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2004-04-01 Home Front: Culture Wars
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Keepinâ Da Bruthaazz Down
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Al Sharpton will NOT be pleased...
Air America Will Displace Black Talk On WLIB
Well, Franken & Co. have to start somewhere!
NEW YORK (NNPA) - New Yorkâs radio station WLIB-1190 AM has been loyally "serving New Yorkâs Black community" - as its logo states - for decades now. In the early â90s WLIB was lauded as a resource for "Afrocentric" programming and became known for featuring Imhotep Gary Byrdâs "Global Black Experience" show.
Hard to tell what the logo is from their shitty website...
By the end of March, New Yorkâs WLIB-1190 AM will taken over by "Air America Radio," a predominantly White, liberal talk-radio network.
The station was in many ways a Black activist outlet.
"Fight The Power! Fight The Police!"
But by the end of this month, WLIB will be taking on a different hue, as it joins the launch of Progress Mediaâs "Air America Radio," the new, predominately White, liberal talk-radio network. Air America has reportedly partnered with Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC), which owns WLIB.
Jesse Jackson, call your office!
"We are excited about the diverse and important voices Air America Radio is bringing to the airwaves, both on our own WLIB signal and others," said ICBC Chairman Pierre Sutton. "This hostile takeover strategic partnership shafts the black activists allows both companies to combine our resources and deliver redundant leftist relevant messages to white Upper West Side Manhattan liberals a broad and diverse audience."
Sutton added, "Thatâs what you call âhigh-class B.S.!â" one former WLIB staffer said when told that Sutton said the stationâs changes were necessary because African Americans had just stopped listening to WLIB. The former staffer, loading his guns as we speak spoke to whitey on condition of anonymity, insisted that if WLIBâs talk shows were promoted the way conservative talk shows are - and the way Air Americaâs shows will be - the station would have made money.
Yeah, itâs been what, only ten years now?
Air America Radio plans on using what it terms a roundup of rabid leftists "progressive activists" and Hollywood halfwits "celebrities" as part of the activist leftâs efforts to counter the Vast White Wing Conspiracy the national popularity of White, Right-wing conservative talk shows and radio personalities. The network will begin broadcasting shows from across the country on March 31 over WLIB and radio stations WNTD in Chicago and Los Angelesâ KBLA.
"I donât get it. I mean, I do not get it," local activist Elombe Brath said about Air America Radioâs takeover at WLIB. Reports are that WLIBâs 40th floor station has been remodeled for Air America, and that the 30th and 39th floors are also being re-built to suit the needs of the new network.
"Get the hell out!"
Brath, who hosts and produces the show "Afrikaleidoscope" on WBAI-FM, and who played a part in the Afrocentric reorganization of WLIBâs programming back in the early 1980s, complained that if listenership was down at WLIB, the station should have restructured from within as it did in the 1980s.
Or it could have just died on its own...
"All of the talk should be organic, from within the Black community," Brath insisted. "How can they think about coming into New York with a package program like this? We have people here already who know radio, who can do shows. And they want to come in with a program from other people trying to talk to Black people in New York City? (WLIB) is just a station that has been stripped of what itâs supposed to be!"
In its heyday, WLIB and shows like "Night Talk with Bob Law" on WWRL-AM, Samori Marksmanâs "Worldview" on WBAI-FM, Bob Sladeâs "Open Line" on WKRS-FM, and WWRLâs "Drive Time Dialogue" formed part of its own advocacy radio network. They highlighted working on your crossover move Black community health concerns, pimping techniques by Snoop Dog cultural awareness and playing the race card political activities. Many have even claimed that WLIBâs efforts helped to get out the vote for David Dinkins as he ran to become New York Cityâs first Black mayor.
And we all know what a tour de force Dinkins was!
But now as WLIB joins with Air America Radio, plans are to keep only a few of the stationâs leading Black radio personalities. Mark Riley will be a co-host on "Uprising," Air Americaâs 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. show, while Dahved Levy, Ann Tripp and news director Wayne Gilman will also remain with the station.
"Uprising" - yes, makes me wanna carjack a few vehicles.
Air America Radioâs featured on-air personality will be Al Franken, a comedian who helped create NBCâs "Saturday Night Live" and who recently wrote the book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," a scathing anti-FOX News, anti-Bill OâReilly book that became a best-seller.
Alongside Franken, Air America Radio will feature comedienne Janeane Garofalo; environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; author and activist Laura Flanders; Lizz Winstead, a co-creator of "The Daily Show"; radio personalities Mark Riley and Randy Rhoads Randi Rhodes; and political humorist Sam Seder. Chuck D, lead rapper for the group Public Enemy, was initially announced as part of the Air America Radio staff, but sources now say that the hip-hop icon is backing away from that commitment.
Good call, Chucky D...
"I donât know how Air America is going to broaden the reaches of âLIB," said one radio personality who chose to speak anonymously about the situation. "How is this going to impact the Black community? As far as Iâve heard, theyâve got a couple of Whites who just really want to go after Sean Hannity, Bill OâReilly and all the others. You canât convince me that thatâs going to be something good for Black and Hispanic people."
Canât wait for these folks to share the same studio. Catfight!
Brath agreed with that analysis: "Youâve got people here in New York who believe in Black culture, so I donât see why theyâre ... theyâre like outsourcing in a sense. In reality what the station needs is to have some people who know the community and can speak to its needs."
In other words, only Black folk can talk to other Black folk. No racism here, everybody move along...
This story comes special to the NNPA from the Amsterdam News. 
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