This week, ‘Here and Now’ becomes even more ‘here,’ for a longer ‘now’

Here’s a fact that many NewsWorks readers know, but some do not:

NewsWorks.org is part of WHYY, the Philadelphia region’s public radio and television service for news coverage. And WHYY-FM has some significant and, we think, pretty promising changes coming to its daily program lineup. They should make midday on our air a newsier, more vibrant place.

And the news team that brings you NewsWorks and NewsWorks Tonight is going to play a big role in improving that midday programming.

Beginning today, July 1, the program Here and Now, out of WBUR in Boston, will expand from one hour to two – and start being an NPR co-production fueled by a national network of public radio reporters, including ours here at WHYY.

The program will air from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday on WHYY; we’ll take only an hour of Here and Now on Friday, so that we can continue to bring you Science Friday at 2 p.m.

WHYY/NewsWorks reportres will feed news features and breaking news reports regularly to Here and Now.

We already experienced an example of how this will work and sound during the Market Street building collapse, when our reporters gave live updates on that story to Here and Now‘s national audience.

This collaborative approach is a new model for NPR, which has never before given such prominence in its program lineup to a show produced by a member station. Nor has such an extensive network of member station reporters worked with one station on a program.

Long-time Here and Now host Robin Young will be joined Monday by a new co-host, Jeremy Hobson, formerly of Marketplace Morning Report.  (And, yes, since you asked, Robin does sometimes sound eerily like Terry Gross on the air.)

The catalyst for this revamped, expanded show was NPR’s decision to cancel Talk of the Nation, which aired for the last time on Friday.

Also, beginning on Tuesday, in the noon hour, we’ll air a new and also newsy program, The Takeaway, hosted by John Hockenberry out of WNYC in New York City.  Our own Voices in the Family with WHYY’s Dr. Dan Gottlieb will continue to air at noon on Mondays.

We’re interested in what you think of the changes and the new programs. Feel free to tweet (@chrissatullo) or email me (csatullo@whyy.org) with any thoughts you care to share.