The Atlanta Public Radio Initiative is a grass-roots organization of metro Atlantans who are strong supporters of public radio.

However, we feel the programming schedule of Atlanta Public Radio WABE/FM 90.1 suffers from a lack of currently available NPR talk-discussion shows devoted to intelligent dialogue about national and international issues.

We are not urging WABE to eliminate its music programming, but we do believe the station should have a better programming balance.

In a typical 24-hour cycle, WABE airs twice as much music as talk-discussion shows. NPR-type discussion programs make a vital contribution to a healthy democracy, and our aim is to enrich the airwaves of Atlanta by working with WABE to have more of these types of shows added to its schedule.