NPR and WBEZ after Car Talk: With Car Talk ending, public radio ponders the future - Chicago Tribune

Faced with a golden opportunity to reinvent, or at least refresh, public radio seems content to stick with proven fare

For a confederation of supposed liberals, public radio can be awfully conservative.

Ask someone to name a public radio show, any public radio show, and the chances are the answer will have been around during the Reagan administration: "A Prairie Home Companion," "All Things Considered," "Car Talk," "Fresh Air" ...

Even "This American Life" and "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!," the Chicago representatives and the perceived newbies in the public radio pantheon of hit and signature shows, were started 17 and 14 years ago, respectively.

"Isn't that terrifying," said Peter Sagal, host of "Wait Wait." "That's nuts. Fourteen years it's been since a show has launched and become a national success?"

This comes to mind not because it's pledge time again — although it surely is, somewhere — nor because, heaven forbid, a new show is threatening to enter that elite group of unquestionable superstars and needs to be written about right now


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