Some smaller public radio stations don’t carry “Morning Edition” because of the hefty fees that NPR charges others are adding programs on their digital signals. In many cities nationwide more than one public radio station carries “Morning Edition,” and some are eager to find an alternative. But that is a small fraction of the more than 170 million people who are estimated to listen to radio every morning, many in the car on the way to work, which is the time period in which the two new programs will be broadcast. “Morning Edition,” which went through an unsettled period after the awkward departure in April 2004 of Bob Edwards, its longtime host, claims to be the most popular morning radio program in the country, with 13.2 million listeners weekly this past fall, up 1 percent from the year earlier in Arbitron figures just released. NPR is expected to announce this week that its program will have as its co-host Luke Burbank, a national NPR reporter who earned some followers last year when he served as an interim host for the cheeky quiz show “Wait, Wait. That program, also unnamed, is to begin in the fall and promises many of the same elements as the new WNYC program, including more integration with a companion Web site. NPR itself announced in January that it was developing an alternative morning program aimed at 25- to 44-year-olds, a younger audience than public radio typically draws. The WNYC program, which is to be announced today and is intended to expand the public radio audience by focusing on a younger, more multicultural listener, will have competition when it comes to seeking affiliates around the country however. BBC correspondents and reporters and critics for The New York Times are to provide on-air reports for the live news program and take part in what is expected to be its more informal, conversational format. The New York public radio station WNYC is teaming up with the distributor Public Radio International to produce a national morning radio program that will compete with National Public Radio’s long-running and popular “Morning Edition.”Īlso participating in the not-yet-named program are the BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH, the Boston public radio station.
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