On Monday, February 6th, 2012, at 14:49:39h +0000, David Looser wrote:

The response was "try PBS" which I did,

Rather difficult since there are no PBS *radio* stations.
PBS is a *television* network.

and found that about 50% of the output was simply a relay of the BBC
world service.

A typical sign of an Public Radio International affiliate station
(previously known as American Public Radio, the smaller rival
to NPR).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Radio_International

Carrying a PRI relay of BBC World Service is far cheaper than
paying for NPR programming, so many smaller public radio
stations prefer this option for obvious reasons.