"All Things Considered"
National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, D.C., 20001
202.513.2000
http://www.npr.org
The Wind-Up
"All Things Considered" has a split personality. But in a good way. On one hand, the radio program is a straightforward news service that provides the headlines, in-depth
features and a steady diet of water-cooler stories. But the program also embraces its inner quirkiness, regularly running stories on unusual subjects and personalities, such as a
man who retrofits old airplanes and sells them as houses. "We're both more serious and more frivolous than the networks," says Executive Producer Christopher Turpin. "You can be
that way with a two-hour program." One of the oldest (1971) and still most listened to radio shows in the country, "All Things Considered" runs on approximately 570 stations
nationwide, Monday-Friday. The two-hour program, with a weekly audience of 11 million listeners, runs anytime between 4 a.m. and 10 p.m., depending on the station, but in most
markets runs between the hours of 4 p.m to 8 p.m. Turpin scoffs at the notion that the program caters to an audience that generally tilts left. "The perception that we have a
liberal audience is wrong," he says. "We have the perfect cross-section of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. It's a very broad listener, and we wouldn't have that if we
were the liberal mouthpiece people say we are."
The Pitch
Turpin is the main contact, [email protected], and if the story piques his interest he'll follow-up or pass off the pitch to associate editor
Carol Klinger. He prefers to be contacted by e-mail and the best time to reach him late morning or early afternoon; if you don't hear back from him within a day or so, probably
best to try the next time. Deadlines are early in the day considering the show is recorded live at 4 p.m. EST. If you pitch past 3 p.m. it's unlikely to get the kind of attention
the pitch might get the following morning. Because Turpin is regularly bombarded with pitches, it helps to be extremely familiar with the types of stories the show runs. "You have
to have a strong sensibility for the show," Turpin says. "It doesn't necessarily have to be off the beaten track. We run a huge range" of stories. The program recently had several
guests on debating two lawsuits involving affirmative action at the University of Michigan that are now being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court; ran a piece on developments in
Alzheimer's disease and a story on the proliferating number of computer programs designed to eliminate jargon from online documents.
Turpin is always on the hunt for new trends, new fashions and new fads. "I like the element of surprise," Turpin says. "If I'm surprised in the first couple of paragraphs,
I'll keep reading. The key is to know who we are. Nothing frustrates me more than hearing from someone who clearly hasn't heard the program and is pitching us something that we
would never do." For instance, the program never does pieces on the "self-help" movement -- or any story that smacks of sentimentality -- but that doesn't stop publishers from
pitching the program to review self-help books. "It's important to know what our business is and for [PR executives] to make it their business."
The Follow-Through
Looking forward, the program plans to do more pieces on technology trends after shying away from such stories following the dot-com crash. There will also be additional
coverage of the family, child development issues and the welter of ethical issues raised by developments in biotechnology, for example. "We have a broad mandate," Turpin says.
"The challenge is not to look at stories in a narrow little frame."