Whooooooray....Talk of the Nation is going off the air

[a kennedy]

"Talk of the Nation" host Neal Conan, who has been at NPR for 35 years, will also “step away from the rigors of daily journalism,” according to a statement from the network. This is the best news ever!!!

NPR is ending "Talk of the Nation" after twenty-one years on the air.

The New York Times reported that NPR is replacing the show with "Here and Now," a news show produced by Boston University's WBUR, on July 1. "Talk of the Nation" will go off the air at the end of June. "Talk of the Nation" host Neal Conan, who has been at NPR for 35 years, will also “step away from the rigors of daily journalism,” according to a statement from the network.

NPR will partner with WBUR to expand "Here and Now," currently a one-hour program, into a two-hour show. Jeremy Hobson, who currently anchors "Marketplace Morning Report," will also co-host with Robin Young, the current host of the program.

The change, The New York Times reported, is a move towards less opinion and more news. The development of "Here and Now" also marks a unique partnership for NPR.

"A central part of our plan is to tap into a lot of the public radio stations across the country that are doing wonderful journalism that never gets heard outside of their markets," Charlie Kravetz, WBUR's general manager, told the Times.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/npr-talk-nation-ending_n_2979124.html?utm_hp_ref=media

edit for spelling....

[riqster]

1. Thank the gods. nt

[alp227]

2. What was so bad about the show? N/t

[trueblue2007]

4. i have no idea why this show is so awful. I HAVE NEVER WATCHED IT

[liberalhistorian]

8. Um..it'd be just a little hard

to watch it, considering that it's a radio show.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. That's the problem, then! Nobody watched it!

[Skidmore]

3. Why are we celebrating this news?

I have never had a problem with this program and listen to it frequently. I do love the programming from WBUR also and our local NPR station carries several of that stations offerings already.

[Niceguy1]

25. I love this show

also. There is nothing to celebrate about this announcement.

[Ron Obvious]

5. Sad too.

I haven't listened to it for over a decade and don't like what it became, but I used to love that show when Ray Suarez hosted it. Book Club of the Air, Science Friday, full-hour shows on a single topic, it was great to have on while working.

[Skidmore]

9. I really missed Ray Suarez too. There's no one who could conduct an interview

like him or a panel. I think Chris Hayes is the closest to him in skills.

[Ron Obvious]

10. Exactly.

You could always tell he had actually read the book before interviewing its author, unlike his successor.

[alp227]

15. Suarez now anchors the PBS NewsHour and reports for Need to Know.

Good interviewing & reporting in both programs.

[SoCalDem]

13. Right-leaning "messages" and messengers have been infiltrating

for a long time, and their goal has always been to upset the norm..to irritate and eventually to undermine whatever organization/show/publication they target.

Eventually the left-leaning people fall away, devotees find other interests and the thing dies a lingering death.

They have infiltrated PBS, The Sierra Club , "mainstream" media, online chats/blogs and will never stop doing it.

[OldDem2012]

28. Since 1948 with Operation Mockingbird....

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmockingbird.htm

[TreasonousBastard]

29. Science Friday is still around on its own.

[joeybee12]

6. Never cared for it...Neal Conan was to the right on issues...

While trying to sound impartial.

[a kennedy]

16. ding, ding, ding, Neal Conan IS the problem

He's quite condescending to his guests, and that "nose" in the air comes across quite well over the airwaves. Ugh.... I too enjoy my local public radio station and give financially yearly.

[Ron Obvious]

12. I remember that show...

Although I think it was actually about cosmetics.

That caller, who had lied to the screener over what he was calling about, got a huge amount of support on the TOTN forum on their website, I recall. Maybe that's why they stopped running the forum shortly afterwards.

Our local station dropped the show during the Iraq invasion and replaced him with Warren Olney. I don't think anybody complained.

[alp227]

14. That was way back on 4/22/02. Link to summary+audio

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1141982

I cannot find that caller who allegedly ripped on Conan. Either NPR scrubbed it permanently or I was lazily skipping thru the audio.

[Ron Obvious]

17. Conan gave him a fair bit of time...

Before telling him to buzz off. That's actually quite startling if NPR clipped him out of the audio archive. I wouldn't have thought it of them.

I'm going to have to give it a listen and see if I can find it.

[Ron Obvious]

22. Just listened to it...

Simon from Chicago rocks for articulating in a calm and thoughtful manner what so many of us were thinking at the time. NPR seems to have been trying to attract a different audience in the last decade and it's annoying to us longtime listeners.

"Dumbing down", indeed.

Thanks Simon, if you're out there somewhere!

[MrMickeysMom]

20. I remember TOTN when David Brancaccio hosted it... them were the days...

But I have to say, Here and Now doesn't set a huge standard, though the host's voice reminds me of Terri Gross.

In fact, NPR just isn't listenable much anymore during drive time, IMO.

[MrMickeysMom]

21. On second thought... am I remembering that correctly?

... cause he also hosted "Market Place", which ain't what it used to be, either!

[Ron Obvious]

23. It was Marketplace..

Which I still catch most evenings over dinner and which for some reason annoys me far less than it did during the stockmarket boom times of the nineties. Back then everybody was talking marketing speak, advising us to define ourselves as a "brand" that had to be marketed all our lives, and giving hourly stockmarket updates.

I hated it

[patrice]

26. It never recovered from losing Ray Suarez. nt

[Strelnikov_]

30. Agree n/t

[Warpy]

27. Thank you, WBUR, for stepping into the breach!

I really hated that show. In fact, that creeping opinion problem, mostly right wing opinion, is why I dumped the NPR stations off my clock radio in favor of the local classical station. I can stand soft spoken ads for brokerages and Audis far better than a bunch of Gish Galloping Republicans.