WABE’S LINEUP
The new WABE weekday lineup from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
6-10 a.m.: “Morning Edition”
10 a.m.-noon: “City Lights,” Lois Reitzes’ arts news/talk program
Noon-2 p.m.: “A Closer Look,” a local news/talk program with Rose Scott and Denis O’Hayer
2-3 p.m.: “Outlook” from the BBC
3-4 p.m.: “BBC Newshour”
4-6:30 p.m.: “All Things Considered”
6:30-7 p.m.: “Marketplace”
Public radio station 90.1/WABE-FM on Monday is launching four new hours of daily local news/talk shows during the middays on its primary FM channel.
Daytime classical music, which ended Friday on the FM dial, is available on an existing HD channel.
But in a move to help soften the blow for classical music fans, legendary host Lois Reitzes will be leading two hours of arts-focused talk and news programming from 10 a.m. to noon in “City Lights.”
She will be followed by a two-hour news-oriented talk show, “A Closer Look,” hosted by veteran journalists Denis O’Hayer and Rose Scott.
For decades, classical music has filled WABE’s 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. hours, but pressure from fans demanding all news/talk during the day finally won out. WABE is also adding an extra hour of “Morning Edition” at 9 a.m. and a BBC show called “Outlook” at 2 p.m.
John Lemley, who has hosted the noon classical music show “City Cafe” the past six years, which presented some arts features, is leaving the station though he has not said what his next move will be.
WABE chief operating officer John Weatherford said these changes have been in the works for several years. He added that the surprise move last summer by Georgia Public Broadcasting to create a rival public radio channel on the FM dial at 88.5/WRAS-FM was a factor but not the primary factor that led to this shift.
From a ratings standpoint, this move makes sense. Audience for WABE’s news/talk programming often tripled that of the classical hours.
But the presence of Reitzes may have been a crucial element in keeping classical music on air all these years. Reitzes, 61, has been with WABE since 1979 and is the longest-running radio host at the same station in Atlanta.
She has deep ties with the arts organizations in town built up over many years. She not only plans to talk to the local arts leaders and performers but also interview out-of-town authors, singers, dancers, actors and comedians.
Her workload is significantly higher now because she is also taping a five-hour classical show for the HD2 channel, available online or for people with HD radios. That’s two hours more than her “Second Cup” show had been on the FM dial. The upside to that show is she’ll be able to air longer pieces without the constraints of running NPR news breaks every 30 minutes. “I’m able to revisit works I haven’t played in years or in some cases, ever,” she said.
While Reitzes will be focused almost exclusively on arts and lifestyle, Scott, a WABE producer and reporter since 2008 who has specialized in issues such as sex trafficking, sports and education, and O’Hayer, a former TV reporter with 37 years of journalism under his belt, are going to tackle harder news.
“For me, it’s an opportunity to expand into longer-format features,” Scott said. “Normally, a news report might last one or two minutes. Now, we can really dig deep. We want to go beyond soundbites, clips and headlines.”
O’Hayer said they are both “improvisational.” He believes their show won’t be as tightly formatted as NPR’s “All Things Considered.” “We want to make this fun,” he said.
Rival GPB’s WRAS-FM daytime weekday programming is primarily national shows with the exception of Celeste Headlee’s local show at 9 a.m., “On Second Thought,” which debuted in the fall.
“I don’t worry about what anyone else is doing,” O’Hayer said.
