'Blue' radio to debut in Memphis

Ed Hicks

Jerry Springer is not coming to Memphis radio -- at least not yet --
but Al Franken is. Franken, the former Saturday Night Live comedian
who made a splash last year with his book about Fox News, will be
featured on a new AM format starting Friday.


Entercom Memphis will change the call letters of radio station
WJCE-680AM on Friday, and will launch a liberal talk radio format
under the name Progressive Talk 680 WWTQ-AM, broadcasting the Air
America Radio network.

Operations manager Jerry Dean says the station will go with the Air
America format for the first few months, but hopes to add a live
morning show thereafter. The station has not decided who will host
that show, Dean says.

The station's new format will offer current political topics, social
activists, occasional comical twists and "a creative approach to
liberal talk by the best artists available," he says. It also will
offer local news, weather and traffic.

Air America is heard on 47 stations from Los Angeles to Washington,
D.C. The network's appearance on WWTQ-AM will mark its debut in the
South. Dean says it's about time.

"Shelby County is a blue county in a red state," Dean says. "65% of
Shelby County voters went for Senator Kerry. Plus, it's different. And
when you can bring a format that hasn't been done before, that's half
the battle."

Entercom Memphis is a division of Entercom Communications Corp., which
is based in Bala Cynwyd, Penn., near Philadelphia. The company is the
fourth-largest radio broadcaster in the nation.

Entercom is not the only broadcast company that's trying a progressive
format. In Cincinnati, arguably the nation's most conservative major
city, Clear Channel Radio has launched a progressive format on
WCKY-AM, offering Jerry Springer, who once served as mayor of
Cincinnati.

Springer's talk show is not yet syndicated. Dean says Progressive Talk
680 WWTQ-AM has no plans to offer it.

The station's scheduled lineup kicks off at 5 a.m. with "Morning
Sedition" and ends at midnight with "The Mike Malloy Show." Franken
will be on the air from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The other programs currently on the schedule include "Unfiltered,"
"The Randi Jones Show" and "The Majority Report."

WWTQ-AM's signal reaches Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana
and Missouri, making it the most powerful AM signal in the region,
according to Entercom.

Besides Memphis, Entercom operates stations in Boston; Seattle; Kansas
City; Indianapolis; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Denver; Portland, Ore.;
Sacramento, Calif.; Norfolk, Va.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.;
Greensboro, Greenville/Spartanburg, N.C.; Rochester, Minn.; Madison,
Wis.; Wichita, Kan.; Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Penn.; and
Gainesville/Ocala, Fla.