Over the last year, if you’ve been listening on Saturday afternoons, you’ve heard some dynamic new programs from around the public radio community. As I write in this space last year, our intent was to provide a showcase for some of these programs – to introduce them to our audience, and see if some of them had the potential to grow into year-round offerings. Last year, none of these shows was available every week, and some of them didn’t even exist yet. We didn’t get to all of them, but I hope you had a chance to listen to Freakonomics Radio, The Moth Radio Hour, Radiolab and The TED Radio Hour.

What a difference a year makes! Many of these programs are now being distributed every week, and among those, we’ve found two that we’ll be adding to the WCBU schedule on a permanent basis. First: The Moth Radio Hour, which will air Saturdays at 3:00 p.m.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen in the past, The Moth features true stories told live on stage without scripts, notes, props, or accompaniment. Each hour includes humorous, heartbreaking, and poignant personal tales that delight audiences with their honesty, bravery and humor.

Another new program is The TED Radio Hour (Sundays at 5:00 p.m.) Based on talks given by speakers at the annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference, each show is centered on a common theme – such as the source of happiness, crowd-sourcing innovation, power shifts, or inexplicable connections – and uses excerpts from those talks, and interviews, to bring these ideas to life.

In addition, a few programs already on the schedule will be moving to different times with the beginning of the new year. A Prairie Home Companion continues to air Saturday night at 5:00, but the Sunday re-broadcast of the show will now run from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon. Likewise, Saturday-morning mainstay Car Talk isn’t moving from 9:00 a.m. But you’ll have a second chance to listen to Tom and Ray, Sundays at noon.

On the Media will now air Sundays at 1:00 p.m. (instead of at noon), Marketplace Money moves to Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Those programs will be joined by Travel with Rick Steves, at 2:00 p.m. The show includes interviews with travel experts, and questions and comments from listeners. It covers travels in Europe, the U.S. and the rest of the world; and topics as far flung as keeping healthy on the road, sabbaticals, sailing, fear of flying, and more.

The new program schedule begins Saturday, January 5^th. Please refer to the our program schedule if you have any questions.

All in all, it’s a busy and exciting start to 2013 on Peoria Public Radio. We look forward to bringing you plenty of great radio throughout the new year!