# NPR Question: Producer of Marketplace, This American Life is...? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 8, 2011, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292 "2011-07-08T11:14:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/21 "2011-07-08T16:48:01Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Are you saying that NPR has, and uses, the power to _make_ local public stations carry _Morning Edition_ and _All Things Considered_? :dubious: I don’t think so. Wisconsin Public Radio has two networks. One, News & Classical, carries Morning Edition and ATC. The Ideas network carries talk shows, most originated by WHA in Madison, but one or two out of Milwaukee. Many of the Ideas shows are syndicated to other stations; not just Feldman, but “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” and “Chapter a Day,” “University of the Air,” and “Zorba Paster on Your Health.” WPR rocks! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/22 "2011-07-08T17:13:59Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I think Ms Robyn is saying that running those two shows is in the membership contract. And just FYI, I believe that pretty much all network affiliation agreements have similar requirements. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/23 "2011-07-08T17:34:36Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > I don’t think so. Wisconsin Public Radio has two networks. One, News & Classical, carries Morning Edition and ATC. The Ideas network carries talk shows, most originated by WHA in Madison, but one or two out of Milwaukee. Many of the Ideas shows are syndicated to other stations; not just Feldman, but “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” and “Chapter a Day,” “University of the Air,” and “Zorba Paster on Your Health.” > > WPR rocks! WPR is a unique system. Part of that strength may come from its long history, WHA was the first educational radio station in the country. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/24 "2011-07-08T18:13:22Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Wow - all helpful. Thank you MsRobyn. How have you come to know all this? When I was in college, I had to take a class in broadcast programming. Since I’m a major fan of public broadcasting, I chose that as a focus. Commercial programming is easy. Public broadcasting is harder. 🙂 **Acsenray** , my point was simply that commercial networks have a stricter requirement than NPR does in terms of carrying network programming. Two shows aren’t a big deal, especially since they bring in a lot of money during pledge campaigns. If you’re a commercial affiliate, it’s harder to pick and choose, especially if another source has the same kinds of programming that the network has. Also, NPR stations can (and in some cases, have to) affiliate with other networks to carry their programs, which is something that is harder for a commercial affiliate to do. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/25 "2011-07-08T18:14:44Z")
I think we’re saying the same thing, really. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/26 "2011-07-08T19:37:50Z")
Moving to Cafe Society from GQ. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/27 "2011-07-08T20:02:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Moving to Cafe Society from GQ. > > Colibri > General Questions Moderator I always end up back here 😉 But I thought this was a straight-up question/answer… ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/28 "2011-07-08T22:53:26Z")
> [@FoundWaldo](#): > > Is that really still the case? I thought when they finally (mostly) merged channel lineups, the XM versions went away and everyone just has the Sirius versions now. Annoyingly, yes. You can get the XM Public Radio station on Sirius if you buy the extra “best of XM” package, but not the other way around. The background to it is that XM’s public radio station works kind of like a normal terrestrial public radio station in that it bought shows from different distributors (and produced some original content), although they wouldn’t give them most of the big-name shows. But over on the Sirius side, they had a station that was actually run by NPR (and plays APM stuff) and for a while there was actually a separate PRI-only station that I thought was great. But at some point the PRI station went away for some reason, and PRI started selling shows to the XM station instead. This left Sirius with only the NPR/APM station. That wouldn’t be so bad except that NPR is very adamant about not having the satellite station compete with terrestrial public radio stations, and so that station plays basically Car Talk, PHC, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, repeats them a LOT and otherwise plays some pretty obscure shows. And, of course, no Morning Edition or All Things Considered. I can appreciate why NPR doesn’t want to steal listeners from terrestrial public radio stations since I’m sure \>95% of satellite subscribers have access to one, but it sucks for folks like me. The whole reason why I got Sirius in the first place was because the only worthwhile radio in the state is public radio, but I got a job where I drove a lot and was usually out of range of their handful of weak transmitters. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292/29 "2011-07-08T23:21:08Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > WPR is a unique system. Part of that strength may come from its long history, WHA was the first educational radio station in the country. And it’s predecessor, 9XM is arguably the oldest radio station in the US Brian [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/npr-question-producer-of-marketplace-this-american-life-is/588292.md?page=1)