I miss my morning NPR routine. Back in DC, WAMU always had something on I wanted to listen to, from Morning Edition for a full four hours — until 10am — to Diane Rehm and All Things Considered, again, repeated on a loop for hours.
When I moved here, I stopped listening to NPR, because I couldn’t receive the “local” station, KQED, where I was.
Now that I’ve moved north, I can receive KQED just fine… but I’m finding that their schedule just doesn’t mesh with mine. They run Morning Edition for a whopping five hours every morning — but they start it at 3am. Then, the schedule is heavy with the sleep-inducing Forum and boredom in audio form, The California Report.
The announcers on KQED seem like they were pulled off the street, stumbling over their scripts constantly. It gives this major public broadcaster the sound of an amateur college station.
And this will surprise a lot of people: I’m finding Morning Edition to be too heavy these days. At least half of the show is dedicated to the war and equally heavy subjects of doom and gloom. Good morning! It has done away with the last vestiges of Bob Edwards’ chipper but serious delivery.
I got an XM radio for Christmas, and I’ve tried to find Bob Edwards at his new home, but XM seems to be scheduling for the east coast — his show ends at 8am Pacific, although it repeats at 5pm.
Maybe I’m just sleeping in too late.
