ABC’s morning News podcast Start Here will expand its weekday schedule into the weekend. In the second part of a double announcement, the show will be syndicated to the ABC News Radio syndicates.
The weekend edition will be an hour-long program, an expansion of the current weekday show. (A quick scan of recent episodes reveals lengths between 29 and 32 minutes.)
In a politically flippant comparison, ABC states the rationale behind the decision to launch on weekends: “President Trump has been known to post messages on social media late at night and throughout the weekend, creating headlines in his wake. So the arrival of a new weekend edition of the ABC Audio morning news podcast Start Here is well-timed.”
All this begins February 21. Radio stations will get their copies on Friday afternoons, with flexibility for each station to air it when it chooses.
ABC says this: “The hourlong weekend edition of the series will be double the length of the weekday edition, giving host Brad Mielke more time for in-depth conversations with ABC News correspondents, experts and newsmakers.” Brad Mielke has been a RAIN Summit keynote speaker.
An interesting side note: Start Here maintains the highest listen-through rate of any ABC podcast, according to the network.