Thanks SRS,
Shamrock and Thistle" vs "Thistle and Shamrock"?
There used to be a folk pub in Sydney with the official name of "Rose, Shamrock & Thistle" that was universally known as "The three weeds."

The community radio aspect of NPR is performed in Oz by lots of small stations, mostly in the big cities ( I used to supervise high school students putting out two half hour shows on 3CR in Melbourne) but the "national" part in Oz is truly National. The ABC here has a series of networks and Radio National's network broadcasts its programs so that they appear (except for WA, 2-3 hours further west) at the same time slot everywhere. And they do broadcast radio drama, short stories etc. In fact I think they do program swaps with parts of the NPR network.

And "My Word", "My Music", "Just a Minute", "The Goon Show", "I'm sorry, I'll say that Again" and "The Mark Steele Lecures" are all currently on at 5.30am but I suspect copyright things prevent them (and many music programs like "Music Deli" and "Live on stage") being podcast.

Cheers, Rowan