Rick Karr
Rick Karr contributes reports on the arts to NPR News. He is a correspondent for the weekly PBS public affairs show Bill Moyers Journal and teaches radio journalism at Columbia University.
From 1999 to 2004, he was NPR's lead arts correspondent in New York, focussing on technology's impact on culture. Prior to that, he hosted the NPR weekend music and culture magazine show Anthem, and even earlier in his career, worked as a general assignment reporter and engineer at NPR's Chicago bureau.
Rick was nominated for an Emmy award for his 2006 PBS documentary Net @ Risk, which made the case that the U.S. is falling far behind other nations with regard to the speed and power of its internet infrastructure. He's also reported for the PBS shows NOW and Journal Editorial Report.
Rick is a member of the songwriters' collective Box Set Authentic. He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with his wife, artist Birgit Rathsmann.
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Robert Downey Jr. is a name well-known to moviegoers, but did you know that the actor's father also happens to be in the movie business? Robert Downey Sr. is an acclaimed director whose early underground films have just been restored.
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Painter Joe Andoe has lived in New York for more than 20 years, but he never stopped thinking about his hometown. Tulsa, Okla., inspires his paintings, and it's where Andoe built a reputation as a wild man and party animal. Now Andoe has cleaned up his act and written a memoir about his journey from juvenile delinquency to a successful career in art.
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The technologies that record companies blame for a downturn in retail sales -- computers, CD burners and the Internet -- are also allowing musicians to do more of the things that record labels used to do. In a three-part series, NPR's Rick Karr profiles artists and Internet sites embracing emerging business models. -
People over the age of 35 tell market researchers they'd buy more music if they didn't have to wade through racks of CD geared for 18-year-olds, read magazines tailored to 15-year-olds, or listen to radio aimed at 12-year-olds. NPR's Rick Karr talks with a former corporate turnaround specialist who sees the music industry in need of an intervention, and a publisher and editor who think a new magazine for older listeners is the key.
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On Tuesday, online activist group the Electronic Frontier Foundation will file suit in a California federal court, seeking to enjoin Diebold from claiming copyright infringement over the release of company emails and memos. Activists have been trying to drum up opposition to electronic voting systems, which they say are insecure and plagued with technical problems. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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The New York Times names Bill Keller as executive editor, more than a month after the newspaper's top editors resigned following a plagiarism scandal. A former Times managing editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent, Keller replaces Howell Raines, who resigned after former reporter Jayson Blair was found to have plagiarized and fabricated stories. Hear NPR's Rick Karr.
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The Federal Communications Commission votes to relax restrictions on media ownership, allowing media conglomerates to buy more TV stations and own a newspaper and broadcast network in the same city. Critics say the move will lead to less diversity of content and viewpoints. Hear NPR's Rick Karr.
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NPR's Rick Karr reports on who supports the deregulation of the broadcasting industry and why. And he examines whether listeners and viewers will see any benefits.
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The Federal Communications Commission considers removing all restrictions on the number of radio and television stations and networks media conglomerates can own. But community groups and independent broadcasters say there's been little room for public input in the process. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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For several years now, historical preservationists have been stepping up efforts to transfer millions of hours of precious, perishable sound recordings to a single, stable format. At the Library of Congress, technicians are working feverishly to convert their huge collection of tapes, CDs, LPs, eight-track tapes and other audio formats to a playback format that will stand the test of time. NPR's Rick Karr reports on an effort some observers call foolish.
