Posted by chicagomedia.org on April 20, 2009 at 12:07:05:
Tom Joyner reaches agreement with Soul 106.3
Tom Joyner, off the air in Chicago since his syndicated morning show was bounced from Clear Channel's WVAZ-FM 102.3 a month ago, has reached an agreement to bring his program to Crawford Broadcasting's Soul 106.3, beginning Wednesday.
The deal with Lansing's WSRB-FM and Genoa's WYRB-FM, which promises "a more customized morning program that will be specific to his 'radio hometown'," was announced early today by Crawford and Reach Media, which owns Joyner's show, and noted on his show's Web site.
"Thousands upon thousands of you let the media know that you wanted us back, Joyner, 59, wrote on his blog at blackamericaweb.com. "What you did reinforced how much power we have and what we can do when we mobilize behind a cause we care about -- the voice of black radio."
Clear Channel, which bumped Joyner on March 23 to move Steve Harvey's syndicated program to V103 from WGCI-FM 107.5 so it could launch a new local morning show on WGCI, has a contractual tie to Joyner that will have to be resolved.
But Harvey himself has tried to distance himself from Clear Channel's move in light of the backlash from Joyner's fans in Chicago, where his radio roots go all the way back to 1972 and where his Dallas-based syndicated show had aired on V103 for the last 13 years. Clear Channel simply may want to move on.
"Chicago -- and our friends and family from all over the country -- you have spoken," Joyner wrote. "You have written. You have tweeted -— and once again your activism has made a difference in a big way! We are going back on the air, and if I could hug each and everyone of you individually, I would.
"I told you we would be back, but as badly as I wanted it to happen, I couldn’t do it by myself," he continued. "I'm just one person with one voice. I needed all of you to do exactly what you did, which is to prove, once again, what we can do when we all work together."
Soul 106.3 will air the weekday program from 5-to-9 a.m., with the weekend show, "Right Back at Cha" airing Saturdays from 9-to-11 a.m.
Joyner's return to Chicago radio has been widely expected since April 10.
That's when word started filtering through the local radio community that Source 106.3 was close to a deal. Harvey, in that morning's Chicago Tribune, said: "Somebody should explain to the people" upset he had replaced Joyner that "Tom Joyner is going to resurface in Chicago radio. If somebody would tell that to people, it would be better for people. But nobody's telling them."
That said, nobody at Crawford or Reach would confirm it on the record, even as Soul 106.3 morning personality Carla Box was no longer listed as as morning personality on the station's Web site.
"Tom is a cornerstone and a true light for the people in Chicago, which is very much in line with our goals and commitment from WSRB/WYRB," Taft Harris, general manager of Crawford Broadcasting, said in a statement. "We're confident that Tom will continue to empower, inform and entertain in a way that celebrates black radio."
Chicago had been the biggest of the more than 100 markets to carry Joyner's show until Clear Channel opted for Harvey, whose program is syndicated by one of its subsidiaries. The move was comparable to how, after Joyner went into business with Radio One in 2004, Radio One subsequently yanked Joyner's show off Clear Channel stations in markets where it also owned outlets.
Joyner told the Tribune after his show was pulled from V103 last month that, if he were in Clear Channel's position, he would "probably do exactly the same thing because ... strategically, it's what they should have done."
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)