“Soundcheck,” the weekday music program on WNYC that has been a staple of the New York music scene since 2002, will be going off the air at the end of this week.
“Soundcheck,” which mixes live performances with artist interviews and talks — sometimes in-depth, sometimes simply chatty — about the machinations of the music industry, will continue in a modified form online, the show announced on Monday night. But Friday will be its last appearance on the air.
At the end of Monday’s edition of “Soundcheck” — which featured an interview with Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and a live performance by the singer Kimbra — John Schaefer, its longtime host, told his listeners that starting next Monday the show was going “all digital.” He also advised his listeners: “For those of you who listen online or via podcast, this won’t be a big deal. But if you listen only on the radio, it will be a bit of a switch. Instead of listening to us on the air at a specific time, you’ll find us anytime at Soundcheck.org.”
Mr. Schaefer’s other radio show, “New Sounds” — on WNYC since 1982 — will remain on the air. He will continue with the online version of “Soundcheck,” although exactly what form the show will take is unclear. A spokeswoman for the station said it will offer live and archived performances, playlists and dispatches from Mr. Schaefer “on the state of music and New York’s greatest musical characters.”
The change comes as WNYC has made an increased push for podcasts, with online shows like “Death, Sex and Money” and “The Sporkful,” and frequent on-air promotion of the podcast versions of popular radio broadcast shows like “Radiolab.”
In response to questions about the change, Mr. Schaefer wrote in an email on Tuesday: “Our videos and podcasts do numbers that we can’t match on the air at 9 p.m., so they’ve asked us to double down on the digital stuff.”
“We will still be doing all the things we’ve been doing, but on a more reasonable schedule, instead of killing ourselves producing three different segments every night,” he added. “We’re still figuring out how to rule the web as of Monday, so you have not heard the last of us yet.”