Public radio planning weekend magazine show. (Media & Technology).

News flash: People don't spend much time on the weekends listening to public radio.

They tune in during the week, usually for marquee shows like National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," but many of them are disappearing on Saturdays and Sundays when program schedules include lengthy -- and often ponderous -- talking head shows.

At least, that's one of the conclusions to come out of the "Public Radio Weekend" project, an L.A.-based effort to find ways to boost weekend listening for public radio. After two years of research, Minnesota Public Radio is preparing to produce pilots for a weekend service that would offer short segments on a range of topics, in the style of a news magazine show.

"We're not losing audience. We're actively driving them away," said Jim Russell, general manager of L.A.-based Marketplace Productions, a national production arm of MPR (and producer of "Marketplace" and "The Savvy Traveler"). Not only do many of public radio's weekend shows require a significant time investment, many of them fail to keep listeners tuned in for the next program, he said.

Pasadena-based KPCC-FM (89.3) sees some of its highest weekend ratings from 10-11 a.m. on Saturdays during "Car Talk," and later, from 6-8 p.m., during "A Prairie Home Companion." But once those popular programs end, listeners tune out in droves.

"Every hour, on the hour, we say goodbye to the audience," Russell said.

The weekend service, expected to premiere a year from now, will include segments produced by popular shows from MPR, rival NPR and Public Radio International. MPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are funding the three-hour block, which can be used in its entirety or for shorter periods.

Russell said that the format will differ from "Morning Edition" or "All Things Considered." "This is a magazine with some news," he said.

Weekend ratings dip sharply on KPCC, which is run by MPR sister organization Southern California Public Radio. The station averages 32,800 listeners from 7 to 8 a.m. on weekdays during "Morning Edition," while the 3 p.m. Saturday broadcast of "This American Life" averaged only 9,500 in the winter Arbitron rating period.

"A lot of the people who are listening to, say, 'Car Talk' and 'Whad'Ya Know' (noon to 2 p.m. Saturdays) aren't listening at other times," said Bill Davis, president and chief executive of Southern California Public Radio.

Santa Monica's KCRW-FM (89.9) also struggles to attract listeners on weekends but its more music-driven line-up holds up better than other weekend programming, according to Will Lewis, a management consultant for the station.

"Weekends are not as big as weekdays and one of the reasons is that you're not in 'drive time' so you can't really fight that," he said. In a survey of five rating periods, from Fall 2000 to Fall 2001, KCRW averaged 17,500 listeners from 6 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, 12,800 on Saturdays and 9,400 on Sundays.

The planned MPR weekend service is similar to NBC's "Monitor," a weekend format that ran from 1955-1975 that included comedy, interviews, music, news and sports.

While Lewis was a fan of "Monitor," he said it never worked. "You have no control of the line-up so you have to sit through stuff you might not be interested in," said Lewis, noting that KCRW doesn't plan to use MPR's format.

KPCC will be a testing ground for the weekend radio service. Station officials will be reviewing the weekend programming schedule over the next few weeks and adjustments, expected before the end of August, will take into account what might work well with MPR's service, Davis said.