Dining at the White Rice Restaurant

The media environment seems to be going in two directions at the same time--increasing in the complexity and variety of choices, with new types of media and a Malthusian proliferation of channels, and at the same time homogenizing, with endless program loops, smaller and smaller programming niches, and a fanatical pursuit of some "sweet spot" where maximum celebrity and top revenue collide. It's as if fifty new restaurants all came to town, but one only served white rice, and another only served jello, and another had nothing but Belgian endive.

A format as eclectic as NCPR's is uncommon even in public radio, but I wouldn't have it any other way, and I suspect you wouldn't either. There has to be room for kitchen-sink stew, for potluck radio, and online smorgasbord. I'll have one, please--one of everything.