© 2024 KPCW

KPCW
Spencer F. Eccles Broadcast Center
PO Box 1372 | 460 Swede Alley
Park City | UT | 84060
Office: (435) 649-9004 | Studio: (435) 655-8255

Music & Artist Inquiries: music@kpcw.org
News Tips & Press Releases: news@kpcw.org
Volunteer Opportunities
General Inquiries: info@kpcw.org
Listen Like a Local Park City & Heber City Summit & Wasatch counties, Utah
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KPCW, your nonprofit, community public radio station needs your support! Call in during our on-air Pledge Drive, March 2nd - 5th and RECEIVE AMAZING ITEMS AS YOUR "gift with pledge". You can also find EXCITING ONLINE AUCTION ITEMS all week through Friday, March 6th! 0000017b-652b-d50a-a3ff-f7efb0230000Pledge Drive Home PageHow to Donate Items/Services to the Pledge DrivePledge Drive Premium DonorsHow to Become a Nonprofit Hour HostNonprofit Hour Hosts & ScheduleONLINE AUCTIONBecoming a Broadcasters Club MemberBecoming a Sustaining MemberDonate Now

NPR Clock Change Could Influence Your Mornings

You'll hear things at new times with KPCW's morning show clocks.

If you wake up and schedule your morning rhythms to the morning news with Leslie Thatcher, this week, you might have noticed you felt a little off-tempo.

That’s because NPR has changed the timing of their Morning Edition programming.

Each show on-air is governed by a “clock.” These graphical representations of each hour lay out what happens in a program and when. 

Whether it’s a news story, a promo for what is coming up later in the show, or a regular segment such as the Marketplace Morning Report, it all happens at a precise time according to The Clock. This clock is also how stations coordinate between hosts in NPR’s studios in Washington, DC or Culver City, Calif., and KPCW’s hosts who are in our studios in Park City, so we don’t end up talking over each other.

For years these broadcast Clocks have stayed consistent. But how the nation listens to the radio and gets news has changed radically.

According to Tamar Charney from Michigan Public Radio, over the last year, NPR has been redesigning the show clocks with a team of Program Directors from stations across the country. They spent countless hours on conference calls and in face-to-face meetings, going over every minute of the shows. They considered research about how people’s morning routines differ from their afternoon routines, and how that affects how often hosts need to tell you about the weather. Lots of thought went into what you will hear during each second of the shows when the new clocks went into effect on November 17th.

The new Morning Edition Clock is more segmented, and includes promotions for shows that don't air on KPCW. That meant shuffling exactly when and where local news is included. With the new configuration of The Clock, KPCW will play a few minutes more local news each hour - the cornerstone of our programming.

The bottom line is, if you know when to get out of bed, walk the dog, or leave the house based on when something happens on the radio, you might want to keep your watch handy until you get to know the rhythm of the new Clock.

Here are a couple changes to note:

  • News headlines during Morning Edition will air at 1 minute past the hour on our station. 
  • Local News will now run between 18 after the hour until 33 after the hour, and from 41 after the hour until 51 after the hour.
  • Morning Marketplace will remain at 51 minutes after the hour.
  • Ski Reports - Monday, Nov. 24 being the first weekday report - will be live from 7:28 to 7:32 AM

Related Content