I had not thought of Lefty Talk Radio competing with NPR before but it makes sense.
Back in my twenties I listened to NPR because I couldn’t stand the commercials on regular talk radio. But I eventually got fed up with the Left Wing slant of NPR.
But this makes sense. Why listen to commercial Lefty talk radio with nearly half of your listening time shot dead with commercials when you have government subsidized Lefty talk radio with far fewer commercials?
Plus NPR is available in most market, is primarily on FM which is high quality sound and is even on XM satellite radio.
By the way XM has Leftist talk radio. I very rarely put it on but that is also competing with terrestrial Lefty talk radio.
But NPR is not competition for Conservative talk radio.
I think Lefty talk jocks are at a slight disadvantage because of NPR but I think they should be doing better than they are on terrestrial radio unless for some reason Leftist in this country simply do not listen to talk radio for some unknown reason.
Personally I find it irritating and their argument juvenile.
I think many prefer the snooty, intellectual, arrogant style of NPR over the street fighter types like Sly who come across as left-wing versions of Hannity.
Plus they feel good when they make those BIG pledges to NPR stations (and deduct them from their taxes!).
I listen to some music programs on NPR, enjoying the fact that it has been paid for by liberals.