KUAF to Provide More Midday News With 'Here & Now'

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas public radio station KUAF will begin broadcasting Here & Now four days a week, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. beginning Monday, July 1. Here & Now is a live production from NPR and WBUR, Boston, in collaboration with public radio stations across the country. The program reflects the fluid world of news as it’s happening, with timely, smart and in-depth news and conversation.

“We’ve had the daily one-hour show on our HD3 -- All News stream and have grown to love the program,” said Rick Stockdell, KUAF station manager. “The new version of Here & Now will give us the opportunity to insert local material in the national program, to help meet our growing audience demand for midday news and analysis.”

Here & Now will follow KUAF’s local news magazine, Ozarks at Large which is broadcast every day at 12noon. Here & Now will air Monday through Thursday from 1pm to 3pm. NPR’s popular science program Science Friday with Ira Flatow will continue on KUAF every Friday afternoon from 1p.m. to 3 p.m.

Here & Now has a successful track record: it began at WBUR in 1997 and is carried today by over 180 stations nationwide. The program will expand from one to two hours on July 1 and serve as a bridge between NPR's signature news magazines, Morning Edition and All Things Considered. This marks the first time NPR has collaborated with a member station on a daily news program.

KUAF is one of 300 public radio stations nationwide carrying the expanded Here & Now, presenting listeners the opportunity to hear more NPR news from around the world and across the country every weekday. The program’s daily lineup will include interviews with NPR hosts, reporters, editors and bloggers as well as news from stations across the nation.  In the midday time slot, Here & Now will often function as public radio’s first source for breaking news coverage.

Here & Now has been hosted by Robin Young for more than a decade. A Peabody Award-winning journalist, she has reported for NBC, CBS and ABC television, and was substitute host and correspondent for The Today Show. Starting July 1, Young will be joined by co-host Jeremy Hobson, most recently host of Marketplace Morning Report. Hobson has broad producing, reporting and hosting experience at the station, program and network level. Additionally, Meghna Chakrabarti, co-host of WBUR's Radio Boston, has been selected as the program's primary back-up host.

To ensure that Here & Now reflects what’s happening in a diverse geographic range of communities, NPR and WBUR have invited other public radio stations across the nation to contribute to the show. These contributions may be presented as feature packages, interviews or straightforward collaboration when news is unfolding in a specific market.

Here & Now will follow KUAF’s local news magazine, Ozarks at Large which is broadcast every day at 12noon. Here & Now will air Monday through Thursday from 1pm to 3pm.NPR’s popular science program Science Friday with Ira Flatow will continue on KUAF every Friday afternoon from 1p.m to 3 p.m.