New program at WBUR?

[Aaron Read]

If WBUR drops Fresh Air from 1pm, they'll drop it from 9pm, too.
Shows like FA cost too much to run at off-peak times when listenership
is much lower.

However, my money would be on WBUR moving Fresh Air from 1pm to 3pm,
and running the local show at the 1pm slot.   That way they preserve
some of TOTN, they (in theory) keep their FA audience, and they still
have the local show on at a strong-ish time.

I say "in theory" for FA because FA tends to be very popular as a
"lunchtime listening" show, so it's best at 12n or 1pm.  Moving it to
3pm will mean a very different audience; tough say if it'll do as well
then...although with enough time to build an audience, it'll probably
do fine.

OTOH, it's also possible that WBUR will drop FA entirely, thus saving
some money in program fees and allowing them to run their local show
twice daily.  Or run something else at 9pm...probably the BBC or maybe
they'll be experimental and pick up "Tell Me More"...which is a good
show and plays well to both white and black audiences, something I
would think WBUR would not mind making inroads with.

I'm sure WBUR will not like losing the FA audience to WGBH, but it's
not unprecedented.  For a few years WBUR didn't have Marketplace
because WGBH did.  And I'm sure WBUR feels their local show will be a
stronger draw overall anyways...otherwise they wouldn't be doing it at
all.

BTW, it's Terry with a "y", not an "i".   Make a spelling mistake like
that to Terry's face at your own peril, my friends!  ;-)

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Aaron Read
friedbagels@gmail.com
WEOS 89.7FM General Manager
(315) 781-3811

I think it will be the afternoon broadcast of Terri Gross and Fresh
Air that will disappear from WBUR. WBUR will still carry Terri at
9:00PM M-F and WGBH caries her at 2:00PM. If that's what happens, WBUR
will lose some listeners to the first hour of TOTN. A lot of people
who currently listen to Terri during the day won't switch to evenings
because they can get her an hour later just down the dial. But they
can't listen to Terri and hour 1 of TOTN at the same time.