Cable would not translate into the public radio universe.

The public does not translate the deficit into something that really bites them. We are going to have to get public support for action on the deficit.

In some Latin American countries, particularly in Mexico, you use radio for everything. You don't have cable, you don't even have televisions. So your life is around the radio for information, entertainment, news. When you come here, you still listen to the radio.

The teachers' unions that block school reform have done serious damage to the union brand. The public no longer views unions as their friend, much less their champion. They view them as corrupt, intransigent and more interested in protecting their political clout within the Democratic Party than protecting their members or even school children.

Conservatives, despite their increasingly powerful presence on cable TV and talk radio, feel excluded and disregarded by the longstanding preponderance of liberal voices on public television.

Public radio has always been so powerless.