpose of the nonprofit has to be one of various “good” ones, such as informing the public, and they have to spend a plausible amount of their income on this purpose.)

  10. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    Interesting problem to have:
    1. You’re doing something for the public good.
    2. Your media of choice is currently doing a “shirky” (named after Clay Shirky), i.e. the market value of what you’re offering is in freefall.
    3. In spite of the freefall you don’t want to change your media of choice or basic business model because you’re kinda enamored with the setup you’ve already got going… “Ooh, ahh, the power of radio” etc.
    So you all have this big, important meeting to fix the problem. “I know!” you say, “Let’s copy the record companies!”
    The room jumps up in applause…

  11. Steve Rhodes Avatar
    Steve Rhodes

    A few public radio shows do offer MP3 downloads. The ones I know of offhand are both about media, On the Media and Media Matters.
    I think public radio shows could do a lot more online. They should invest some of their windfall into creating links on each story. And they should get a lot more of their staff to blog. Brian Lehrer has one.

  12. UnderARock Avatar
    UnderARock

    Why not? The reason is very simply. The local NPR affiliates would scream bloody murder.

  13. Linda Blake Avatar
    Linda Blake

    Thank you for the mention Jeff. You’ve got the concept. I wanted to get an individual’s story and passions across in a tighlty produced fashion, using the power of voice.
    A slight correction, here is the correct link to my audioblog called: Voices of the Virus

  14. David Avatar
    David

    Yes downloading would be easier but audio capture is the next best thing. I use Total Recorder from http://www.highcriteria.com. I can set it to autorecord for a specific time and let the stream run and go do something else. Then later I upload the file into my mp3 player (neurosaudio.com) and listen to it whenever and wherever I want! I think given that, it’s important to contribute to our local npr stations or the stations that make the programming we like to continue to have this available.

  15. eric Avatar
    eric

    UnderARock is right…the number one reason why it doesn’t happen is because of the member stations. If NPR and other public radio outlets bypass them and go straight to the listener, the member stations go completely ballistic–you’re cutting out the middle man.
    There was a lot of resistance from member stations when NPR announced they would put programming on Sirius satellite radio, too–it’s the same issue. If your listeners bail on you for satellite, you’re out of luck.
    And again…NPR only gets a very small amount of $ from the CPB. FOR FY 2003, 51% of their revenue is from programming revenues (selling shows to local stations), 22% comes from corporate underwriting, 16% from foundation grants and contributions, and the remainder is from a variety of other sources (selling branded junk on the internet, selling transcripts, investment income, etc.).
    Foundation grants/contributions totalled $15.9 million in 2003, of which $2.7 million came from the CPB, NEA, and NSF.
    So, to put it in perspective, NPR’s FY2003 budget was $102 million, of which $2.7 million came from government sources. Pretty insignificant stuff.
    I’m of the opinion that since it’s such a small part of the budget, NPR should learn to sink or swim without it. The money mostly goes towards special projects, and would definitely not affect day-to-day operations in any significant way.
    The other side of it is that local public radio stations themselves *also* receive federal funds (whether or not they’re an “NPR” station or not). According to my sources, this makes up about 14% of annual station revenue. It’s a bigger chunk for them, but on average, 86% of their revenue still comes from other sources.
    One last number…CPB funding for FY2004 will be $95 million…it’s risen steadily since FY1999, when it was $62.5 million.
    Heh heh…yes, I’m an insider. The figures are all publicly available though. The key figure, imho, is that NPR only receives 1-3% of its budget from the Feds.
    My opinion: Pull the plug on NPR’s unnecessary $2.7 million, and use it to buy flak jackets for the troops. THAT’S public service. =)
    .e