Boston Radio: Non-Com WBUR Cancels Midday Talk Show

WBUR announced plans Friday to cancel its midday talk show, Radio Boston, and to shift more resources to its flagship morning and late afternoon news programs, which draw the station's largest number of listeners.

Radio Boston has been a staple of WBUR since it launched 17 years ago as a weekly program and then became a daily show in May of 2010. The move comes just months after its host, Tiziana Dearing, was named anchor of WBUR’s Morning Edition show, where she continues to interview major newsmakers on a regular basis, including Gov. Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu.

WBUR Executive Editor Dan Mauzy acknowledged that dropping Radio Boston, the station’s sole purely local news show, will be a loss for its faithful listeners.

"I think a lot of people will really miss Radio Boston and I'm among them," said Mauzy, who got his own start at WBUR as a producer on Radio Boston 14 years ago.

WBUR managers said no jobs will be lost in the move. But the Radio Boston decision follows cost cuts at the public radio station earlier this year that included cutting staff by more than 13%. Since then, management has had to make strategic choices about how to best serve listeners and readers with a leaner staff.

Producers who currently work on Radio Boston will be redeployed to Morning Edition and All Things Considered, the afternoon news show, enabling them to do more reporting and arranging of interviews with local newsmakers. Yasmin Amer, the current executive producer of Radio Boston, will continue to lead a production team and coordinate local stories across the afternoon and morning shows, which also feature national NPR feeds.

Starting Jan. 6, WBUR plans to extend Morning Edition for a fifth hour, to 10 a.m. The BBC NewsHour will shift to 10 a.m. and On Point will air at 11 a.m. (repeated at 7 p.m.). The station’s midday news magazine, Here & Now, will run for a third hour at 3 p.m.