Beginning July 1 and airing Monday – Thursday from 2:00-3:00pm, WVXU will air an expanded Cincinnati Edition. The program has aired Saturday and Sunday mornings since 2005 when Cincinnati Public Radio began operating WVXU. This new daily version will keep some of the same elements, but with the addition of listener interaction and the benefits of immediacy. (Click the above headline for full details - see the slideshow for all host photos)
Covering topics from regional government to business, education, health, and the arts, listeners will be able to join the discussion with decision-makers, authors, and voices from around the region and beyond. Listeners will weigh-in, share their thoughts and ask questions by calling, emailing, and messaging through social media.
Cincinnati Edition’s expanded format will include live interviews, recorded segments and listener interaction. Plus, with the show airing live each day, there will be greater opportunity to cover breaking news and events with more depth and greater understanding in a timelier manner. There will also be a different host each day in order to capitalize on the unique skills and talents of members of the WVXU staff.
Mondays will be hosted by Mark Perzel; Tuesdays by Maryanne Zeleznik; Wednesdays by Mark Heyne; and Thursdays by Jay Hanselman and Howard Wilkinson. The show will be produced by Pete Rightmire, who has been the producer for Impact Cincinnati.
Fridays will continue to be the full two-hours of the very popular Science Friday with Ira Flatow.
In order to successfully make these four hours of live, local radio happen, the Thursday morning interview program Impact Cincinnati and the Saturday and Sunday broadcasts of Cincinnati Edition will cease production. Impact Cincinnati has already ended its run, and Cincinnati Edition will wrap up on June 30.
At 3:00 pm Monday - Thursday, following Cincinnati Edition, WVXU/WMUB will add The Takeaway, hosted by Dayton, Ohio native John Hockenberry. With the tag line “Welcome to the American Conversation,” Hockenberry, an award-winning journalist who previously worked for ABC and NBC and hosted two shows on MSNBC, speaks with a team of contributors and other guests about the major news and cultural topics of the day. The Takeaway is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
One other change coming to 91.7 WVXU and 88.5 WMUB is on the weekend. Saturday afternoons will connect listeners with creative and thought provoking ideas as Radiolab and The TED Radio Hour replace Whad’ya Know? from 3:00 – 5:00 pm.
Radiolab began as a series of 6-week long seasons that WVXU/WMUB carried, but it is now going to a weekly format. Hosts Jad Abumrad (recent MacArthur Genius Grant winner and Oberlin College graduate) and Robert Krulwich (longtime ABC News reporter and contributor) create a show about curiosity, asking interesting questions and finding interesting ways to answer them. Radiolab also has a strong multi-platform approach with web, podcasts, blogs and more, all accessible through radiolab.org.
The TED Radio Hour generated from the popular TEDTalks gatherings that have taken the country by storm. The show is described as “a journey through fascinating ideas: astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, new ways to think and create.” Each episode takes on a new theme, and a series of riveting speakers talk to that theme with personal recollections, advancing new or transformative ideas, or challenging listeners to think or act differently. The show is hosted by Guy Raz, most recently the host of NPR’s All Things Considered Weekend.