I am not sure when I first started listening to All Things Considered. It may have been in 1974 and 1975 during my misguided first year of graduate school at Michigan State University. I discovered that NPR was more than just classical music while studying in my disgusting hovel of a room in a house on Gunston St. I was impressed with the coverage of news and the presentation of feature stories on All Things Considered. I also really enjoyed another show, the name of which I cannot recall, which was very well done audio presentations of popular fiction. I remember listening to James Michener’s Centennial with great interest. My listening to NPR was haphazard at best back then.
I listened more regularly when I returned to Detroit and worked at Ford Motor Company and attended graduate school at the University of Michigan and then Wayne State University. I used to listen to Morning Edition from its inception on my morning commutes and All Things Considered on the way home or to school. No matter whatever else I tried to listen to during my commute from other radio stations to music, I would always gravitate back to these two NPR broadcasts. These two related news shows became part of my routine. I listened to Morning Edition much more and for the sole reason that the time of my morning commute was more predictable and most definitely in the time slot when that show was airing.
In 1990, I moved to Connecticut and worked in Manhattan. My commuting shifted from car to train. My news source shifted from these two shows to The New York Times. I tried using a radio on the hour train ride, but the reception was not good. I would listen to Morning Edition on my 10 minute drive to the train station or when driving to New Jersey for occasional meetings. I rarely had the opportunity to listen to All Things Considered. On top of this, I was travelling internationally about 30-45% of the time. This period lasted until 2007. It was truly an era of Morning Edition and All Things Considered drought for me.
The drought ended when I moved to Chicago and worked for Sanford Brands. I started listening to both shows again and it was like I hadn’t missed a beat. Bob Edwards and Cokie Roberts, who sadly passed earlier this year, were like old friends that I was glad to be reacquainted with. As was the case previously, I listened to Morning Edition more than All Things Considered, again, simply because the hour of my morning commute was more predictable.
When the Great Recession hit and I joined the ranks of disenfranchised, my tuning in to those shows waned again until consulting and then teaching picked up and I was more out and about. On my homebound days, I never listened as I simply did not have a radio other than the ancient alarm clock/radio in the bedroom. When I joined North Park in 2014 and had much more and well defined commute times, I have been listening with greater frequency ever since.
These days, I listen to many of the news shows on NPR such as Market Place and Fresh Air to name two. I have the modern-day equivalent to a radio, my smart phone, on which I have the WBEZ App and can tune in anytime to hear what’s being aired live and listen to broadcasts I might have missed. But, I am old school and only listen to what is aired live. For previous broadcasts, I go to NPR.org and listen there or read the transcripts of various stories.
I greatly appreciate these two news shows, especially, Morning Edition. Some folks criticize the broadcasts for having a liberal bias. I don’t see it and, in fact, am impressed with their neutral perspective in presenting the news. I feel like they present the facts, cover both sides of the stories very well, and most importantly, they make my think.
Thank you and happy birthday Morning Edition. I have been a fan from the very beginning.
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