A talk-radio station that was called Philadelphia's "voice of the African-American community" has gone silent after more than 80 years. WHAT-AM, founded in 1925 and among the first in the nation to
hire black talent, had a small but loyal following.
Staff were told late last week that their jobs were terminated. "It's a huge loss for the community," says Thaddeus Mathis of Temple
University's Center for African-American Research and Public Policy. "For some people, this is their only way to find out what's happening; it's their key source of information."
The
station will be off air, playing a feed of the blues, until upgrades are done, says new owner Tom Kelly of Marconi Broadcasting Co. He declines to disclose the new format, but says an announcement
will be made and that programming would stay locally based.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at Associated Press via MSNBC.com »