There are some countercurrents. Ten major stations have enjoyed a spike in audience, thanks to a sharp rise in listening at home. Those include Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Austin, Texas. Public radio officials say they do not yet know to what to attribute that rise.

NPR is the #1 producer of podcasts.

Detroit was one of the markets where listenership was up for NPR along with Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Austin.  

I think NPR is better than most at looking for reasons voices rather than the loudest voices. And trying to keep discussions real. BUT it drives me nuts when the pols (on both sides) get on there and just spew talking points without taking a breathe. It’s almost counterproductive to informing the public and why I…

The NPR reporter got a lot of things wrong in his NPR ratings story. Maybe not so much wrong as creating some likely misconceptions and over generalizations, and comparing things that shouldn’t be compared as equivalents.

Arbitron measured radio using Personal People Meters. Nielsen purchase Arbitron. The service is now called Nielsen Audio and measures broadcast and digital audio. PPMs are used in the 48 largest radio markets continuously. Smaller markets are measured a couple times a year with weekly diaries kept by consumers.

NPR is making more revenue off podcasts than broadcast but the live broadcast audience is still substantially larger. The weekly broadcast audience for NPR is probably = a month’s worth of podcast listeners. And NPR is the #1 producer of podcasts (listeners and downloads). Though iHeart is sneaking up on them fast. …

I still have the radios but I listen to the local NPR station on my Alexas (Alexi?) and on the phone app.

Yep, NPR.org is up 76%.

Sure the Civic and Accord got them started in the U.S. But now the Civic is the Accord. And the Accord is huge.

Needs more Forest Service patina.

But would muss my hair and wrinkle my Patagonia ensemble.

If this is their first product, it does not bode well.

Except that I love the look of the A3. The Mazda3 hatch, not so much.

Wish there was a high roof option so that there was more cargo roof for antiquing.

If these were Postal Jeeps, they’d almost be David Tracy ready.

It’s definitely a distinctive feature and I do think it put the SUV on the map in an important way among folks who might not otherwise pick it out from a crowd. That was true when BMW did halos way back when. It was a tipping point.

Dang, always thought Sonic was imported from Korea. Sort of proud that we were building an actual small car in the US of A.

I wonder when the police get the new Explorer...

Orange headlight halos, I think.