[Speed Gibson,
Sunday March 5, 2006 at 1:31pm]
Reviewing: MPR Morning Edition
For the record, I am specifically reviewing what I recorded from KNOW-FM 91.1, the news flagship station of the Minnesota Public Radio empire.
The KNOW program schedule lists "Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer" as running from 4 to 9 weekday mornings. Actually, there are two distinct programs here. From 4-6, this is basically the National Public Radio feed (80%). Cathy Wurzer logs less than 5 minutes per hour, with a smattering of local news headlines, weather, and promotional announcements. Therefore, I'll focus on the second portion, from 6 to 9 AM.
This happened to be a pledge week, so maybe this isn't the best comparison against the other morning shows. However, such pledge drives are an all-too-frequent fact of "public" radio life. I therefore went ahead, obtaining this breakdown of the 6-9 portion of the show:
Bland doesn't mean bad. Given the choice between a pungent, hard-left, sneering Air America and a bland, center-left, pedantic Public Radio, I'll take the latter. The news segments were generally accurate and informative, and had the luxury of time to develop some points. But bland doesn't mean great, either. The measured delivery of well written, perfectly enunciated copy comes across as a bit pretentious.
The MPR studios are reportedly have the latest and greatest in technology. As James Lileks might put it, a alien spacecraft would stop there for spare parts. Despite all this great equipment, the final product is a bit sloppy. Cathy Wurzer, who I think does a good job on TV's Almanac, really isn't nearly that good on radio. She's very smart, well-read, and cultured, at least within her liberal world. But doesn't mean you automatically have radio skills. She simply cannot fill time leading to a hard break, often resulting in babbling, broken speech, and even dead air pauses. Compare this with WCCO-AM, where however annoying the pace, they make dozens of flawless transitions an hour.
On the plus side, there are no traffic reports, other than one or two mentions of a major accident. Some may like that sports gets little attention; the one percent I show was almost totally about the Olympics. Averaging in the pledge drive segments over the year, the time spent in commercial breaks is still well below the competition.
MPR's Morning Edition is no Faberge Egg as some would have you believe. It sounds smooth and silky but that inherently limits the topic choices, and includes no dissent whatsoever. Let me put it this way. Spend 20-30 minutes reading your morning newspaper, then listen to an hour of the many morning programs I'm reviewing. MPR's Morning Edition is the one that adds the least additional information.
The KNOW program schedule lists "Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer" as running from 4 to 9 weekday mornings. Actually, there are two distinct programs here. From 4-6, this is basically the National Public Radio feed (80%). Cathy Wurzer logs less than 5 minutes per hour, with a smattering of local news headlines, weather, and promotional announcements. Therefore, I'll focus on the second portion, from 6 to 9 AM.
This happened to be a pledge week, so maybe this isn't the best comparison against the other morning shows. However, such pledge drives are an all-too-frequent fact of "public" radio life. I therefore went ahead, obtaining this breakdown of the 6-9 portion of the show:
Other than the pledge drive, almost a welcome distraction, I can sum up the rest of the content in one word: bland. The news copy is bland, the vocal styles are bland, even the music snippets are bland.
National (NPR) news 41%
Pledge drive 33%
Local (MPR) news 15%
Commercials 5%
Weather 3%
Promos, banter 2%
Sports 1%
Bland doesn't mean bad. Given the choice between a pungent, hard-left, sneering Air America and a bland, center-left, pedantic Public Radio, I'll take the latter. The news segments were generally accurate and informative, and had the luxury of time to develop some points. But bland doesn't mean great, either. The measured delivery of well written, perfectly enunciated copy comes across as a bit pretentious.
The MPR studios are reportedly have the latest and greatest in technology. As James Lileks might put it, a alien spacecraft would stop there for spare parts. Despite all this great equipment, the final product is a bit sloppy. Cathy Wurzer, who I think does a good job on TV's Almanac, really isn't nearly that good on radio. She's very smart, well-read, and cultured, at least within her liberal world. But doesn't mean you automatically have radio skills. She simply cannot fill time leading to a hard break, often resulting in babbling, broken speech, and even dead air pauses. Compare this with WCCO-AM, where however annoying the pace, they make dozens of flawless transitions an hour.
On the plus side, there are no traffic reports, other than one or two mentions of a major accident. Some may like that sports gets little attention; the one percent I show was almost totally about the Olympics. Averaging in the pledge drive segments over the year, the time spent in commercial breaks is still well below the competition.
MPR's Morning Edition is no Faberge Egg as some would have you believe. It sounds smooth and silky but that inherently limits the topic choices, and includes no dissent whatsoever. Let me put it this way. Spend 20-30 minutes reading your morning newspaper, then listen to an hour of the many morning programs I'm reviewing. MPR's Morning Edition is the one that adds the least additional information.