I agree that NPR is great. But it ain't "everywhere". Until recently I had been a long haul trucker in the US for almost 13 years. VERY discouraging to get hooked on an NPR program only to loose it going down the road whilst tuning madly trying to find another station. (Nebraska does an admirable job of covering the state, BTW. Especially traversing the 450 miles across I80.)
Then there's the problem that, even though Morning Edition is very good, they really screwed up when they "shuffled" Bob Edwards. Man, that was so stupid. I think that he's the greatest!
My solutions to the above (and several other's noted) were two:
1. XM Radio (which picked up Bob in a flash and, basically, built a whole channel around him). This also pretty well solved the repeating songs and similar problems.
2. Audible.com where you can subscribe to your favorite programs and never miss a beat ... as well as listen on your computer and/or portable MP3, Palm or whatever.
The Google Desktop has a handy NPR gadget, too.
Enjoy and be informed!!