Ed Gordon gets NPR news show

Moving swiftly to replace departed talk show host Tavis Smiley, National Public Radio said it will launch a new daily public affairs program aimed at the African American community and hosted by journalist Ed Gordon.

“News and Notes With Ed Gordon” will start in late January.

Gordon, who, like Smiley, previously hosted an evening show on the BET cable network, will be based in New York, where he is also a contributing correspondent for CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” In a departure from Smiley’s format, Gordon will have a yet-to-be-named co-host on the West Coast, where Smiley’s show originated.

After two years with NPR, Smiley left last week, saying the broadcaster “has simply failed to meaningfully reach out to a broad spectrum of Americans.”

Gordon and the African American Public Radio Consortium had been talking about a show for more than a year, well before Smiley left. Gordon, known for in-depth interviews with O.J. Simpson, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Jamie Foxx, among others, said Tuesday that he wants his new show to be “as broad as possible, from politics to pop culture.”

Besides interviews, there will be a daily round-table discussion with regular panelists. “News and Notes With Ed Gordon” will be carried initially on 86 stations, one fewer than aired Smiley’s show.

Bill Davis, president of Southern California Public Radio, said KPCC executives are waiting to hear what the show sounds like and whether Smiley decides to do a new show that would not originate at NPR before deciding whether to carry Gordon’s show. KPCC could air “one, the other, both or none at all,” Davis said.

Gordon declined to comment on Smiley’s criticisms of NPR, noting that because he hasn’t started his show yet, “I don’t know if he’s got credence in being frustrated there or not.” Speaking to the issue of whether media outlets have moved quickly enough to reach out to African Americans, Gordon said: “That is a frustration many of us have -- with media in general.”

Loretta Rucker, spokeswoman for the African American Public Radio Consortium, said the consortium has been talking to 10 African American broadcast journalists about ideas for shows and that a couple of more shows could also get on the air, depending on if funding is found.

She said that Smiley’s show gave the consortium a chance to research what listeners want and learned that debate is important. The larger audience that Smiley wanted, she said, “is the same thing that the African American Consortium and NPR want,” but the timing may be different, given that NPR doesn’t have “deep marketing pockets.”