Hacker News Reader

Yes. I don't know if it's on a vaslty bigger scale, according to this they spent $220m in operating expenses: http://www.npr.org/about/statements/fy2015/NPR_Consolidated_..., compared to about £90m for R4. Before brexit they would be pretty comparable ;).

You might have to define what Radio 4 is for us in the US.

Here's a blurb about what NPR is: http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178640915/npr-stations-and-publ...

It's basically hundreds of local radio stations that mix local news/flavor with partner stations that have very popular programs

"BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history."

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4

NPR stations regularly play Radio 4 content when it's nighttime in the US. The content is simiilar.