BBC Radio Foyle's flagship breakfast news programme is to be cut to just 30 minutes, it has been announced.
In a blow for local journalism, the programme will be reduced from its current two-hour slot from 7-9am.
The news was announced by the BBC on Thursday afternoon.
READ MORE: Radio Foyle proposed cuts will leave station 'unsustainable', says Colum Eastwood
The regional radio station will also lose its half-hour programme at lunchtime, broadcast each day at 1pm, but the BBC say hourly radio news bulletins will continue at the Derry radio station.
Proposed cuts to the station attracted protests from politicians, community figures and the National Union of Journalists.
"BBC Radio Foyle matters because community matters," NUJ assistant general secretary Seamus Dooley told a public meeting about the cuts at Derry's Guildhall in January.
The changes are due to come into effect from April 24.
From 7am to 8.30am, Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme will be aired until the half-hour long Radio Foyle Breakfast show takes over.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the BBC said: "BBC Northern Ireland has announced ambitious plans for BBC Radio Foyle and BBC newsgathering in the North West.
"There will be a new half-hour breakfast-time news programme between 8.30-9am each weekday morning. It will have an exclusive focus on stories from and about the North West. This will be complemented by hourly weekday news bulletins until 3pm including extended lunchtime bulletins, and a significant enhancement of digital news provision from the BBC’s newsroom in Foyle."
The spokesperson continued: "The Mark Patterson Show will move to an earlier, lunchtime slot between 12-1.30pm on BBC Radio Foyle and will continue to provide a forum for news, stories and conversation about local people and issues. Sean Coyle remains in his afternoon slot from 3-4pm."
There were a raft of other changes to music and evening programmes, including the production of Hugo Duncan's weekday Radio Ulster programme moving to the BBC's studio on the Northland Road in Derry.
Adam Smyth, Interim Director, BBC Northern Ireland, says: “These schedule changes reflect our commitment to Foyle as a production centre for local and region-wide output. News will remain a core part of its work, focussing on stories and issues affecting BBC audiences across the whole of the North West. And there’ll be lots of additional benefits as a result of the investment that we’re making to develop digital newsgathering and output from Foyle."
He continued: “Our teams in the North West have produced many great programme strands for BBC Radio Ulster. That work continues and we expect our studios in Foyle to be busier than ever over the next few years. Some things are changing and we need to stay responsive to changing audience needs and everything else that’s happening in the world around us. What remains constant is our commitment to doing the best we can for the audiences we serve – nurturing talent, encouraging innovation and reflecting community and cultural life in all of its changing diversity.”
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