((From page 7))
NPR TAKES YOU THERE

Have you ever sat in your car after reaching your destination, transfixed by an NPR story in progress? How many times have you uttered silent thanks for an NPR broadcast that was so good you hardly noticed the usual frustrations of your commute? And how often have you found yourself referring in conversation to something you heard on a recent NPR program?

These everyday moments are common to NPR listeners worldwide. They are the most telling testimony that we at NPR are doing our job—transporting people out of their routines for wonderful journeys of the mind that enrich and enlarge their lives.

For over 25 years, we’ve been taking listeners on these journeys via the best news, information and cultural programming on the airwaves—distinctive programming that can’t be found anywhere else.

Consequently, NPR programs now capture the imagination and loyalty of nearly 14 million listeners each week and are broadcast 24 hours a day in more than 140 countries.

((From page 17))
NPR Takes You . . . OUT THERE

In January, Car Talk hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi were stumped by a call from “John from Houston,” who described some unusual problems with his “government vehicle.” Turns out the caller was NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld, telephoning from the space shuttle Atlantis, more than 240 miles above Earth.

Once the unflappable Tappet Brothers figured out his identity, Grunsfeld mentioned that he used to bring his car to their repair shop in 1977 when he was attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

They said they remembered him—and that he still owed them $5!

((From page 24))
NPR Takes You . . . to the Edge OF THE EARTH

Douglas Quinn, sound recordist and musician, traveled to Antarctica as part of a National Science Foundation program to send artists to the word’s last frontier. On May 22, he took the listeners of All Things Considered with him.

QUINN: From my tent, which was pitched on the sea ice, I walked out to an extraordinarily sunny morning… The sun had come around through a volcanic plume from mount Erebus, scattering a diffuse light. (SOUNDS OF SEALS)

The seals have very wonderful, open faces, almost a curled smile to the mouth and very large eyes, a head buried deep and into a massive body with varied coats of mottled grays and tans and blacks…. (SOUNDS OF SEALS)

They’re resting, and occasionally to me it was like dogs dreaming. They would twitch and produce vocal mutterings, some of which I had heard from underwater. And on a still evening in my tent, lying on the floor on the sea ice… I could hear the most amazing pulses and chugs and thrills and whistles transferred up through the ice, nearly seven feet of it…. (SOUNDS OF SEALS THROUGH SEA ICE)

((From page 27))
Finances: Toward Present and FUTURE PERFECT

Many of NPR’s accomplishments are nothing short of extraordinary, but we take special pride in the fact that we have maintained a balanced budget since 1985 despite an unusual and limited combination of revenue sources.

Typically, station dues and fees are the largest source of revenue, followed by contributed support, almost exclusively from private foundations and corporations, which totals more than $20 million each year.

NPR’s development efforts have secured support from virtually every major national foundation, and our corporate underwriting has increased 600 percent over the last six years. However, significant future growth for these two sectors is uncertain.

Whereas most nonprofit organizations receive 86 percent of their contributions from individual donors (including bequests), NPR receives only four percent. By agreement with our member stations, we do not solicit the public directly; on-air fundraising, direct mail and telephone solicitations remain a prerogative of local stations. However, we know that many listeners who support their local public radio stations do so specifically because those stations broadcast NPR programs. Indeed, 76 percent of all public radio listeners are tuned in to NPR programs.

The only government funding NPR receives comes through competitive grants for specific projects, awarded by the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, the National Science Foundations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). These grants normally represent only three percent of our revenues. (NPR member stations receive general support from CPB which, on average, accounts for about 14 percent of their revenues, and they use some of these funds to purchase NPR programs.)