The daily Afternoon Readings show on BBC Radio 4 is being cut in half to just two days a week to make way for an Archive Hour repeat and Gardeners' Question Time.
The Archive Hour is broadcast on Saturdays at 8.00pm. From Monday 5 January 2009, a new edited version – to be called Archive On 4 – will transmit each week at 3.00pm.
Gardeners' Question Time at present broadcasts on Wednesday afternoons. From Monday 9 January it will move to Friday afternoons and will be an extended 45-minute programme going out between 3.00 and 3.45 pm.
Mark Damazer, Controller, Radio 4 says: "The Archive Hour is one of the network's gems. I have always felt it would be a great addition to the daytime weekday schedule.
"Introducing a shorter repeat of Saturday's Archive Hour on a Monday afternoon will enable new listeners to enjoy these fascinating stories from recent history."
Gardeners' Question Time, first broadcast in 1947, is a huge favourite with keen gardeners, who tune in to the show in their hundreds of thousands every week.
Gardeners' Question Time will still be repeated in full on Sundays at 2.00pm – a slot the programme has occupied since 1957.
