This is definitely still very "rough." But here's my start:

National Public Radio in the Contemporary American Art Market

As both a forum for the arts and as an art form unto itself

1. NPR: history and founding principles
2. NPR and the development of cultural and intellectual authority
   1. Branding
   2. Cultivating a reputation as "non-commercial"
   3. NPR and Bourdieu's theory of market disavowal
   4. "Highbow" and "lowbrow" cultural dialog and parallels to the art world at large
   5. Elements of NPR's art programming
   6. NPR's role as a cultural artifact and a cultural liaison in the United States
   7. Controversies about NPR
      1. Is NPR elitist?
      2. Is NPR liberal? Is NPR conservative?

Sources (Developing List)

Npr.org

Mitchell, Jack W. (2005.) Listener Supported: The culture and history of public radio. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.

McCauley, Michael P. (2005.) NPR: The trials and triumphs of National Public Radio. New York: Columbia University Press.

Book Review: "Listener Supported: The culture and history of Public Radio"; "NPR: The trials and triumphs of National Public Radio." Spaulding, Stacy. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 51, no. 3 (2007): 547-548.

Nunberg, Geoffrey. (2001.) The way we talk now: Commentaries on language and culture from NPR's "Fresh Air." Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Henderson, Lisa. "Storyline and the multicultural highbrow: Reading women's culture on National Public Radio." Critical Studies in Media Communication, 16, no. 3 (1999): 329-349.

Velthius, Olav. (2007.) Talking Prices: Symbolic meanings of prices on the market for contemporary art. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Thompson, Don. (2007.) The $12M Stuffed Shark. Palgrave/MacMillan.