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Apr 5, 2004

Jay Kernis, NPR's senior v.p. of programming, answered questions about Bob Edwards from listeners today in an online chat. "The news demands of the broadcast require more than one host to keep the program timely every morning," he said. Kernis has also written an FAQ: "Twenty-five years ago, Morning Edition was created with a single, in-studio host. That model is no longer sufficient to bring the weight of credible, in-depth reporting that we are demanding of ourselves."
Monkey, a devoted public radio supporter, recently went on a tour of NPR's headquarters (and sent this Current editor a postcard while in town).
A few months after listener complaints provoked "Car Talk" to switch its streaming audio to Windows Media Player, the program has returned its stream to Real Player. According to hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi, Real has promised to eliminate pop-up ads, make its free player easier to access, and otherwise address the issues that fueled listeners' web rage.
In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, NPR President Kevin Klose talks publicly about the reassignment of Bob Edwards—though he says little that other NPR execs haven't already said: "Edwards' strengths are actually anchoring from the studio. What we're looking for is more diversity in our studio hosting and a kind of knowledge of what is happening in places that may be very far away from the studio."
Michael Skoler, managing editor of news at Minnesota Public Radio, talks with Leonard Witt about the network's efforts to involve the public in its reporting.