SUPPORT PUBLIC RADIO — by Steve Nadis
Maybe it shouldn’t bother me. But as a person of modest means who makes an annual contribution to my local NPR station, it bothered me to learn that some NPR reporters earn more than $300,000 a year (and I’m not talking about some of the biggest name windbags/fatheads; who knows what they make?) Those salaries are not astronomical compared to the TV network news anchors, I suppose, but when they tell us: “Your contributions help bring us NPR, and coverage like that does not come cheap,” I had no idea until now (upon reading Alex Beam’s column in yesterday’s Boston Globe) exactly what they meant by “not cheap.” I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t call $300,000 a year “cheap,” and I have to assume that quite a few NPR reporters/commentators make that and more. I don’t want these people to starve. Many of them do an excellent job and some, like those covering the war in Iraq, put themselves in harm’s way. Still, to me, the revelations about those cushy salaries took some of the luster off so-called “public radio.”
Posted by
at
05:17:05
The salary seems steep to me… but then again,
EVERYTHING looks steep to me.
But, if the reporters serve the public unbiased, unfiltered news -not repeating what “media controllers” dictate- then I say your contribution is well spent.
well put, FW, but it still looks steep.
WOW! $300,000 just for being able to read. I could do that. And I have a pleasant voice. Where do I send my resume?
I’m sure they’ll be getting a lot of resumes, OR, now that the word is out. Though I won’t be applying — my voice is lousy.
I have a good voice(or so they say). I’ve been a DJ for a few years. Even worked for NH Public Radio out of Concord.
NEVER heard anyone getting that level of $$! Atleast not locally. Sounds like they must be nat’l or int’l correspondents.
Maybe I should apply- sounds like an adventure! As far as the $300K… well, it IS more expensive to live in NYC… I don’t expect Paris is too cheap, either.
As far as “COMMUNITY radio”, our station in Portsmouth is all volunteer. Salaries= 0.00, nada, zilch, dub’yah (whoops). See my link.
It sounds like you have quite a dedicated crew. And no one can accuse you of charging exorbitant fees.
My best friend from highschool is working for NPR in St. Paul, and he definatately isn’t making that, but he’s not a headliner either. Working on it though. I’m sure the Walter Cronkites of the industry pull down some dough, but the rest of the schmucks are lackies like you or me.
And just as an FYI, the only reporters that put themselves in the “harms way” all the times I’ve been overseas… were the French who didn’t speak a lick of English. Them and one really really lost guy from the New York Post who wrote a great article about my company.
Thanks GS for the firsthand perspective.