From 'ramshackle' beginnings to true community journalism: CU professor traces NPR's roots in new book

In The NOCO

Have you ever wondered how NPR came to be? It certainly didn’t happen overnight. The history of National Public Radio is long and convoluted, starting in the early twentieth century with university-housed stations scattered across rural areas. These stations broadcast things like cooking lessons, and how to use indoor plumbing. But with the Communications Act of 1934 came the first congressional control over what was heard over the airwaves. With this, commercial media outlets enjoyed greater lobbying power than noncommercial broadcasters. This meant public media needed to evolve to meet the demands of a growing listening audience.

This complex history is chronicled in a new book, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, by University of Colorado media history professor Josh Shepperd.

“Public media is the last bastion in reporting upon communities from the community itself,” said Shepperd when reflecting on public media’s role today. “So I think we need to protect our local public medias, especially our rural public medias.”

In The NoCo host Erin O’Toole sat down with Shepperd to talk about what public radio looked like 100 years ago, and how Western states like Colorado helped create the NPR name.