Car Talk's Click and Clack, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, announced their retirement recently, along with the decision to continue producing shows with the best calls recorded over the show's lengthy run. NPR will continue to distribute the program every week, but we've been notified that the price KGOU will have to pay to air Car Talk is increasing.

This presents KGOU with a dilemma: Should we continue to air the re-packaged shows at the higher price (the most expensive program KGOU airs, per hour), or should we replace Car Talk with a less expensive, newer program?

If you have an opinion, we need your input to help us make the best decision for KGOU. Please take just a minute to answer our three-question survey. Thanks!

 

Arts, cultural attractions, parks, transportation, education, social services and other "quality of life" features can make a state more attractive to businesses and young professionals, and yet during hard economic times those extras get short shrift when it comes to funding.

StateImpact Oklahoma is assembling a panel from the public and private sectors to discuss "Investing in a Sense of Place" on Friday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Devon Boathouse in Oklahoma City. Neal Conan, host of Talk of the Nation, has agreed to moderate. We'll have more info to pass on soon, but we hope you can start making plans now to attend this free public event.

 

With the political parties' national conventions wrapping up and the debates looming, campaign coverage is getting the lion's share of NPR News resources these days. NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos tells us that more than 60 staffers are involved in NPR's political coverage, and he investigates complaints of biased coverage in his recent blog post.

NPR.org has resources for voters beyond what you hear on the air, including fact-checking of the campaigns and convention speakers, in the It's All Politics blog. And here's a larger photo of NPR's staff at the DNC in Charlotte, NC.

 

A new round of All Things Considered's Three-Minute Fiction contest starts Saturday with a new judge, author Brad Meltzer. The contest has a simple premise: Listeners submit original short stories with a 600-word limit that can be read aloud in three minutes or less. Each round has a special prompt -- Round 9's special rules will be announced Sept. 8, on Weekend All Things Considered, sometime in the 5 p.m. hour.

 

With late-summer temperatures still soaring near 100, the last thing on a cook's mind is baking. Kitchen Window's Janet Zimmerman shows us how to make a cool, lemony cheesecake, a velvety pie or praline parfaits without heating up the kitchen. Get the recipes at NPR.org.