Sound and the Story CL

Looker, who created and produced National Public Radio's Peabody Award-winning New England Almanac series, spent six months in 1993 at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he interviewed staff, attended editorial meetings and observed the production of NPR's most popular shows. After the decline of commercial radio in the 1950s and '60s, NPR was founded in 1971 by a staff who believed in the power of radio to engage the imagination and curiosity of listeners by presenting creative programming. Looker details here, in lively and engrossing prose, the dedication and hard work that have gone into producing such shows as Morning Edition and All Things Considered on a shoestring budget. His interviews with NPR staff including Linda Wertheimer, Susan Stamberg and Art Silverman illuminate the current debate at NPR over whether the station should exist primarily as a news source or should produce programming that is unavailable on TV or in newspapers. An engaging backstage tour. (Mar.)