[jontutcher]

For reference, most/all BBC radio stations use AKG C414s (https://www.akg.com/Microphones/Condenser%20Microphones/C414...) of various vintages. They sound fantastic and cost ~$700, rather than $3.5k.

BBC Radio 3 uses no dynamic range compression, so might be most comparable to NPR (although it's likely that each local station applies a ton of compression before the signal hits the air).

Most (other) radio stations apply copious amounts of multiband dynamic range compression on their output - with the nickname of "sausage-making", since the process turns waveforms that look like music into waveforms that look like sausages. In the FM days, louder sounding stations were associated with better signals, so got bigger market share...