Have you ever heard an NPR feed that has little or no local stuff added to it? It is awesome! There are little nuggets of nice little interesting or heart-warming mini-stories, and also an eclectic mix of gorgeous instrumental music: some classical, some, blues, jazz, funky, or whatever.
These musical interludes are perfectly programmed interstitials between the stories, and most people never get to hear it, because most or all of this extra stuff is tossed out by your local station so they can add local content.
I’m proud of my local public broadcasting station, OPB — but I wish they would dial back on the local programming. Yes it is good to know what’s going on locally, but I don’t need to hear the same local story 6 or 7 times just because they have airtime to fill. Frankly, instead of that local story, I’d rather hear a moving few moments of classical cello or a moody guitar riff to walk my brain back from the horrible national or world news I just listened to.
I’ve been on the hunt for the last few years for an NPR station that (a) I can stream on my phone and (b) has as little local stuff as possible. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.