About, By, and For: The Short Life of National Public Radio’s Department of Specialized Audience Programs

In 1979, National Public Radio (NPR) established its Department of Specialized Audience Programs, a dedicated unit responsible for the acquisition, development, and production of minority programming. For over a decade, the Department of Specialized Audience Programs operated as a semi-autonomous unit until it was absorbed into NPR’s general news division and later dissolved. Previous scholarship has suggested that NPR has been subject to economic and political pressures, which have limited its ability to fulfill its diversity mission; however, I found that NPR has been resistant to efforts to diversify its programming, despite receiving outside pressure from legislators, funders, and advocacy organizations.