Jackson Free Press

New York City-based Inner City Broadcasting recently acquired longtime talk-radio station WJNT (NewsTalk 1180), famed for broadcasting the one-sided swill of conservative hard-knockers.

ICBC already owns five stations in the Jackson area including WJMI (99 Jams) and both AM and FM incarnations of WKXI and WOAD, but now the distinctly urban tunes and shows of the broadcasting company will have the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh in their possession—an unlikely mixture.

"For the last two years, Inner City has been looking to increase their holdings here and this one became available and we won the bidding war," says WOAD Program Director Percy Davis, adding that he didn't see the station undergoing dramatic transformations in programming right off the bat.

"I don't foresee any wholesale changes. We believe in diversity," Davis said. "The mindset for ICBC Broadcast Holdings is they don't come in looking to make huge changes. Very few broadcasters who are looking to add to their portfolio are of a mind to buy something that they want to fix."

Still, ICBC Broadcast Holdings has had a lively run-up in New York with liberal, urban programming like Air America, which features speakers like Al Franken, Jerry Springer and progressive firebrand Randi Rhodes.

"Inner City has always had faith in the mission of Air America," ICBC Broadcasting Holdings Inc. Vice Chairman Skip Finley said in a March press release, suggesting that liberal ties with the company might already be forged.

Though Davis assures that there are no plans to boot anybody, he said conservative programming might take matters into its own hands as the months go by.

"They've always been a direct competitor of us, and there's always the chance that at the end of the contract they may not want to renew with us," Davis said.

Currently, the only Air America shows that air in Mississippi come out of Memphis.

From One to Two

The council was debating a proposal to boost the city's earlier proposal of a one-mill increase in the 2007 fiscal year to two mills Tuesday night.

After stifling his own budget team's recommendation of a tax increase last year, Jackson Mayor Frank Melton announced recently that he was looking to pitch the idea of a one-mill tax increase to the council. Council President Ben Allen told reporters that the city needed the extra $1 million in revenue to cover the city's ailing street surfaces, some of which sport deep potholes and strut-killing ravines.

The tax increase would hike the tax bill on a $100,000 home up about $20, and load more than $10 on a $20,000 vehicle.

Ward 6 Councilman Marshand Crisler said the city's mill increase would make passing the $150 million JPS proposed bond measure a more difficult pill for voters to swallow.

"Any tax increase right now, no matter how bad we may need it, will make passing the school bond even harder this November," Crisler recently told the JFP. "Right now our schools are my highest priority. Schools attract business, which bring in tax money. It's a long-term investment that Jackson residents need to seriously consider."

Previous Comments

ID

66792

Comment

[quote]"Any tax increase right now, no matter how bad we may need it, will make passing the school bond even harder this November," Crisler recently told the JFP. "Right now our schools are my highest priority. Schools attract business, which bring in tax money. It's a long-term investment that Jackson residents need to seriously consider."[/quote] "tis to laugh.... Yer about 25 years too late, Dude. As to Air America coming to Jackson... it'll get here. There's no one left there at the station, except the engineer. That means robostation.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-09-06T20:26:27-06:00