NPR is like Crack

I am a NPR junkie. I can’t help myself. I get in the car and the first thing I do is tune into 91.5 FM and catch up on what is happening in the world, arts, music, politics, culture, and the economy. The way their non-accented voices, flowing in through my car stereo, make me feel connected is so comforting. Mornings with Morning Addition and Market Place, lunch time with the Diane Rehm Show, and afternoons with All things Considered. Weekends with Car Talk, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, and The Splendid Table. What would I do without these guys?

But wait, it is not all picnics in the meadow and long walks on the beach. Three to four times a year, I have to give up my NPR. I have to turn off the radio, pull out my dusty CDs and resign myself to a week without my beloved radio. Why does this avid and somewhat obsessive fan have to turn off her “life line?”

Pledge Drive.

What is more annoying, more depressing, and more frustrating than turning on the radio expecting to hear some news, and what you hear instead is the manager of the radio station pleading for your money. It drives me crazy. Sometimes I try to stick it out through the begging and pleading because I know somewhere in the middle of it all, they have to take a break and then I will get 5 minutes of news, but most of the time I just give up immediately and turn it off.

Pledge drives don’t make me want to give money. They make me want to break something, scream, or ram something with my car. There has got to be a better way. Maybe if they bribed me saying,

“If you pay now, we promise we won’t have a pledge drive again, ever!” My checkbook would be out before I reached the next stop light.

This morning, after chasing Bronwen around the house, forgetting to brush my teeth and realizing that there is a huge spot on the middle of my sweater but I don’t have time to change, I strapped Bronwen into her car seat, turned on the car and turned up the radio. (Sometimes it is hard to hear over Bronwen’s screaming). The first voice I heard was unfamiliar.

“This is X the manager of 91.5 FM. I bet you are wondering where the funding for Public radio comes from.” That was not at all what I was wondering about.

“You probably don’t realize this, but over 90% of all programming is paid for by you, the listener.”

Damn! Bronwen’s screaming is so much louder without the radio on.