Exactly. When I moved to Houston the local NPR affiliate (KUHF) was a jazz station, but they converted to pharmacy music (I usually call it "deedle-deedle-deedle" music) right after I moved here. There is no jazz station, commercial or otherwise, but there is an almost exact clone of the NPR station that is commercial. I honestly can't figure out why anybody listens to it because they play the same stuff, but with commercials.
On note related to the PR in the news thread, the only thing more pathetic than our local Pathetica Network station is our local NPR affiliate, KUHF. While KPFT canceled their local news programs, KUHF pretends to have them, but all they do is read press releases (sometimes verbatim, sometimes very thinly rearranged). Based on the amount of money they take in and spend, they pay the staff pretty well too.
There is a morning drive time local business 'news' thingy that segues from the national one on Morning Edition that is ALL press releases, sometimes from a company sponsoring the goddamn segment. It's completely shameless! Then there's the nifty fact that when a former 'reporter' from KUHF left she took a PR job with the Texas Medical Center. Now there is a surfeit of incredibly upbeat stories about the medical breakthroughs at TMC. It is truly appalling.
Whenever they says "KUHF is supported by .... and listeners like YOU" I correct the radio and say: "not like me, I don't give you twits a bloody dime!"
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Joseph Noonan Houston, TX jfn1 at msc.com
"An average scrapple loaf contains the rectums of 4 swine."