Supporting the Arts in the USA / Supporting Public Radio in Germany

This week, the group known as AMPPR (American Music Personnel in Public Radio) is having its conference in Ft. Worth. In my past life, I had attended a few of these though most often the money for attending it was one of the first thing cut from the radio station's budget (the reason I'm not attending this year is, I was cut from the radio station's budget, but I digress...).

You can follow the conference over at "Scanning the Dial," a blog about classical music in radio broadcasting (not just public radio), where Marty Ronish is blogging the conference. This item in today's post caught my eye, more generally:

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I had a long chat with Rick Fulker, a classical music producer at Deutsche Welle (German national radio paid for by the government), and he was telling me that the budget for Deutsche Welle is larger than that of the NEA! The Germans have a much broader appreciation for classical music than we do in this country.
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Given all the crying and moaning about $50M for the NEA in President Obama's $787B Economic Stimulus Package battered about last month - first you put it in, then you take it out, then you put it back in (then you shake it all about) - it's rather telling that Public Radio in Germany gets more money than the National Endowment for the Arts gets to support all the arts across the United States... Hmmm...

- Dr. Dick