"It's not National Some-of-the-Public Radio"

Tavis Smiley tells Salon why he decided to ditch NPR.

By Brian Montopoli

Dec 16, 2004 | Thursday marks the last day that Tavis Smiley will appear on his eponymous show on National Public Radio. Smiley says he is leaving the network after three years on the air because the show, the first and only in the history of NPR with an African-American sensibility, didn't receive enough support.

"NPR has simply failed to meaningfully reach out to a broad spectrum of Americans," he wrote in a Nov. 29 release. "In the most multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial America ever -- I believe that NPR can and must do better in the future."

In the weeks since Smiley's announcement, NPR has refused to fire back. A version of the show (though, of course, with a different name) will continue -- insiders say BET's Ed Gordon has the inside track as host -- but no new minority-themed shows have gotten past "the rough-sketch stage," according to NPR public relations manager Chad Campbell. Says NPR spokesman David Umansky: "We're very lucky and fortunate to have had Tavis as our founding host, and we agree that more needs to be done."

That, however, will not be as easy as it sounds. Public radio has been enormously successful in recent years, thanks in part to David Giovannoni, a public-radio analyst the New York Times calls "quite possibly the most influential figure in shaping the sound of National Public Radio today." Giovannoni's research shows that NPR's core audience -- affluent white baby boomers -- doesn't want programming geared toward minorities, or young people, even in moderation. Every time they turn on the radio, he argues, that audience wants to hear the dulcet tones of the Linda Wertheimer sound-alikes who've come to define public radio. Many stations believe that following the advice of Giovannoni and his disciples means they will attract more listeners, which means more donations. As a result, their programming has become aggressively unsurprising, rarely straying far from the predictable approach of "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered."

Smiley has resisted pressures to adapt his sound, and by many accounts he's still done well at NPR. Eighty-seven stations now carry "The Tavis Smiley Show," more than twice what NPR expected at this point in the show's development, and he has the youngest and most diverse listeners of any show in the network's history. While some critics felt he was too deferential to his high-powered interview subjects -- "He got great guests but he isn't a great interviewer -- kind of like Larry King," says Brent Cunningham, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review -- he brought buzz and an impressive Rolodex to NPR.

Smiley will still have plenty to do: He hosts and produces a late-night PBS show, maintains a book imprint, and appears regularly on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," a radio show geared toward African-Americans that attracts 8 million listeners a week. On the eve of his departure, he reflected on his time at NPR, his future, and where he expects public radio to go from here.

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