NPR Quest

Behold the Behemoth of Non-Commercial Radio. If profit-driven activist political news is your personal hero, then this must be the secret volcano liar of your most dreaded arch villain: journalism.

In the spirit of the topic at hand, I'd like to make some personal biases clear before launching into the actual post. I happen to believe that journalism should be done without a political bias - not that I expect anyone, journalist or otherwise, to be politically neutral, but that I expect professional journalists to do their job without letting their personal bias interfere. A fireman can't refuse to answer a call because it's for a Republican's house, etc. It's a simple DY*J ethos - Have whatever opinion you want, but Do Your (explicative) Job. And on this account, NPR not only does it, they do it better than most other major news outlets - in any format. That their primary media remains radio - a format already close to my heart, but long since culturally flashy - only adds to the majesty of their accomplishment. Add benefits like dynamic coverage, fluid audience interaction, and a little thing called accountability, and yes, I'm an NPR fan, if not quite a devotee (what can I say, I like dabbling in other news sources "on the side").

With this as background, you can perhaps guess at how exciting the prospect was for me of seeing the inner workings - the guts - of NPR in their Washington, DC headquarters. For most tourists it's not an A-list DC attraction, but for me it ranked well ahead of the audacious and self-congratulatory "Newseum," and here's why - because it's not a celebration of a culture, a history, or an ideal. It is those things - In Action.

Before the public tour (which is FREE and runs every Tuesday and Thursday at 11 am) our small group of about a dozen waited in the modern-chic lobby. On display were the dozens of awards (Peabody, Webby, etc) that have accumulated over the years, listings of the organization's trustees and major donors, and a national map, showing in little white LEDs every NPR-affiliate radio station in the US. On the wall, a digital projector displayed a slide show of various NPR journalists, producers and associated personnel, usually in the course of their regular work, in the studio or in the field. Their lack of polish - both metaphorically and literally in terms of the shine of their shoes and the color of their nails - was noticeable, but so also was their... humanity? The whole lobby captures a few key points which, admittedly, NPR makes forcefully whenever it can, but which I've never seen any evidence to be false. These are regular people - smart, curious people - who are trying very hard, and with considerable success, to do something they believe in fervently: to produce high-quality journalism and deliver it to an appreciate audience from coast to coast.

The tour itself swung from surreal to sublime. Banks of digital routing equipment blinked sporadically in one room as NPR collected live audio content from all its international, domestic, and remote bureaus and prepped it all for satellite distribution. We were led down a perfectly mundane hallway into the Engineer's office - a smörgåsborg of busted, refurbished, and still-in-the-box high-tech gizmos and the electrical wizards that keep it all functioning in the most adverse environment on earth - a reporter's possession. On the way out, we met Ari Shapiro. He was bringing in a pair of headphones that had "somehow" broken in two.

Our guide, Alan Stone, a 30 year NPR veteran, took us through labyrinthine cubicles and stair wells. In the NPR Music offices we saw dozens of postal boxes stacked high with new CDs to be reviewed, exactly like my days in college radio. A staff of 6 was busy blogging about the Tiny Desk concert they just recorded, while a few others were planning out story ideas before Seu Jorge came in for his afternoon session. We visited Studio 4A, the largest recording studio on the premises which doubles as their big event studio (for example, they crammed everyone and their laptops into this room for Election night coverage). The place was an acoustic dream. Piano donated by Steinway. Drums donated by Yamaha. Fender Guitars. And the Mics! Alan told us that Dave Matthews had been in the studio just the day before, and things were still setup from the acoustic set he did. A few of the 20-something girls on the tour got giddy. I got a closer look at the Neumann U-48 mic Dave played into. Getting to hear the mixdown of Dave's performance as the audio engineer was working on it wasn't a bad moment either.

One interesting aspect of NPR is just how much of a network/ team effort it is. A huge number of "NPR" Shows are produced by affiliate stations, such as WAMU in DC (Diane Rhem show), WNYC (RadioLab), and WHYY Philadelphia (Fresh Air). Still other shows are created by production companies, like PRI. The only shows produced at NPR HQ are Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In other words, they do all the 'flagship' daily programs, but otherwise spend most of their time coordinating and supporting other's content creation and distribution. Imagine if Fox let your local news team cut in with their own stories throughout the day, or if it occasionally ran a package by CNN. Not an exact comparison, but I find it fascinating how little direct control NPR headquarters has over the content it distributes. Whatever means the opposite of draconian, nit-picking, or manipulative, that is the proper word to describe NPR's content management principles.

And the archive. Alan took us to the NPR audio library, which documents in audio (mostly CD) format every program ever produced by NPR, as well as public speeches by important public figures, pop culture audio clips ("Do or Do Not, There is No Try"), etc. The vault of tape reels dating back to the 1970s is especially impressive, and ludicrous. At this point, each reel has to be kept refrigerated. In order to be played or recorded, it must first be cooked in an over at 125 degrees for 8 hours. Once that is done, it's good for 48 hours, then it may or may not self-destruct.

We finished with a walk through the Morning Edition offices - well-worn whiteboards and news TV playing everywhere. By the time we came through - 11:45 - they were almost done for the day. Morning Edition staff report for duty at 3 am, and liaise with the co-host at NPR West in California. They finish the program before 8 am, but have to stay around in case any new items break and they have to re-produce part of the show in real time. The level of stress management and crisis response this requires is palpable, even on a quiet day like the one we witnessed.

A last stop was one of Morning Edition's recording studios. After giving us a rundown of his equipment and duties, the audio engineer on duty got into an argument with Alan about fade-out preferences. Do you go for a swell (of music at the end), or keep the music bed low so the local stations can easily tag it with their call letters and broadcast time?

Every detail at NPR is handled with exquisite, even ridiculous care. The offices, cubicles and recording studios are abuzz with business-casual professionals going about their daily routine with a constant sense of both mission and humor, lest they lose perspective. This isn't the Department of Homeland Security. This is reflected in countless artifacts and inside jokes displayed in ad hoc fashion along the walls. A souvenir from living with nomads in Afghanistan rests next to a hand-written admonishment a la Google's famous "don't be evil" ethos.

It's a big place. NPR staff has grown since they first moved into this headquarters, and now spills over into two adjoining buildings. One person on our tour was an NPR employee who specialized in IT programming for the satellite systems. He was on the tour because he didn't know very much about how the radio shows were made. On some sense, it's a corporate entity, even if not a corporation. Bureaucracy is still an issue, departments can become isolated, and - did I mention there were cubicles?

But it's also a wonderous, magical place. A fusion of office space, radio station, newsroom and dorm lounge. A place where intelligent, open-minded individuals can work together to present information and stories that bind their audience together through the events and experiences of not only our world, but our shared humanity.

My trip to NPR was just that - a trip, a tour, a vacation. But I left with not only a sense of wonder at what I had witnessed, but a real affirmation about the organization I've come to admire. Seeing NPR up close and personal gave me faith in the organization and its people, and a renewed trust in the quality of its journalism.

If my upcoming tour of congress could instill the same confidence in that organization, now that would be newsworthy.

Weber

::(lame) Texpatriot

(special note: NPR is currently breaking ground on a new Headquarters building in DC to be located at North Capitol and N street, just a mile north of Congress. It will be large enough to house their entire DC staff, and is slated for completion in 2013. I suggest you hurry up and tour the current HQ before then, so you have a good excuse to come back and tour the new one when it opens).