That extra hour of free time mucking up Ryan Seacrest's packed schedule has been handily dealt with.
The ubiquitous radio and TV personality has inked a three-year deal with multimedia powerhouse Clear Channel Communications to host a three-hour syndicated radio program starting this spring.
The new On Air with Ryan Seacrest will, like its title, borrow edited and live content from the 33-year-old's Los Angeles-based KIIS-FM morning show, as well as feature new material tailored for local markets, a format that will allow individual stations to program their own music playlists.
Seacrest, who during the latter half of the day serves as coanchor of E! Entertainment's daily newscast, heads up the network's red carpet coverage during awards season and hosts Fox juggernaut American Idol, will also have partial ownership of the new venture. (E! Online is a division of E! Entertainment Television.)
"Ryan has found a way to use his entrepreneurial instincts to address the need to give people a reason to find terrestrial radio," Seacrest attorney Scott Zolke told the Hollywood Reporter on Friday.
The new show, which will broadcast from E!'s L.A. studio, will be available for U.S. radio play between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. PT, and will have the capacity to reach a global audience, as well, through online channels.
Seacrest is no syndication newbie, either. While negotiating his new gig, he also renewed his KIIS deal and his position as host of the nationally syndicated American Top 40 countdown, which reaches about 500 stations via Premiere Radio Networks.