Would You Like to Support Public Radio?

Turns out you already ARE supporting public radio:

The Department of Education's National Institute of Disability Rehabilitation and Research has awarded a grant to NPR and WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) to develop accessible radio technology for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired.

Radio for the deaf . . . maybe public television can get a government grant to develop Tee Vee for the blind . . .

The Accessible Digital Radio Broadcast Services grant - in the amount of $150,000 for the first year - will help fund an anticipated three-year research and development project to prototype, field test and assess the cutting-edge radio technologies to serve the needs of people with sensory disabilities.

Why public radio? Why radio at all? Is radio the only means of communication? Can information come to those with sensory disability any other way that already exists?

"Thanks to the Department of Education's support through this grant, NPR and our WGBH partner will leverage our shared abilities to deliver on this promise."

Thanks to the asshats on Capitol Hill for delivering on the promise of perpetual pork spending toward this nonsense.

The project's total budget for the first year is $227,810. The Department of Education grant will cover 65 percent of the project costs for the first year, while NPR will fund the remaining 35 percent. Additional federal funding after the first year is dependent on congressional appropriations.

Who could possibly believe that $227K will even come close?