CULVER CITY, Calif. — The weekend broadcasts of “All Things Considered” are heading West.

At an underutilized NPR office here, the famed afternoon program will reboot itself on Saturday with a new host, Arun Rath, a new time zone and even a rearrangement of its brassy theme music.

NPR officials have billed it as a rare chance for a legacy radio program, previously based in Washington with the rest of the public radio organization, to rethink what it is and does — and let listeners decide if the changes sound good.

The timing is somewhat awkward, since NPR is trying to balance its budget by cutting about 10 percent of its work force, initially through voluntary buyouts and, if necessary, through layoffs. The plan, announced last week, has been demoralizing for some employees — but the shows must go on, including “Weekend All Things Considered,” for which Mr. Rath was hired away from the PBS program “Frontline” in July.

For NPR, “All Things Considered” is one of its two flagships, the other being “Morning Edition.” NPR says about 12 million people hear at least a part of the weekday program on a typical week; 2 million hear the shorter weekend program.