Some of the programming on NPR is just a wee bit too wooly-headed for even this progressive chick, but most of it's fair to good, in my opinion. I mean, it's been worth my membership subscription a couple of times over just to not hear about OJ, OJ, and more OJ on and on ad absurdum on the daily news, and it costs less than the newspaper (which in SF are pretty cruddy anyway - I grew up in Sacramento, where we had a Real Newspaper, dammit).
Most of my fave NPR programs have web sites - the news programs (Morning/Weekend Edition and All Things Considered) are findable on the network's page. But I have to mention the Car Guys, even though they can't do five minutes of their show without plugging their web site :-)
The Bay Area has has a whole lotta non-commercial radio going on. We have two excellent NPR affiliates - KQED and KALW. KQED is all talk, except for Prairie Home Companion and music segments on the news/talk shows; KALW has more music programs, carries the CBC as well as the BBC, and bounces West Coast Live onto the satellites. Berkeley has some interesting community radio stations, but I don't listen to them as much.