Making Public Radio a Little More Private

Public radio has had better months. In February the House of Representatives voted to slash the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides money to NPR and local stations. On Mar. 17 the House passed legislation that would ban stations from using public funds to pay for NPR content such as . The Democratic Senate has yet to approve either bill and likely won't, but the world of public radio is growing anxious about a possible future with less or even no federal funding.

Some media executives in Pasadena, Calif., think they may be able to save public radio by making it less public. They're using business tactics rarely employed in the tame world of local public radio to create a megastation they hope will one day beam its signal from Santa Barbara to San Diego. By building a mini-empire of local stations, they say they'll be able to better distribute the fixed costs of radio broadcasting and draw on a much larger audience for the donations and corporate sponsorships that could keep them afloat if government funding dries up.