Public radio has been an integral part of my life. As I write this article, I am listening to the radio in my kitchen. When I am in the car, the radio is playing. When I am reading, the radio is on in the background. Unlike most kids, who grew up with dreams of becoming astronauts or ballerinas, one my dreams was to be interviewed for This American Life, a radio program hosted by Chicago Public Radio. In all my years of listening to the radio, I have found that there is a program for everyone. Ask any listener, and he will immediately be able to name his favorite show and explain why it is the best. Public radio has not often gotten the respect that it deserves, and while the Saturday Night Live skits are hilarious, the time has come to get serious about the future of the public radio. For the casual listener, producing a radio show may seem like an effortless process: Type up a script, read it on the air, and play a few songs. But hours of work can go into producing a 30-minute segment. In high school, I took an elective in which our class was responsible for creating a weekly radio program that our teacher then aired on a local public radio station. While our program was far from the standards of professional radio and probably had a grand total of five listeners, I was amazed at how much time and effort went into creating it. From brainstorming ideas, selecting songs, conducting interviews and deciding on the program's order, the process took hours. Even creating the opening theme took an entire class period. I left the class with a deeper appreciation of those who make a living in public radio.

Now with the advancement of broadcast technology, it may seem that public radio is slowly being phased out. Who needs to worry about what will be playing when one can just pay for satellite radio and have a station that is guaranteed to play Queen 24/7? Why donate money to a station when one can just buy a cord to play an iPod through the car speakers? In fact, why listen to news programs on the radio at all, when with just the click of a button all the news can appear on our cell phones? In an age when our friends text us while we are sitting in the same room, radio provides one more way through which we can reach out to others and hopefully connect.

This American Life, a weekly radio program hosted by Ira Glass, is one of the most well-known programs on public radio. The show has a main theme and uses individual stories and experiences to illustrate it. As Stacy Handler '12 put it, "I like how the show has such a strong following of people of all ages. It's because it makes the nerdy hip."

Glass' nasal voice helps to make the show so unique. But the real reason it's so successful is because the show helps listeners see how something so small-like a fear of the dark-can unite so many people. However, even a show as popular as This American Life is looking for new ways to survive. The show has now also become a TV show and a podcast. In fact, almost all shows on public radio are now posted on iTunes as podcasts, which listeners can download and listen to at their leisure. Like the radio, they are all free, though listeners are always encouraged to give donations.

Every listener has a story of how public radio has shaped his or her life. I will never forget how National Public Radio's Morning Edition accompanied me on the drive to high school every morning, or trying to figure out with my parents the answers to the game show Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on weekend mornings. Handler tells of a funny way that radio has shaped her life: "So my dad always jokes . that his love is conditional, so that way it means more than, say, my mother's, which is unconditional. Of course, I know that he's joking, but I still find this somewhat disturbing. I joke that his parenting strategy will cost me thousands of dollars in therapy as an adult. So I was listening to This American Life about a year ago, and I hear a story about a father who said the same thing to his daughter. I freak out because I never thought anyone else would do such a thing. I excitedly tell my dad to which he replies something like, 'Yeah, I know. That's where I got the idea. . You were listening to a rerun.' So basically, for good or for ill, my dad let NPR raise me."

So what does the future of public radio look like? In an economy spiraling downward, do people really have money to donate to radio stations they still get for free? Will the government deem public radio worthy of receiving aid? Or will public radio become a feature of the past? The answers remain to be seen. If public radio can adapt to the technology of the future, if people are still willing to donate money to their favorite shows, than radio may stand a chance. If not, then people will lose an important source of entertainment, news and stimulation. And I will have nothing to listen to on Saturday mornings.