Anchors on NPR's "Morning Edition"

[Gregg.]

This program is heard on most NPR member stations in each time zone from 5 to 9 a.m. Some stations outside the Eastern Time Zone start it at 4 a.m. or earlier. The hosts usually do only two hours from 5 to 7 a.m. The program is repeated several times for stations across the U.S.

One of the hosts is A. Martínez, who does his anchoring from NPR's Culver City studios near Los Angeles. He's not the actor A Martinez. The actor doesn't use an accent over the I. This Martínez got his start on XETRA 690 in Tijuana-San Diego (now XEWW) and later worked on Los Angeles sports station KSPN and public radio station KPCC.

As a California resident, he is doing his anchoring from 2 to 4 a.m. PT. Wow. If he writes some of his own copy, he probably gets into the studio around midnight or 12:30 a.m. I guess work-from-home is an option but still, that's a pretty tough schedule, doing a show that's heard in morning drive in the East from a West Coast studio.

The other anchors are Steve Inskeep, based in New York along with Leila Fadel and Michel Martin (pronounced Michelle) who are based in Washington. I'm sure their schedules are tough as well. They are likely in the studio at 3:30 a.m. And they probably have to stick around for a while, even when the show is repeating, just in case a big story breaks and they have to break in. That's rare but it could happen.

And one last thought. Even if the schedule is tough on mornings they are working, they only work half of weekdays. With four anchors on Morning Edition but only two anchors used per morning, what do the anchors do the other days of the week?

 

[michael hagerty]

And one last thought. Even if the schedule is tough on mornings they are working, they only work half of weekdays. With four anchors on Morning Edition but only two anchors used per morning, what do the anchors do the other days of the week?

If you've ever heard feature pieces by the other anchors, or long-form interviews, there's your answer. The days off are used for preparation, travel and editing.

 

[TheBigA]

Morning Edition is more than just the anchors. There is a production team that handles bookings, segment production, script writing, and planning. There are also several news desks that co-ordinate the reporters. National Desk, Washington Desk, Foreign Desk, etc. By the time the hosts get in, a lot of the prep work has already been done. When they arrive, they get up to speed on all the news that's happened since they left, look over what's been done, rewrite the intros if necessary, and do any pre-show pre-tapes. Typically all of the opens (the :60 before the newscasts) are pre-taped. They might pre-tape some intros. Some of the feature interviews are done the day before. Then these hosts also are reporters, so they want to get out of the studio and report some stories as well.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

We only run one hour of ME.. we havce the BBC WS at 5, ME at 6... we dropped the second hour of ME at 7 to add local programming

 

[TheBigA]

We only run one hour of ME.. we havce the BBC WS at 5, ME at 6... we dropped the second hour of ME at 7 to add local programming

5AM Alaska time is 6PM in London, so you're getting the prime time team. Morning Edition at 6AM is 10AM in DC, so that would be the last rollover of the show, likely all pre-recorded with only TOH news live.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

5AM Alaska time is 6PM in London, so you're getting the prime time team. Morning Edition at 6AM is 10AM in DC, so that would be the last rollover of the show, likely all pre-recorded with only TOH news live.

We also dropped Fresh air and only carry 30 minutes of ATC. We have the BBC WS again at 7pm.

Their audio is great.. i mean its speech and all.. but its so crisp clean and clear. Not that NPR's isnt.. but crap, the BBC sounds like theyre in my studio

 

[michael hagerty]

We also dropped Fresh air and only carry 30 minutes of ATC. We have the BBC WS again at 7pm.

Their audio is great.. i mean its speech and all.. but its so crisp clean and clear. Not that NPR's isnt.. but crap, the BBC sounds like theyre in my studio

I noticed that working at CapRadio. Our Morning Edition clock included a 90-second update from BBC WS that came cold out of Morning Edition.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I noticed that working at CapRadio. Our Morning Edition clock included a 90-second update from BBC WS that came cold out of Morning Edition.

i think the bit rate of the feed for the BBC WS is higher

 

[KMan]

Los Angeles based anchor Renee Montagne outlined her schedule for Morning Edition in this article when she retired.

She did arrive at the studio at midnight to prep for the broadcast starting at 2AM PT. Presumably the NY and Washington based anchors are arriving at 3AM ET for the 5AM ET start.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/18/486460238/renee-montagne-to-step-down-as-host-of-morning-edition

Renee got the job as a "temporary fill-in" to replace Bob Edwards and then stuck around for a dozen years.

That schedule is pretty unpleasant for Los Angeles based anchor which is why I was surprised A Martinez took the position and stayed in LA for it.

 

[Weiserguy]

That schedule is pretty unpleasant for Los Angeles based anchor which is why I was surprised A Martinez took the position and stayed in LA for it.

I get the feeling (without any more evidence than my ears) that Martinez broadcasts from a home studio. Where the other NPR West talent say they're in Culver City, A always identifies himself as in "Los Angeles".

Also, the most difficult part of hosting ME from Culver City might be the need to hit the freeways at the end of the shift, just when LA rush hour traffic is at its peak.

 

[michael hagerty]

Los Angeles based anchor Renee Montagne outlined her schedule for Morning Edition in this article when she retired.

She did arrive at the studio at midnight to prep for the broadcast starting at 2AM PT. Presumably the NY and Washington based anchors are arriving at 3AM ET for the 5AM ET start.

Morning newscasts are brutal.

When I produced the KFBK Morning News (2014-2016), I got in at 3:00 a.m. The anchors were rarely later than 3:30. We went on the air at 5:00.

I'd been promoted to Managing Editor and had only been off mornings for a few weeks when Ken Charles offered me the opportunity to produce mornings at KNX. I turned that down within a day for several reasons, but chief among them was Ken telling me I needed to arrive at 1:00 AM---only an hour after the West Coast Morning Edition anchors.

 

[TheBigA]

Morning newscasts are brutal.

Never did it myself. But I know some who did. NPR is a union shop, and they pay a shift differential for working the early shift. That's why a lot of them did it. When Bob Edwards was there, he was also the AFTRA rep. So he was aware of the benefits of the morning show. Plus he didn't have to see the suits. And they didn't see him in his jeans.

 

[Gregg.]

I wonder if the same is or was true for Steve Harvey? He's on at 6 a.m. on the East Coast. Yet he was often in California taping TV shows. So to be live on WBLS in New York and other East Coast stations at 6 a.m., was he doing the The Steve Harvey Morning Show at 3 a.m. in Hollywood? I'm sure some of his work was prerecorded. But some of it had to be live.

These days, I think Harvey tapes Family Feud in the Atlanta area. Great tax benefits for relocating there, I guess. So he can do his radio gig at 6 a.m. weekdays from Atlanta. I notice Meredith Viera and 25 Words or Less this year is also recording that game show in Atlanta. When I was on daytime Who Wants to Be A Millionaire some years ago, Viera would tape four shows a day in ABC's New York studios. She'd do an entire season in four months.

 

[radiofan2023]

I wonder if the same is or was true for Steve Harvey? He's on at 6 a.m. on the East Coast. Yet he was often in California taping TV shows. So to be live on WBLS in New York and other East Coast stations at 6 a.m., was he doing the The Steve Harvey Morning Show at 3 a.m. in Hollywood? I'm sure some of his work was prerecorded. But some of it had to be live.

These days, I think Harvey tapes Family Feud in the Atlanta area. Great tax benefits for relocating there, I guess. So he can do his radio gig at 6 a.m. weekdays from Atlanta. I notice Meredith Viera and 25 Words or Less this year is also recording that game show in Atlanta. When I was on daytime Who Wants to Be A Millionaire some years ago, Viera would tape four shows a day in ABC's New York studios. She'd do an entire season in four months.

Yeah, Steve would come in at 3 AM. Ben Maller has mentioned on air that when Steve used to do his morning show from the Premiere studios, they'd pass each other walking in and out of the parking garage as Ben left after his show, which ends at 3 AM.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

Personally, I found late grave/early AM to be a far desirable shift over late swings/overnight.

Start at 3am, out no later than 11am…gives you the opportunity to do things during business hours and get some sun. Pre-COVID, it wasn’t that difficult to go go grocery shopping or get a bite to eat at 4am. Nowadays, lots of even medium sized towns have no overnight business besides gas stations.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

The other anchors are Steve Inskeep, based in New York along with Leila Fadel and Michel Martin (pronounced Michelle) who are based in Washington. I'm sure their schedules are tough as well. They are likely in the studio at 3:30 a.m.

Mr. Inskeep is also based at NPR HQ in Washington.

And one last thought. Even if the schedule is tough on mornings they are working, they only work half of weekdays. With four anchors on Morning Edition but only two anchors used per morning, what do the anchors do the other days of the week?

Despite having four hosts for two chairs, they still need fill-ins from the correspondent base. All four regular hosts were off all five days this week. Sarah McCammon and Asma Khalid hosted the show in their place.

I find that puzzling. Surely one of the motivations for having extra hosts is having a default for holiday periods.

 

[Weiserguy]

Mr. Inskeep is also based at NPR HQ in Washington.

Despite having four hosts for two chairs, they still need fill-ins from the correspondent base. All four regular hosts were off all five days this week. Sarah McCammon and Asma Khalid hosted the show in their place.

I find that puzzling. Surely one of the motivations for having extra hosts is having a default for holiday periods.

I suspect that doing that is a form of succession planning. In an off-week like this one, give the correspondents on management's short list of potential host replacements a chance to do live auditions by hosting the program on days where the listenership is historically lower than average and ratings might not matter as much. See if they shine when given the opportunity to sit in the big chair, or conversely, something about their tryout raises red flags.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

This program is heard on most NPR member stations in each time zone from 5 to 9 a.m. Some stations outside the Eastern Time Zone start it at 4 a.m. or earlier. The hosts usually do only two hours from 5 to 7 a.m. The program is repeated several times for stations across the U.S.

One of the hosts is A. Martínez, who does his anchoring from NPR's Culver City studios near Los Angeles. He's not the actor A Martinez. The actor doesn't use an accent over the I. This Martínez got his start on XETRA 690 in Tijuana-San Diego (now XEWW) and later worked on Los Angeles sports station KSPN and public radio station KPCC.

As a California resident, he is doing his anchoring from 2 to 4 a.m. PT. Wow. If he writes some of his own copy, he probably gets into the studio around midnight or 12:30 a.m. I guess work-from-home is an option but still, that's a pretty tough schedule, doing a show that's heard in morning drive in the East from a West Coast studio.

The other anchors are Steve Inskeep, based in New York along with Leila Fadel and Michel Martin (pronounced Michelle) who are based in Washington. I'm sure their schedules are tough as well. They are likely in the studio at 3:30 a.m. And they probably have to stick around for a while, even when the show is repeating, just in case a big story breaks and they have to break in. That's rare but it could happen.

All Things Considered has similar arrangements with their hosts. They have 4 hosts like the Morning Edition example all for the same reasons as explained in this thread.

All Things Considered - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[michael hagerty]

I find that puzzling. Surely one of the motivations for having extra hosts is having a default for holiday periods.

Nope. The primary motivation is for the anchors to continue to be working journalists, and to work on feature stories and big interviews on the days they don't anchor.

This is an arrangement that every TV news anchor I ever worked with who had serious journalistic ability and intent always wanted, and I was envied (!) for being the weekend anchor with two or three days a week to do stories in Reno and Las Vegas. But TV was so focused on familiarity that the bosses would never consider an alternating or rotating anchor schedule as a regular thing. The best the anchors could get was a week---at the most---to put together a special report or series for sweeps, four times a year, max.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Does Giles Snyder ever fill in?

I only hear the weekend show because I turn it on for "Wait! Wait!" and used to listen to "Car Talk". Still do, but online.