The wife and I are in north-central New Jersey for a brief visit, and can't believe that we're unable to find the National Public Radio daily newscast "All Things Considered" anywhere on the car radio. Can't find the arts-and-entertainment program "Fresh Air" either, except when we can pick up a static-y signal from WHYY from Philadephia.

There are several NPR-affiliated stations down at the low end of the FM spectrum, but none of them carry the long-form news program, only a five-minute NPR news "digest" at the top of the hour.

Is it possible that this wonderful, award-wining radio programming is unavailable in such a huge media market? We had no trouble finding stations carrying ATC anywhere on the road from New Orleans to New Jersey ~ state-wide NPR systems in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia all provide the complete NPR news and commentary services.

I'm glad that so many of the NY area stations provide "less chatter, more platter," and I'm particularly fond of the world's greatest jazz station, WBGO in Newark, but you'd think at least one public radio station hereabouts would preempt a couple hours of music to air the nation's best radio news programming.

Have I missed something? Maybe there's a station with too weak a signal for my car rsdio's "seek" function to recognize...