Change is in the air (time)
The beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1 is the traditional time for NCPR to roll out changes to its broadcast schedule. For the coming year, changes to the program roster are few, but the changes to air time within the schedule are more extensive.
The biggest change may be a welcome one to listeners like me who work weekdays and rarely get to listen to the great programs that for years now have lived in a 1 pm weekday slot. The NPR/WBUR news program Here and Now will expand into the 1 pm time slot, airing 1-3 pm Monday through Thursday and 1-2 pm on Friday. The five weekly programs that air now in the 1 pm slot will move to times on weeknights and weekends as follows:
- A Way with Words will move to Monday at 9 pm
- To the Best of Our Knowledge will move to Tuesday at 9 pm
- RadioLab will move to Sunday at noon
- On Being will move to Thursday at 9 pm
- Reveal will move to Saturdays at 3 pm, beginning in mid-summer when the Invisibilia series concludes
Studio 360 will move from Sunday at noon to Wednesday at 9 pm.
Fresh Air will move one hour earlier on weeknights into the 8 pm time slot and Q from CBC will drop from the schedule.
As you may have read elsewhere at NCPR, tonight is the last live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor as host. His final new show, pre-recorded, will air on July 2. NCPR will broadcast repeat episodes of APHC until the new program host, Chris Thile, begins in October.
If you have question or comments about any of these changes, use the comment link below, or write to NCPR’s program director Jackie Sauter at [email protected].
Tags: listeningpost
With the schedule change of moving the 1pm programs to scattered times and days I will now miss them all. That is disappointing, but you can’t please everyone. Perhaps if they had all been put on one evening I would arrange to listen to them.
1) I abhor change in the schedule.. since it takes so long to get used
2) unless it takes opera out of the main block of time when I listen to NCPR
3) feel sorry for those who abhor change and like opera
4) but i will say, Mr. Hobson, I find these pices you have been putting out to be great
a) it provide new (local) content on the weekend
b) often (as in this case) us with information that is good to know
I will not miss Q much, I don’t know what has happened but it seems less interesting to me. Still miss David Dye.
I am growing less in love with Fresh Air and I’m just going to say it … can Fresh Air try to be less, ummm, Jewish life-centric? And it isn’t just me, even Jon Stewart commented that his joke about his mother wasn’t about her being Jewish but about her being a mother.
I far prefer American Routes to the opera. I try to like the opera but I actually like American Routes.
Best shows are TTBOOK, On the Media, Radio Lab, and This American Life. People should be forced to listen.
Thanks for dropping Q. IMHO, it’s not a very good program.
NATICK! not Nattick!!!!!
I will miss those shows that are being moved to 9:pm. Here and Now is a good show, but we don’t need two hours of it.
I do wonder about how these decisions come about.. or how the changes are made. I guess I could write Jackie Sauter, but it seems like a question that would be good for the masses.
Like I would guess the Nielsen’s ratings tell you what is not being listened to…but how do you know (or think) that (for example) A Way with Words will be listened to more at night than it was during the day? I would guess for many shows, Monday night might be the death.
I just heard Invisibilia today and found it to be great… one thing that I also enjoy, is when really great shows, like “This American Life.” can be heard at two different times — but that said, the weeks that is a repeat, I seem to hear both repeats.
I just mentioned this on another forum, which is fact of life with change.. No matter what you do, someone will not like it..
Back to my original point, I think NCPR should have a show once a month… maybe at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday where you talk about the station for an hour. One month Jackie Sauter could answer questions about programming, on another Bob Sauter could talk about why it is mandatory to play the Rolling Stones when he is on the air, speaking of which there could be time to talk about yourself. Like I would love to hear each staff member talk about the concerts you have been to…
Are pod casts available for all these shows? If so, it doesn’t matter when they air.
I drive a lot for work and love those shows at the 1:00 time frame. We know how to follow the radio dial throughout the Park to get almost continuous coverage. Usually too busy to tune it at 9:00. Will miss the variety in the afternoon. Not a big fan of these changes.
I agree with Mr. Wakiki, I’d love to hear more about the station staff. Does Brian Mann have a garden? What’s in it? What’s Ellen Rocco like, is she still on the NPR Board? etc.