No Public Left Behind: The Role of NPR Alternatives in the Commercial Era of Public Broadcasting.

Much of the literature on NPR finds that the network and its member stations have become more commercially responsive over time, an attribute that was not intended or even desired at the outset of NPR and its forerunner, Educational Radio. This paper is an exploratory study that builds on previous work by outlining the ramifications of NPR?s new commercial focus and then looks to other non-NPR affiliated forms of public radio such as Pacifica, community, and campus radio and examines whether these stations are able to offer a meaningful non-commercial alternative to NPR by providing services now largely abandoned by NPR stations. It is suggested that these types of stations may also be subject to the same dynamics affecting public radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]