NPR: A Pool for Network Fishing . . . : Broadcasting: The work of National Public Radio journalists is increasingly drawing the attention of mainstream TV executives.

When John Hockenberry, National Public Radio’s prized foreign correspondent and the host of its “Talk of the Nation” talk show, recently announced that he was moving to ABC News, he became the radio operation’s second high-profile reporter to join a network news team this summer, and the fourth in the last several years.

Hockenberry, who made a name for himself covering the Middle East--including the Persian Gulf War--for NPR from a wheelchair, will be a reporter on the new, as-yet-unnamed newsmagazine that ABC plans to put up against CBS’ monolithic “60 Minutes” in January.

While many at National Public Radio have a tendency to view themselves as a tight-knit group of journalists, laboring loyally outside of the mainstream of commercial radio and television, their work has drawn the attention of network news executives, who say they listen to NPR regularly, on occasion even stealing story ideas.

“I don’t know if it’s because our perception of NPR has changed or if we just got smarter and realized there was a gold mine of talent there,” said Joanna Bistany, vice president and assistant to the president of ABC News.

Immediately prior to Hockenberry’s decision to leave for ABC, Scott Simon, then host of NPR’s “Weekend Edition” Saturday morning program, announced that he was moving to NBC to host the new weekend version of “Today.” Cokie Roberts, who last week hosted ABC’s “Nightline” and covers Capitol Hill for the network, made her reputation as a reporter for NPR. And Robert Krulwich, who reports for “CBS This Morning” and recently hosted the now-canceled PBS series “Edge,” came to national prominence on NPR.

The TV networks also have recruited several producers from the public broadcasting organization.

“NPR is a real talent pool for the networks because they do excellent reporting,” said Tom Yellin, who hired Hockenberry and will be executive producer of the new ABC program. “They find smart people and train them to perform vocally. They have tiny budgets so the people have to do it all themselves.”

Yellin said that he approached Hockenberry, wooing the reporter not only with the promise of professional advancement but also with cash. NBC executives say that they too recruited Simon after listening to his show.

“NPR’s profile has increased over the years with people’s increased appetite for information broadcasting,” said Karen Curry, executive producer of morning programming for NBC. “They do fantastic work.”

Losing correspondents to the networks seems to be a very sore spot at NPR, which lacks the financial resources to hold on to people when they are approached by deep-pocket organizations such as ABC, NBC and CBS.

“We do not like the notion that NPR is some sort of a farm club for the networks,” said Bill Buzenberg, NPR vice president for news and information. “We think this is a great place to be, and an end in itself for most of us.”

Indeed, thanks to the freedom experienced by reporters at NPR and the opportunities the organization has provided to many young journalists, loyalty even among many who have left the organization is fierce--so fierce that Hockenberry compared it to a religious cult.

Roberts made it a condition of employment at ABC that she be allowed to continue filing reports and interviews on NPR, and Krulwich is also still heard on the public network. Simon, instead of resigning, has taken a leave of absence to try his hand at television and has promised to guest-host his old show during vacations from NBC.

Both Simon and Hockenberry say that money had little to do with their decisions to leave NPR, which subsists on federal grants, private donations and dues from public radio stations.

“I’m 40, and I want to see if I can learn to do something in what is, after all, for better or for worse, the medium of our times,” said Simon. “This was an opportunity to work with a group of people who say they have an understanding of and respect for what I want to do that’s different.”

But money does come into play. Buzenberg said that the average reporter at NPR makes $30,000 to $40,000, with the network’s highest-profile anchors and correspondents pulling down about $80,000 a year. Television networks can offer them three or more times that much.

“We try to talk (reporters with offers from the networks) out of it, but quite frankly, there’s nothing we can do,” Buzenberg said.

Roberts, for example, said she joined ABC “for two reasons.”

“One was financial--I had two kids about to go to college at the time,” she said. “And the other is stretching and growing (professionally). It’s important to keep trying new things.”

Hockenberry, 36, who lost the use of his legs in an accident at age 19, said that he is leaving not only to try something new, but also to shift to a medium where news crews and producers can provide some backup support.

“NPR was the Conestoga wagon era of wheelchair reporting,” said Hockenberry, who traded his chair for a donkey in order to interview Kurds during the Persian Gulf War. “There’s only so much I can put this body through. I’m not up to doing another Gulf War alone.”

Hockenberry said that at first he was skeptical of ABC’s intentions.

“They had to convince me they were interested in more than a young F.D.R.”--the U.S. President who presided over the nation in the 1930s and 40s from a wheelchair, Hockenberry said.

To a degree, the attraction of public radio reporters to the television networks and vice versa is the result of changes in both media.

“We’ve changed from doing a few wonderful features and scrambling sometimes to cover the news, often (filing a story) three days late and calling it analysis,” Buzenberg said. “Today, we work very hard to cover the news.”

As a result, Buzenberg said, NPR’s programs are available today on 450 radio stations across the nation, up from 90 stations when the organization began broadcasting 20 years ago. Last year, NPR’s overall audience grew 14%, with Simon’s Saturday morning show posting a 24% gain and “Morning Edition,” the weekday morning news magazine, up 21%.

At the same time, the networks have been scrambling to win back viewers lost to cable and other sources of news.

There is a sense among some network executives that one way to win new viewers might be to opt for the type of intelligent, sometimes offbeat information provided by organizations such as NPR. In addition, both ABC and NBC have hired some people for their new news shows who do not fit the cookie-cutter mold of years past. Not only is Hockenberry in a wheelchair, but NBC has hired Jackie Nespral, a former anchor at the Spanish-language network Univision, to be Simon’s co-anchor on the weekend “Today” shows.

Hockenberry, in fact, said that he finally accepted ABC’s offer after a long conversation with ABC News President Roone Arledge in which Arledge speculated that the wheelchair might be “visually interesting,” rather than something to be hidden or simply tolerated.

“The world has changed,” said ABC’s Yellin. “You don’t need to get all of your information from tall white men in suits who all look the same.”