Comments on: Talk of The Nation Signs Off http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2013/07/01/talk-of-the-nation-signs-off/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Eleanor Patterson http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2013/07/01/talk-of-the-nation-signs-off/comment-page-1/#comment-409507 Thu, 04 Jul 2013 20:12:23 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=20707#comment-409507 Thank Jason! I definitely agree that the men on public radio have more latitude to be both masculine and feminine in their address. And you bring up this point that younger listeners want a more informal tone from their NPR programming. I feel like TOTN is being cancelled in spite of its high listenership, which clearly shows that Neil Conan’s informal style does resonant with listeners. I feel like attempts to frame replacing Talk of the Nation with Here and Now as giving member stations and audiences “what they want” is a clear attempt to manage and elide NPR’s attempts at cutting production costs and streamlining their hard news brand.

]]> By: Jason Loviglio http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2013/07/01/talk-of-the-nation-signs-off/comment-page-1/#comment-409231 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:01:44 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=20707#comment-409231 Great piece Nora!
I always liked/wondered about Neal Conan’s strange habit of saying “Bye-bye” to callers when he was finished with them. It seemed so oddly warm and informal, almost childish. The injunction to be “hard” and “masculine” and “newsy” seems to have constrained women on public radio more than men.

Also, it’s funny to read about this move away from the call-in format as I pore over recent audience research commissioned by NPR which suggests that younger listeners crave “a more conversational tone” from public radio.

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