Discovering NPR

Recently at a client meeting, the client mentioned an interesting idea he heard about. Using Captcha to digitize books. That was an amazing idea. And on checking he told me he heard it on NPR. A few days later, another friend mentioned NPR. I was curious. What exactly was NPR ?

I tuned in, and was hooked. One of the issues I had about most of the US radios and television channels was that they were partisan. They has a definite ideology and were either right or left, democrats or republican, capitalist or socialist. That meant you never got the news, just biased opinions.

NPR which is National Public Radio, is completely unbiased. They have opinions, but they are not guided by ideologies, but based on the events. It was refreshing to hear unbiased news and interviews.

I was sold. I now almost always listen to NPR and am contentiously surprised and impressed by the quality of the programming. Its not only the News, but also the other programs. Interviews, Opinions, Discussions.

NPR is a self funding non-profit. It is funded by contributions from listeners. It seems that not only can non profits compete with commercial companies, they can out-beat them.