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WPSU Schedule Changes

Posted by Greg Petersen on 02/18 at 06:14 PM

Since the beginning of February, I have received a few notes, emails, and calls about our new weekday evening lineup.  “Weather World” (the full 15 min. version) is now back at 5:30 pm with a repear at 5:45 pm, followed at 6:00 pm by “BBC World News,” “The Nightly Business Report” at 6:30 pm, and “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” at 7:00 pm

While the (re) addition of “Weather World” to our schedule has met with near universal approval, the rearrangement of the news block has been a bit problematic for some viewers.

Television programming is a bit like walking a high wire at the circus. Our walk across the open air requires properly balancing cost, viewer preference, public service, and program availability. It’s a stretch sometimes but I want you to know that when we make changes to our line up we don’t do it lightly. We work hard to reach the best, most balanced compromise.

The “NewsHour’s” move to 7pm, quite simply, is so that more persons can watch this award-winning program.  We know that there is a significant increase of audience at that time and we want to serve as many viewers as possible. Over the years, we have also received many complaints that its current 6-7pm air time overlaps with the nightly news from the networks. This new time period alleviates that problem.

At its old 11pm slot, “BBC World News” was often pre-empted or pushed significantly later in the evening schedule due to PBS specials and other programming.  Many viewers complained that because of the erratic nature of the schedule, it was very difficult to find the program.  By scheduling the program at 6pm each weeknight, that will not be a problem anymore.

I hope this help you to better understand our reasons for the schedule change.