Change is in the airwaves for 90.5 WESA.
Starting next Monday, the local NPR independent FM station will be replacing “Essential Pittsburgh” at its familiar noon weekday time slot with “The Takeaway.”
A new version of “Essential Pittsburgh,” a local news magazine show hosted by Paul Guggenheimer, is expected to debut in August, according to Elizabeth Baisley, director of marketing for Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corp., which also owns 91.3 WYEP.
A statement read by Mr. Guggenheimer on the air recently said the show “will return at the end of the summer in a new format with interviews, in-depth reports and features throughout the day. Although the format is changing, you can still count on us to live up to the name ‘Essential Pittsburgh.’ ”
The company recently announced the hiring of new president and CEO, Terry O’Reilly, who arrives Aug. 1.
“The Takeaway,” a national daily news show, is hosted by John Hockenberry and produced by WNYC-New York and WGBH-Boston. It will run Monday through Thursday; on Fridays, Kevin Gavin, WESA executive producer for special projects, will host a news roundup show.
“Paul and the ‘Essential Pittsburgh’ team are being re-deployed to create interviews and features that will run during ‘Morning Edition’ and ‘All Things Considered,’ ” Ms. Baisley said.
“It’s part of a strategic reboot of our newsroom. We are moving the news organization into a beats-and-desks configuration as opposed to general reporting. We want to make sure that our best local and regional reporting was getting out to our largest audiences.”
Ms. Baisley said that WESA’s audience has doubled in the mornings since last October’s ratings, and there just aren’t as many potential listeners at noon. In a digital age, everything eventually ends up online, but the former “Essential” noon broadcast (it is re-broadcast at 8 p.m.) “was not optimal. Appointment radio is a bit of a thing of the past.”
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1478 or @MariaSciulloPG.
First Published: July 18, 2016, 9:17 p.m.
