National Public Radio
http://www.npr.org
I've been trying to broaden my exposure to speech radio beyond Radio 4 - if anything, just to make sure my ears don't become so attuned to the sound of well-modulated British voices that Peter Donaldson could announce the end of the world without my noticing. The World Service does its bit to help out, Radio 3's late-night wordiness less so, but in the first weeks of the US presidential primaries, it's National Public Radio, America's non-commercial speech-based network, that has dominated my laptop.
The "information superhighway" (as my friend Richard used to call the internet back in the early Nineties, when I thought he was talking about his overactive brain) has only really become a superhighway with the advent of good, high-speed connections and good, free downloadable media players. The BBC's iPlayer is generally fine now that we've got two-megabyte broadband, but often you can't fast-forward or rewind when you're playing programmes through the Beeb's Listen Again function. NPR's is super-duper.
It's got that American sheen, you know? Perfect, clear, resounding. It sounds as though you're listening on an actual radio, which is the standard you need when you're considering listening to the radio on anything other than, well, an actual radio. The sound quality instils confidence in the content, which is unstintingly open, varied and humane. The novelty will probably wear off at some point, but for now it's as invigorating as making new friends.
Coverage of the US primaries is comprehensive to the point of nerdiness, exactly as you would hope. Michelle Obama's profiler is profiled, the influence of the Latino and Mormon vote on Mitt Romney's Nevada success analysed, none of which makes great sense to anyone not already familiar with the process. But once on the site, with its alluring blue links and elegant layout, all thoughts of finding out exactly what Super Tuesday is (and whether a really good one is called Super-Duper Tuesday) go out of the window.
Tuning in - or buffering, or whatever its interweb equivalent is - randomly will lead you to NPR's 24-hour "live stream", which over here is between 24 and 48 hours later than "live". Grazing on previous shows builds up a playlist of regular features - for instance, the wide-ranging All Things Considered, which this past week featured an excellent piece on J D Salinger's indelible character/ alter ego Holden Caulfield.
Elsewhere, in a recent episode of Morning Edition, Michael Pollan, author of In Defence of Food (just published on both sides of the pond), can be found speaking at length about his maxim: "Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognise as food." This includes a grim Primula cheese-like substance known as Go-GURT, which is for people who lack the time to open and spoon in a pot of yoghurt, and must therefore squeeze it straight down their gullets, presumably while running either for a bus or for president.
Another playlist addition has been Science Friday, part of the Talk of the Nation phone-in show, which gets its bounce from its eager host, Ira Flatow. He sounds like Cliff from Cheers seconded to cyberspace: "Join us in Second Life - ask questions through your avatar and get a free coffee mug!" On hearing the news that Nasa's Messenger craft had got close to Mercury, a man from Little Rock, Arkansas called in to give "kew-dose to the scientists!".
When Flatow gets so enthusiastic he threatens to burst out of the speakers, I turn to Farai Chideya, even-voiced presenter of the African-American-interest show News and Notes. Can you imagine a similar programme being commissioned for Radio 4 without there being wild charges of political correctness gone mad? (Recall, for instance, the collective flap when the broadcaster Neil Nunes, who was raised in Jamaica and whose accent reflects this fact, became a continuity announcer on the station.)
Best of all, each NPR show has a sprinkling of musical interludes, most of which Radio 4 has dispensed with (such as the chirpy theme tune to PM, which for years served as my cue to put the dinner on). It feels less dry, more varied, as a result. I think my ears have made some new friends.
Pick of the week
The Choir
27 January, 6.30pm, Radio 3
How singing smashed communism, with Aled Jones.
The BBC and the Closet
29 January, 11.30am, Radio 4
Auntie Beeb tries to say "gay" without blushing.
Bob Harris Country
31 January, 7pm, Radio 2
Whisperin' Bob gets down with the Rascal Flatts.
