Why do we need so many NPR stations? (You won't believe how many Southern New England has.)

NPR is warning that without federal money, some stations might even close down. Even from the point of a person who liked NPR, why would that be a bad thing?

The three states of Southern New England have a combined area of about 14,000 square miles, considerably smaller than several counties, like San Bernadino, California. Back in the days of VHF and UHF TV, you could cover the area with a single TV station, but the networks would put two TV stations in the region. If you wanted to splurge on radio stations, you could make the case for as many as four: one for Connecticut, one so that Rhode Island could have its own for state news and strictly in-state businesses, and if gave Connecticut and Rhode Island stations exclusively for their own state, you might want to put another station in Western Massachusetts.

But Southern New England has more than four NPR stations. Way more. It has 45. Four in Rhode Island alone. 12 in Connecticut. And 29 in Massachusetts. And none of them are AM versions of FM stations. Even though public radio basically quit playing music, they blanket the lower end of the FM dial.

It's pointless and absurd enough that just within the city limits of Boston, there's not one but three NPR stations, playing the same content. But there's also three NPR stations in the tiny town of Sharon, Connecticut, population 2,680.

College radio used to be so students can learn journalism, station management and DJ skills. It was the incubator of alternative movements in music. Now, most college radio is nothing but leftist propaganda produced hundreds or thousands of miles away. How does hosting NPR shows 24-hours-a-day help any communications students? "You'll lose local news!" the NPR supporters say... but "local news" means three minutes just before the top of the hour during certain, select news shows. Wouldn't you get far more if local universities actually produced their own content?

Let's look at more sparsely populated states. Shouldn't someone have to make the case that Vermont radio stations in Sunderland, Manchester (yes, VT), Battleboro, Randolph and Bennington couldn't provide the news that Rutland, Vermont residents need?

These stations get a lot of money from the federal government, but they also get money from the various states. Why are red states' governments shelling out to provide the Democrats 24-7 advertising?

My favorite reason is what Schmucky Schumer says “NPR is needed in rural areas”. Huh? Is this 1950?

The last time I was in a “rural area” (read that farm communities), it was not 1950 where there were few radio stations. Back then, most were AM and not far left NPR on FM.

Today, many rural stations are either Mexican or Christian (just doing the dial search when I am out there).

No self respecting farmer gets their ag and weather news from NPR.

The major networks actually DID get by with two stations in the area.

Getting back to TV. That gets more complicated. I am going to describe old analogue, since the rules for digital are different, and OTA does NOT work as well for distance with digital.

First, VHF is good for 100 miles max if you have a roof antenna pointed in the correct direction and you are not in a velley, and the transmitter is strong (as all the New York stations are). The lower the frequency, the farther the travel, but the more prone to interference. So, WCBS Channel 2 travels farther than WPIX Channel 11, but when th vaccum cleaner is turned on Channel 2 snows out.

UHF is good for much less, but is less prone to interference. UHF really only works for about 35 to 50 miles.

So, for network television in southern New England, you had low powered VHF stations for the networks in Providence. They can reach New London, but certainly not western CT.

Regarding people just picking up New York stations, not so fast. I grew up in Wallingford, north east of New Haven. My father was a rabid Mets fan, and wanted to catch Channel WOR-TV 9, which was less than 100 miles away (before the relocation to Secaucus, NJ). He should have been able to receive it with snow. But he generally couldn't, even with a roof antenna pointed to NYC. The problem is that WNHC/WTNH Channel 8 (ABC) was in the direct line with New York, so that the overpowering signal from 20 miles away mostly blocked receiving the adjacent channel 9 90% of the time (it also blocked WABC TV Channel 7, which was not as big a deal). He even bought an in-line RF trap to try to receive the station, it worked 10% of the time, mostly at night.

Even in little Connecticut, because NBC could not get a VHF station, TWO UHF stations, plus one over the border in Massachusetts, and one in Providence for the East, and two repeaters were needed to cover the state effectively, despite the presence of flagship WNBC-4 in NYC. Those stations were Channel 30 (New Britain, WHNB/WVIT), Channel 20 (WATR, Waterbury), Channel 22 (Springfield, MA, WWLP), Channel 10 (WJAR, Providence, RI), and repeaters (Channel 59, West Haven, Channel 79, hilly Torrington). My father actually had to build a rhombus antenna in 1956 on the bedroom ceiling in their New Haven tenement so he could watch the NFL Championship between the Giants and Colts (a k a "The Greatest Game Ever Played)

I am not even get into the problems of ghosting with strong signals like Channel 3 in Hartford, if your antenna is pointed towards New York. My father setup a second antenna and a knife switch for summer time programming.

There are a LOT of variables in both TV and radio reception. Cable TV kind of took the fun out of it.

>> Large cities still have NPR music. Here in Phoenix, the main station, KBAQ, is classical music 95% of the time. The news station is relegated to a secondary FM digital signal, with smaller stations that are secondary to KBAQ music. <<

KBAQ is not an NPR station at all. But some NPR stations still play a little classical music, because they only have to spend x% of their overall budget and y% of their CPB budget on NPR.

>> The AM stations like WABC in New York, KDKA in Pittsburgh, and WLS and WBBM in Chicago, have a clear channel, and what Rush Limbaugh used to call a “50,000 watt blow torch”. Those do NOT get handed out easily, and most are heritage stations. If NPR in CT wanted to move to AM, it would NOT get a 50,000 watt station, like WTIC-1080 has. It would more likely get 5,000 watts like WPOP. <<

I’m only talking about reaching New London or P-town from Boston. No 50,000-watt blowtorches necessary. And by the way, low-frequency FM stations are the ones that travel the best, and retain the best sound quality, and NPR so thoroughly dominates the low-frequency end that in most cities, you can’t find any stations that are NOT NPR on the low end, so I wouldn’t worry about them having access to very best stations.

>> Some stations only have 1,000 or 2,000 watts and are obliged to signoff at sundown. <<

Not NPR stations, so your technical data, while correct, are an irrelevant smokescreen.

To cut through a lot of smokescreening data:

WGBH-FM NPR Boston has an official range of about 70 miles. That’s lower because it’s FM. AM has more frequencies and carries much further. Two such stations would blanket most of New England, although you’d possible want to go with three (Hartford, Providence). And if you wanted 100% coverage at the highest sound quality, you’d probably want repeaters in Yarmouth and something on a hilltop in the Berkshires; past Barnstable, you’d start getting a weaker signal.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.