An additional revenue stream for NPR stations.

The Pew Charitable trust is one of the many underwriters of public radio stations across the United States.

Their names are mentioned by voice at regular intervals; before and after the news summary for instance.

With the advent of the internet, the underwriters names are also featured on NPR stations websites. If you go to WBUR.org for instance, you will see them listed as banners.

Now here is yet another way in which NPR stations should raise money.

Many NPR programs can be downloaded as podcasts. Here is WBUR’s “On Point” as I see it on my iPod.

On Point Radio on my iPod

If I press again the central button on my iPod, I get the following information on the show:

You can read the date of the episode, the title, its duration, description and even the link to download this particular episode.

In this particular screen, the people who upload that information have some editorial flexibility in what can be written, length parameters notwithstanding.

Therefore, there is an opportunity to invite existing underwriters (or attract new ones) by making available some of this space to them, perhaps up to 30 characters.

This could then be transformed into additional revenues for stations such as WBUR at no additional cost.