Court intervenes in sale of sole black radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan
 
From Inside Radio
(September 28, 2009) A Kent County, MI, judge has delayed the sale of Grand Rapids' only African American-targeted radio station to a religious broadcaster. After defaulting on $360,000 in loans, WJNZ-AM was sold in an auction to Holy Family Radio, which intends to flip the outlet to religious programming.  But a county circuit court judge blocked the deal from closing on Friday, after dozens of supporters of the station's urban AC format protested inside and outside the courtroom.

Program Director and host Robert Womack, who led an unsuccessful effort to buy the station, says the bidding process was unfair.  "We plan to petition the FCC to block the transfer of the station based on discrimination practices in the bidding process," Womack tells the Grand Rapids Press. Gospel superstar Marvin Sapp and his wife also made a run at the station, according to Womack. In a statement, Holy Family Radio says it is disappointed in the delay and looks forward to "a speedy closure of this process."

Grand Rapids isn't the only city where the loss of African American radio programming has sparked an uproar.  Sheridan Broadcasting's sale earlier this year of urban  WAMO-FM , urban AC WAMO-AM and gospel WPGR-AM (1510) left Pittsburgh devoid of any black radio outlets and provoked petitions at the FCC to block the sale to St. Joseph Missions.  Now Black Political Empowerment Project chairman Tim Stevens has issued an open letter to the FCC requesting support for the creation of African-American targeted stations in the Steel City.

The protests occur as the FCC is accepting comments on a July Minority Media and Telecommunications Council petition "to promote diversity, localism and competition, to remedy the effects of past discriminatory policies against minorities and women, and to provide an urgently needed stimulus for the broadcasting industry as a whole."


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