So I know situations vary wildly based on your local NPR station, but I'm using Colorado Public Radio and others I've listened to across the country as a basis for my post. Namely, that although I think NPR's and their member stations are awesome, I do think they're not living up to their full potential.

Too many NPR shows are repeated ad nauseum. All Things Considered, Morning Edition... if you listen for more than an hour, you'll hear the same exact thing. Over, and over, and over again.

Local programming is often limited to 'magazine news' for 30 minutes to an hour. No local radio newshours, and the chances of a break-in for local breaking news are slim. Want to know what's going on in relation to a major local event? Don't bother tuning to NPR, you won't get it. I know many NPR newsrooms are more investigative reporting than "run and do it live", but I'd expect some pivoting when there is a major breaking news. I'd expect, for example, if there is a major wildfire threatening homes and businesses, that my local NPR station would be carrying live coverage, contracting with local TV stations to get information from reporters (or sending reporters at least to Incident Command Post to get the latest).

Cartalk... it's had it's run, it was fun, but reruns forever? There has to be something that can replace this.

And this is all despite many local NPR stations booming in the last several years. CPR for one has added an additional music station, with DJs, to their local listening menu in Denver (although I won't go much into the quality of the selection played, OpenAir is very much a hipster "whatever the DJ feels like playing", despite it's stated format of New/Local Music - The Beatles don't qualify for either).

Anyone else feeling like their local NPR stations and NPR national is kind of failing to live up to it's fullest potential, especially in the news realm?