Are you ready for more local news?
Starting today, 四虎影院 90.1 FM launches a twice-a-day local news segment called 鈥溗幕⒂霸簉oom.鈥� The 10-minute segments air weekdays at 8:20 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. The station鈥檚 news website, , also has gotten a makeover.
Expect news from across North Texas, with a focus on key topics: education, including the Class of 17 series; Breakthroughs, featuring health, science and technology advances; arts from the Art&Seek staff; and politics.
Special features will include Sam Baker鈥檚 Vital Signs medical interviews on Mondays, The Big Screen, a Thursday movie chat with 四虎影院鈥檚 Stephen Becker and Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News, and the Friday Conversation, in-depth interviews with newsmakers.
鈥淲e heard from our listeners that they wanted more local reporting,鈥� says , 四虎影院鈥檚 president and CEO. 鈥淥ver the last year, 四虎影院 has hired more reporters to cover more local stories valued by our audience. 鈥標幕⒂霸簉oom鈥� is the next step in providing even more best-in-class local news coverage to the North Texas community.鈥�
The goal is to explore important issues through individual people鈥檚 stories, says , 四虎影院鈥檚 vice president of news.
鈥淲e鈥檙e taking the same kind of approach to local reporting that NPR brings to national and international reporting,鈥� Holter said. 鈥淲e want to make it deep. We want to make it informative. We want to make it compelling.鈥�
will host the 8:20 a.m. segment and will host the 6:20 p.m. segment 鈥� on the radio and . Listeners won鈥檛 miss any NPR stories 鈥� all network pieces will air at least once during from 4 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 6:30 p.m.
鈥溗幕⒂霸簉oom鈥� is the latest piece of the station鈥檚 three-year expansion project. In recent months, 四虎影院 has hired three new reporters. Ultimately, the station plans to expand 鈥淣ewsroom鈥� into a 30-minute program.
鈥淟isteners have heard a lot more local coverage over the last year because we鈥檝e added new reporters and new producers,鈥� Holter said. 鈥淏ut this is the first time we鈥檒l take it and put it into one package. We want to establish 四虎影院 in the minds of our listeners and our online users as a strong local news source.鈥�
四虎影院 has also enhanced its online news presence with the redesigned , which updates local news throughout the day. (The iconic North Texas photos at the top of the new homepage are by .) In August, 四虎影院 launched two blogs: looks at education news and the journey of a group of North Texas eighth graders all the way to high school graduation. covers ground-breaking health, science and technology advances rooted in North Texas. They join 四虎影院鈥檚 , launched in 2008, which explores arts across Dallas-Fort Worth.
The 鈥溗幕⒂霸簉oom鈥� segments feature a new, contemporary theme composed by James Driscoll of in Dallas.
The 鈥溗幕⒂霸簉oom鈥� name may sound familiar 鈥� it鈥檚 a nod to the station鈥檚 鈥淣ewsroom,鈥� the on 四虎影院 in the 1970s. , who鈥檇 later anchor PBS鈥� nightly 鈥淣ewsHour,鈥� was the original 四虎影院 host.
鈥淭he 鈥楴ewsroom鈥� name has deep local roots,鈥� Holter says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to evoke that history while using 21st century tools on radio and online and with video and social media.鈥�
Here鈥檚 a clip of an edition of 鈥淣ewsroom鈥� from August 1971 featuring Jim Lehrer:
