LOS ANGELES (AP) - NBC News is stepping into a radio news hole that CNN is leaving behind.
The division of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal said Thursday that it will expand its weekday radio news broadcasts beyond the one minute per hour it now produces. This will start on April 1, the date Time Warner Inc.’s CNN plans to stop providing syndicated radio news.
The expanded newscasts of up to six minutes of news at the top of the hour and up to three minutes at the half-hour, with updates around the clock, seven days a week, will be distributed to radio stations by Dial Global Inc.
CNN had provided hundreds of radio stations with newscasts of that length through Dial Global, but it said Thursday that it would end that relationship to focus on its CNN Wire and online and mobile applications including CNN.com.
NBC News Radio executive producer Elizabeth O’Connell said the deal with Dial Global is a good way to extend the NBC News brand. Its correspondents, including Chuck Todd at the White House, anchor the newscasts.
Dial Global executive vice president of news, Bart Tessler, said Dial Global will add up to a dozen more staffers to support the increased programming commitment.
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