NPR / MPR Public radios

Do you pronounce NPR and MPR differently or the same?
Can you distinguish them when you hear them? (Example: "Brought to you by NPR/MPR")

I pronounce them differently (no assimilation between N and P), but I have a hard time distinguishing them. To tell the truth, I think I really can't, unless someone said it extremely slowly, maybe.

I pronounce the two as homophones except when I am speaking carefully, and likewise I can tell when people are distinguishing the two intentionally when speaking but am perfectly used to others pronouncing them as homophones as well.

Wow, you actually have lots of assimilation in your dialect. I know it's kind of weird, but I remember listening to one of your clips, and it was not bad... I kind of liked it, actually. I remember asking about "can go ---> cang go", "can be ---> cum be" etc, and you didn't find anything strange about it, at least as long as your dialect was involved.
But my question is, how about other dialects? You know so much about dialects, I can't believe you wouldn't be able to talk about the other major dialects in general... My impression has always been that such assimilation (cang go, cum be, and therefore NPR-MPR too) is not a typical feature of US English (while it should be the norm in UK English, I think).
The problem is I can't be sure, because I have a lot of trouble detecting assimilation in English by myself, since my native language has a LOT of assimilation of that kind and I would tend to use the feature of my language in English too. And that is the primary cause of foreign accents, you know.
Any comments or advice? Thanks.

The thing, though, is that from what I have observed I really have no impression of my own dialect being all that atypical as NAE dialects go in this sort of regard. Often with respect to these kinds of matters I suspect people largely describe their own *careful speech* and not how they actually speak on an everyday basis when they are not paying attention to their own speech.

<<Often with respect to these kinds of matters I suspect people largely describe their own *careful speech* and not how they actually speak on an everyday basis when they are not paying attention to their own speech.>>

Yeah, probably. But it's actually difficult to describe speech carefully anyway, unless you ask an expert. I really think I had better post a link to some youtube videos if I ever need advice on a feature... that way it'll be easier for everyone to make comments.