NPR station WUWM/89.7 (Milwaukee) will begin airing a daily news magazine from Wisconsin Public Radio, marking new level of cooperation between the state-owned services.
The change is part of a new WUWM schedule announced on Nov. 20 that the station touts as “more joy and more local.” It comes exactly 18 months after WPR’s only station in the Milwaukee area, WHAD/90.7 (Delafield), dropped a News/Talk format that had competed with WUWM.
Starting Nov. 29, WUWM will air WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” weeknights at 8 p.m. (Thursday’s airing of “Wisconsin Today” will be at 9 p.m. due to the weekly live national show “The Middle” airing at 8.)
The hourlong “Wisconsin Today” initially airs at 9 a.m. on WPR’ News network, which is carried on WHAD-HD2. WPR’s long-form News/Talk programming has not been available on analog radios in Milwaukee since WHAD changed format to Classical last year.
WUWM is operated by UW-Milwaukee and licensed to the UW Board of Regents, which is one of the parent organizations of WPR. Historically, WUWM and WPR have shared some programming, but not in recent decades.
In other changes, WUWM will add a Friday edition of its local noon-hour show, “Lake Effect,” which will be a weekly “best-of” episode. The evening repeat of the show will move up an hour to 7 p.m. and the Friday edition of “Lake Effect” will also repeat Saturdays at 3 p.m.
The evening airing of “Fresh Air” will move from 7 to 9 p.m., displacing an hour of varied programs.
WUWM also announced the launch of “Classic Eats,” a half-hour show hosted by Kyle Johnson Cherek that will air Saturdays at 2 p.m.
Other weekend additions include “This Old House Radio Hour” and “Sports in America with David Greene,” with seven national shows leaving the schedule and many others moving to new times.
Overall, WUWM says the changes will increase the amount of locally-produced programming from 5 to 12% of its schedule.