NPR correspondent to speak at KRCU breakfast Tuesday

Brian Naylor, Washington Desk correspondent for NPR News, will help local NPR affiliate KRCU kick off its spring membership drive this week.

Naylor will speak at the station's annual membership breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday in Statuary Hall in the Wehking Alumni Center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. The station hopes to raise $38,000 in April.

Naylor is a 30-year NPR veteran who has covered national and international news events, said Dan Woods, KRCU general manager.

Naylor reported from Tokyo following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, from New Orleans following the BP oil spill and from West Virginia after the deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine.

He's covered political conventions and the Olympics. He's worked as a national desk correspondent, White House correspondent, congressional correspondent, foreign correspondent and newscaster for "All Things Considered."

Woods said the in-depth nature of NPR's reporting sets it apart from other news sources.

"You get more than just sound bites," Woods said.

In most cases, listeners will hear a lengthy interview whoever the subject is, Woods said.

"The reporters don't just fly into an area, interview a few people, file a story and fly out," Woods said. "They live in the communities they cover. You develop so many good sources that way and build relationships, then it just makes the reporting that much deeper."

After a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives last year to defund NPR, listener support is more important than ever, Woods said.

In recent weeks, as the House has been debating blueprints for the fiscal year 2013 budget, the suggestion to zero out funding for NPR has come up again, he said.

"It's just becoming something that I think is pretty standard now. We're going to watch that whole process for sure," he said.

About a quarter of the stations operating budget comes from federal funds, while 30 percent comes from local listeners.

Last year's fall fund drive fell short, but an additional fundraising push near Christmas helped make up for it, Woods said.

"Local support is critical, and we'd like to see our local support continue to rise because we don't know about the future for the federal side," he said.

For more information, visit www.KRCU.org.

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