DIANE REHM SHOW ADDED TO RADIO LINE-UP STARTING MONDAY

After an extensive decision making process, MPBN is adding The Diane Rehm Show to its Monday-Thursday 2:00 pm afternoon schedule, starting Monday, November, 17. Please note that Toby's Down Memory Lane will continue to be heard on Friday afternoons.

In making this decision - MPBN consulted with listeners and members through the Member Opinion Form (MOF), our Community Advisory Board, and directly on-air by soliciting calls and emails during a four week long trial air of both The Diane Rehm Show and Talk of the Nation. We received over 500 email and phone contacts, strongly in favor of adding one or the other to the schedule.

The preference between Diane Rehm and Talk of the Nation was evenly split in our Community Advisory Board feedback, with a very slight preference for Talk of the Nation from our listeners. The decision to select The Diane Rehm Show was due to the passion her listeners demonstrated, the long history of requests for this program, the success, strength and loyalty of listeners her program has demonstrated elsewhere around the country, her choice of relevant topics, and the consistent pacing and intelligent conversation with notable guests.

MPBN began looking at alternatives for this timeslot due to listener requests (many for Diane Rehm) over the recent months and years, and continued afternoon listening weakness at this time over the last several years. The program fits well in the MPBN line-up and is aligned with helping MPBN achieve it's strategic objective of helping to foster, facilitate and promote civic engagement in these challenging times.

MPBN is also exploring options that might allow us to air Diane Rehm's Friday program "Week in Review" to our Friday schedule at at time other than afternoons.

Program costs were not a factor in choosing either of the programs. MPBN Radio will still be able to air Talk of the Nation specials from time to time. 

MPBN also recognizes the importance many of our listeners place in music; we have recently (early November) added the second hour of American Routes to our schedule, and added a new eclectic performance program called Canada Live to our Sunday evening. We remain strongly committed to offering high quality music with Morning Classical Music with Suzanne Nance, the classical evening concerts, Saturday Opera, In Tune by Ten with Sara Willis, and Friday Night Jazz with Rich Tozier among our many offerings.