KHSU Changing Program Schedule July 1
June 8, 2011
Contact:
Ed Subkis, General Manager 826-4807
or
David Reed 826-6059
KHSU Development Director
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KHSU to make program changes July first
Public radio station KHSU will make some changes to its programming starting July 1. Most of the significant changes are being made to trim a budget hit by cuts in state funding and other revenues.
The most notable changes will affect weekend programming. “A Prairie Home Companion” and “Mountain Stage” will be cancelled and other programs will shift on Saturday and Sunday. The other major change will eliminate the “BBC World Service” from the very early weekday morning line-up.
The NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” currently a two-hour program starting at staggered times Saturday and Sunday will be expanded to three hours. Weekend Edition will now start at 7 a.m. both days and air until 10 a.m.
Due to that change, other programs will shift. On Saturday, “Car Talk” and “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” will air an hour later at 10 and 11 a.m., respectively. On Sunday, the “Conscious Contact Gospel Hour” will start an hour earlier at 5 a.m. The station will also add a repeat performance of “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” on Sunday at 10 a.m. to give listeners a second chance to catch the popular news quiz show.
Longtime Saturday afternoon programs, “A Prairie Home Companion” and “Mountain Stage” will be retired. General Manager Ed Subkis says replacing these two shows was a painful, but necessary financial decision,
“These are two shows our listeners have enjoyed over the years, but they also come with a noticeable price tag. “A Prairie Home Companion” is the most expensive entertainment show on our schedule, totaling more than $21,000 in program and affiliation fees.”
Subkis added that a six-month appeal seeking listener support specifically for “Prairie Home” did help pay its cost for this fiscal year, but did not raise enough to cover the full expense of buying the show.
KHSU will keep the “funky and fun feeling” of its Saturday afternoon line-up with a new program, “American Routes,” airing from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The show, produced in New Orleans by folklorist Nick Spitzer, “explores the shared musical and cultural threads in American styles and genres of music” through stories, interviews and both recorded and live music.
“Beale Street Caravan” a show produced in Memphis, Tenn., follows at 3 p.m. with an exploration of blues and other music from “this birthplace of Rock and Roll.” “Beale Street” moves from its early Sunday morning time slot.
The Celtic music program “The Thistle and Shamrock” will move from a Sunday evening slot to follow “Beale Street” at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
A variety of talk and entertainment programs will replace the “BBC World Service” between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on weekdays. NPR’s “Morning Edition” will now start at 3 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. and will be updated throughout the morning.
Subkis notes that KHSU will still carry BBC news during “The World,” which airs at 4 p.m. on weekdays. He adds that diehard fans of “A Prairie Home Companion”, “Mountain Stage” and the BBC can still hear these shows on the internet by going to their websites for archives, podcasts or live streams from other stations
KHSU’s children’s and storytelling programs, “Redwood Earlines” and “The Whippy Dip Radio Show,” previously on Saturdays at 11 a.m., will move to Sunday evenings at 6 p.m. Subkis says the change was prompted by shifts in the Saturday morning programs, but for other reasons, too.
“We talked to teachers and parents about this move,” says Subkis. “The suggestion was that we move these shows to a time later in the day because families and children have many Saturday activities that take them away from the radio.”
Both shows also feature folksongs and stories in the folk tradition, which make a good fit directly before the “Folklife Woodshed.”
Other changes include an extra half-hour in Sunday’s “Sista’s Place” program, now starting at 2 p.m. and a move for the “Latino USA” news magazine to Fridays
at 1:30 p.m.
Complete details of all the changes can be found on KHSU’s website at khsu.org/program_changes.
KHSU can be found at 90.5 FM in the Humboldt Bay area and on repeaters in communities around Humboldt, Del Norte and Curry counties. KHSU is licensed to Humboldt State University.
