And just to give an idea of what a medium-market NPR station can do with ME with enough resources, here's how much we do locally in a typical hour at WXXI:
00:00 national :60 billboard, but it includes a local "donut" that we fill with a tease for our upcoming stories
01:00 NPR hourly newscast
04:00 local WXXI newscast (3:30)
07:30 national ME segment A - this is usually the top national stories of the day and most stations will always carry this in full
19:00 local 2:00 break - weather, traffic, forward promotion and local underwriting
21:00 national underwriting
21:35 national ME segment B - we almost always take this in full
29:00 local :60 break - see 19:00
30:00 NPR national newscast (this comes in two segments with a cutaway at 31:30 that we could use for local news but don't)
33:00 local :60 break
34:00 national underwriting
34:35 national ME segment C - by this point in the hour, it's often feature stories. This is sometimes a spot for one long 7 minute feature. We generally carry this in full
42:30 local WXXI newscast
45:35 ME segment D - this is the one NPR designates as an official "cutaway," so the story they feed nationally in this slot isn't teased or promoted elsewhere in the hour by the national hosts.
We use this slot for local long-form reporting. We can fit stories up to 5 minutes long from our own reporters or from Karen DeWitt in Albany here. Our local ME host will occasionally do live interviews here, and on Mondays this is where we carry a local business report as well.
If we don't have something local for this slot, we run the national D segment
49:35 local 2-minute break - more forward promotion, weather, traffic, etc. If segment D runs long it cuts into this break and that's OK.
51:30 national ME segment E. For several hours of the morning, NPR has a deal with APM to carry Marketplace Morning Report in this segment. Otherwise, this is often where a single long story such as an interview with an artist can go.
If we happen to have an exceptional long local piece or several 4-minute features that all need to run, we can use the E block here for that, but we usually don't.
58:20 national underwriting
59:00 local :60 break including legal ID
And around and around it goes from 5:30 (we don't do local in the first half hour at 5) untill 9:07:30 (we go back to the full national feed for the rest of the 9 AM hour).
There are some pieces NPR sends down that we never use - there's another block of national hourly newscast content at :04 that we cover up locally, and a little :30 "return" bit of host chatter that we cover at :44. There are also some national promos as part of the NPR feed (for 1A, Here and Now, ATC and Fresh Air) that come during our local breaks and can either be used or covered.
And for every station that localizes ME, there's a different way of doing it that's built on the skeleton of the national clock.
It's a fun and sometimes infuriating jigsaw puzzle, especially in a situation like mine at WXXI where I'm the solo local host/newscaster/show producer/board op, a role that can expand to be as many as four or five people at a really big station.
