Q&A on the News

Q: What’s happened to John Lemley on WABE? With the exception of his “City Café” program, he’s gone from the afternoons. Is he on a different station? If so, please let me know how to stream his programs. Plus, there seems to have been a change in a good bit of WABE’s programming, and it sounds as if they’re phasing out their classical music. They’ve brought back “Tell Me More” in the evening. What’s going on?

—Josh Hertz, Atlanta

A: Lemley still hosts City Café from noon-1 p.m. daily, and is the local host for "Performance Today," which runs from 1-3 p.m. daily, John Weatherford, the COO of Public Broadcasting Atlanta, told Q&A on the News. "He is still very much with us, and from our perspective, we hope he is for a long time to come," Weatherford said. "John is perfect for 'City Café,' and he does the traffic, weather, news updates and is promoting programs for 'Performance Today.' This new positioning gives John more free time to spread his wings in addition to these things." "Tell Me More" is on a six-month test run to "see if the program has legs with the WABE audience," Weatherford said. It will air from 8-9 p.m. nightly through June, and if it has a strong audience, the station will either keep it in that time slot or make a decision about changing it, he said. Weatherford said WABE has a new free application (app) for iPhone and Android phones that allows listeners to stream the station's programs to their smartphones. "It's like TiVo for radio. If you're interrupted, you can stop, go back and then continue on with (the program)," Weatherford said.