Arts & Culture

NPR tweaks the timing on Morning Edition, ATC

Bob CollinsBob Collins Nov 17, 2014
21

NPR has restructured the “clocks” for Morning Edition, the timetable that dictate when you hear what you hear on the program.

This is a big deal in radio because so many people use what they hear on the radio to determine whether they’re ahead of or behind their own daily schedule.

The clocks changed this morning because people listen to radio differently now, according to NPR.

NPR’s national newscasts are more frequent now. Instead of being at the top of and the the bottom of each hour, they’re airing every 20 minutes. Local inserts are now at 18 and 41 minutes past the hour.

NPR

The new schedules were to be unveiled in late summer, but many local stations wanted more time to debate them, particular an initial indication that NPR would restrict stations’ ability to “cover” NPR content with their own.

Roman Mars, the producer of 99% Invisible, was among those concerned that his program would no longer be allowed to be included in All Things Considered, but NPR relented.

“I’m proud of NPR,” he told Current Magazine earlier this fall. “I was giving them hell for it, and I was ready to give them more hell. But I’m proud of them. It seems more in the spirit of what we do.”

NPR

Related: The Broadcast Clock (99% Invisible).