NPR: Better than Russell Simmons, Worse than Star Jones

Better than Russell Simmons, Worse than Star Jones

I was sitting in the R Bar yesterday (LA's newest, finest, and only Pirate Bar. A bar that requires you use a secret password to get in. Awesome!), when my buddy Nihar came in wildly waving a copy of The Onion. "Dude," he exclaimed, "they're totally making fun of your new show!"

Needless to say, I was thrilled.

It seems we made their Tolerability Index ("A Guide to What We're Barely Putting Up with This Week"). Apparently, the idea of NPR doing a show aimed at younger people (which by NPR standards means people under 40 65) seems lame to them. Not to mention that they, like many other people, have somehow gotten the notion that the new show is going to be named "Zack," which, I swear on the grave of Ira Glass, it will not be.

Here's how that rumor got started. A long time ago, some NPR types were joking about names for the new show, and someone (possibly after a three martini lunch) JOKINGLY threw out the name "Zach" (with an "h," by the way). Well, as my mom always said, "Luke, jokes can really hurt people." Never were her words more true, because from that little joke, people just started referring to the show as "Zach." Usually the conversations would go something like this:

Other Person: "Hey Luke, how's it going with the Zach show? Also, why the hells are you calling it the 'Zach show'? That's a terrible name."

Luke: "I agree it is a terrible name, and additionally, that's not really the name."

Other Person: "Because yeah, I can't believe you're calling it that."

Luke: "Sigh."

So anyway, the show isn't going to be named Zach. And if we were going to name it after a Saved by the Bell character (which The Onion figured was our idea), it would have totally been Mr. Belding.

Oh, and on the topic of The Onion: They ranked us as being more annoying than Star Jones being on TV all the time again but less annoying than Russell Simmons' new motivational book Do You! -- which features non-ironic quotes from Donald Trump. Look, we're just happy that they're vaguely aware of our existence.

Oh, and the password to get into The R Bar? It's "yo ho ho." Seriously.

Luke Burbank

5:33 PM ET | 04- 6-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Who knows where to leave this kind of idea, but what about a show dedicated to flaming hot cheetos.

I think you know what I'm talking about, Luke.

I still like listening to that piece.

Sent by moriah | 5:51 PM ET | 04-06-2007

Maybe you can call the show "Luke's Mom."

Sent by Scott Baio | 5:54 PM ET | 04-06-2007

Spontaneous? Controversial? Sounds like exactly the reasons we come to public radio to avoid. Sensationalism?

Sent by Brian Tristam Williams | 11:36 AM ET | 04-07-2007

R Bar--really? Pirate themed?

I own the official fan site for the Pirates of the Caribbean films and would love to send one of our LA reporters there to review the place.

I did a Google and can't find a web site for them. Do you have a URL, or would they prefer to stay more below the radarrrrrr? (sorry)

Please feel free to mail me info off the blog if you want.

Thanks!

Sent by Doctor Bacchus | 12:33 PM ET | 04-07-2007

To Brian Tristam William who questioned "controversial" above. We do not plan to be controversial, I think you may have misread "conversational" in the FAQ. This will be a daily news and information service -- spontaneous? Yes. Conversational? Yes. Sensational? No. We're going more for "spectacular." Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you'll stay tuned.

Sent by Matt Martinez | 3:02 PM ET | 04-07-2007

Hmm. I misread the FAQ description as "controversial", too. Glad to hear that it's *conversational*, though I nopte that the FAQ itself is no longer available (perhaps it is being re-written?).

I think that this (the show as I understand it) is the sort of thing that radio can do really well - tone-poem sound portraits that provide a dimension to the "news" that the news is usually too busy to explore. ATC used to have more of this I think, before the rise of the juggernaut of "responsible journalism".

I loved Luke during his brief stint as Peter Sagal's stand-in on WWDTM.

But, Bryant Park sounds like the name of Robert Altman film (may he RIP).

Sent by John Watson | 8:57 PM ET | 04-07-2007

I think you should name the show Zach. Why aren't all comments posted? Does it just say that so that is seems like more than 5 people have written in?

Sent by Betsy | 10:08 PM ET | 04-07-2007

it's not entirely clear what demographic you are trying to reach with this show. . .and i am by no means the mouthpiece for 20 somethings. . .but being 20 something i have to say there is something a little insulting about the implication that we can't digest the current npr content.

what's the motivation for recruiting a younger demographic anyway? most 20 somethings are npr freeloaders anyway (speaking from experience, it took 6 years before i contributed). . .and i wouldn't have contributed any faster because some hipster was bustin' quick quips. i was just broke.

npr (most of the time) caters to my intellectual side. . .and provides me with me the necessary information to contribute to all those 20 something conversations at hipster bars where we are trying to justify our fiscal puberty. the stage in american middle class life were we move from fiscally liberal to fiscally conservative because we finally have our own money. the best part about this phase of life is we are still socially conscious enough to contribute to npr. . ."because it's the right thing to do."

please don't dumb down your content. npr is something one grows into. . .until then we have mtv. . .and that's okay.

Sent by jamesbryangraves | 2:20 AM ET | 04-08-2007

The show is a great idea. No, it may not be for everybody, but I am sure all contributors to npr do not fit in the same stuffed shirt. There are some of us who can relax enough to enjoy a little humor from generation X. And then there are some who are just too pretentious to "get it".

Sent by fieldmouse | 1:22 PM ET | 04-08-2007

I really am trying to get my head around where this 'fits'. I mean, yes, NPR understands the zeitgeist moderately better than, say, Stephen Baldwin. I get where younger staff members would want to actually make something a little bit more attuned to the ears of our generation.

Thing is, the BPP sounds like an attempt to jump over the top of News and Information into the land of Day by Day, which is too wacky and earnest by half. How do you do 'conversational' without giving away the cards on your personal feelings on those issues? I love NPR's news because it seems to genuinely try to be fair and balanced...while still allowing that the 'alternate' view (say, 'the world is flat') might actually be not worth exploring.

There's also a point where the show will need to not be clever and full of bon mots...and instead report the news.

If it's a news and information program, start with the news, and start with what you choose to report. We don't need another review of the Arctic Monkeys; what we might be interested more in is in-depth reporting and investigation on that which affects us, from the point of view of the folks who are being given the reins to the world in the next twenty years. That's you, and that's me.

Report the news for us. And everything interesting and clever will exude through the people who work on it. Because we're like that.

Sent by Drew Johnson | 1:47 PM ET | 04-09-2007

Interesting concept. I agree (at least in part) with "jamesbryangraves" to question the motivation, or at least the means to the desired end(s). Full discloser: as an employee of a joint licensee NPR-PBS affiliate, and a GenXer, I would LOVE to draw in a younger audience to become devoted NPR fans. Better informed, and hopefully engaged citizens would be wonderful. And hey, if they can have the means to be members, even better! But please don't "dumb-down" NPR.

re. the Zach/Zack debate, that is truly funny, and I was so happy to read it in a blog, rather than hear about it on the "news."

One more question - why call it Bryant Park when it seems to be more LA focused? I was hoping for more NYC, as the name implied... but perhaps that's to come.

Sent by katehof | 1:54 PM ET | 04-10-2007

I would like to settle--once and forever (hopefully, though I doubt it)--the true story of how the name "Zach" came to be. When NPR programmers first started to brainstorm new news programming created by and for younger listeners, we realized that we needed a temporary nickname. As you can imagine, repeatedly referring to it as "that new news programming created by and for younger listeners" obviously doesn't roll off the tongue well. At the time (a little more than two years ago), commercial radio was hot into giving new radio stations people names, like "Jack," "Alice," and "Bob." So we asked ourselves "If public radio had a child/kid brother, what would its name be?" Answer: Zach. It was never meant to be a title or "real" name for the show--just something easier to say. So, THAT is the true story of its origins. Plain and simple.

Sent by Eric Nuzum | 5:16 PM ET | 04-10-2007

BTW -- Eric Nuzum is actually one of those "NPR programmers" he writes about -- he works in NPR's Programming Division making radio magic. He puts his pants on just like the rest of us -- one leg at a time. Except, once his pants are on, he makes radio gold!

Sent by Matt Martinez | 5:53 PM ET | 04-10-2007

Ira Glass is dead? Then who's that on This American Life? An imposter? His twin? An aline hybrid? Someone call the marines!

Sent by Scott K. | 12:53 AM ET | 04-19-2007

Luke, you're such a name dropper. O-K, we get it, you know me.

Sent by Nihar Patel | 9:47 PM ET | 04-23-2007

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