In a move news/talk fans have long hoped for, 90.1/WABE-FM will cut classical music during the mid-day hours on its FM station in favor of more news and arts programming.
Changes are going to be made in late 2014 or early 2015, affecting 30 hours a week of programming between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For years, WABE has resisted dropping its daytime classical music programming, a sign of respect toward beloved on-air host Lois Reitzes, who has been at WABE more than 35 years.
“Lois is the magnet,” said Al Strada, a 75-year-old sales manager, long-time WABE classical music fan and regular contributor to the station. “She has [passion] for what she’s doing. You can tell she loves playing that music and reaching out to the audience.”
But the station, which recently held a strong fall fundraising campaign, is ready to invest in the shift.
The most notable programming change will be Reitzes launching an arts program from 10 a.m. to noon weekdays on the FM dial to talk about a wide range of music, dance, fine arts and plays in metro Atlanta.
Among the other changes, at 9 a.m., WABE will air an extra hour of “Morning Edition.” At noon, WABE will introduce a local news/talk program with an as-yet unnamed host that will run at least one hour and may go two. The station is still hunting for a specific nationally distributed show to fill the hours until 3 p.m. The rest of WABE’s schedule will not change.
Chief Operating Officer John Weatherford said WABE has spent five years doing research and strategic planning to set these changes in motion. He downplayed the impact of Georgia Public Broadcasting airing public radio news/talk programming on Georgia State University’s 88.5/WRAS-FM since June.
“This was not a knee-jerk reaction to whatever GPB is doing,” Weatherford said. “It was protracted and well thought out.” (WABE’s chairman Louis Sullivan blasted the GPB/GSU deal in July, calling it “an unwarranted duplication of service. It is a waste of Georgia’s tax dollars that could be better allocated elsewhere.”)
Weatherford said classical music will be available on its HD2 channel, which is accessible online and on a special HD radio. On that channel, Reitzes will expand her First Cup show from its current 9 to noon slot to 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The difference: far fewer people listen to the HD2 channel than the FM dial.
The current WABE news staff of 12 people will expand to 19 to accommodate the new programming, Weatherford said.
Since he arrived at the station a decade ago, Weatherford has greatly expanded WABE’s local news staff while growing the station’s budget. The station has held up well financially under the stewardship of Weatherford and Milton Clipper, president and CEO of Public Broadcasting Atlanta, which operates WABE.
Although there likely will be grousing from classical music fans, ratings for WABE’s news/talk programming have always far exceeded that of its classical music programs, often by 3-to-1 margins.
In September, among 25- to 54-year-olds, “Morning Edition” garnered a 5 share, ranked sixth overall, based on Nieslen Audio ratings. The mid-day classical music has a 1.6 share, ranked 21st.
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