JiveSync

Black History Month is intended to educate young people about the achievements of black culture sometimes overlooked by mainstream America. It's also a way to highlight black America's perspective.

And that's what conservative talker Armstrong Williams wants to do this week. But Williams, host of "The Right Side" on WOL-AM (1450), is taking a rather unusual tack. Using a lineup of guests that begins tonight with former Klansman and onetime Louisiana gubernatorial candidate David Duke, Williams is presenting his mostly black audience with the thoughts and concerns of white Americans and is confronting the stereotypes that blacks have of whites.

"We frequently say that members of the white majority think about African Americans in stereotypes," Williams said. "We may overlook that black people also stereotype white people. It works both ways."

Advertisement

Williams expects to have "white guests from all walks of life" and at all income levels. He said he wants to help his audience "come to terms with their own racial attitudes."

"The Right Side" airs weekdays on WOL from 5 to 7 p.m. and is simulcast to Baltimore's WOLB-AM (1010).

Throughout the month, other area stations will present special programs to spotlight black history and accomplishments. Here's a sampling:

* Howard University's WHUR-FM (96.3) airs "The Black Experience," a month-long series of 90-second vignettes scanning the contributions blacks have made. The pieces air Monday through Saturday at 9:20 a.m. and 3:20 p.m., and Sundays at 1:20 and 5:20 p.m.

* WWRC-AM (980) reporter Jeff Kamen will provide daily snapshots of the evolution of the civil rights movement as seen through his eyes as a reporter. Kamen, one of the founding reporters on NPR's popular "All Things Considered," has covered the movement since 1966 and will draw on his extensive tape file for many of the sound bites.

Advertisement

* WKYS-FM (93.9) will present daily vignettes featuring the movers and shakers in black America, with an eye to the future. Among the topics to be covered are medicine, technology, education and law enforcement. Among those featured are Prince George's County State's Attorney Alex Williams, Parks Sausage Co. CEO Raymond Haysbert and astronaut Mae Jemison.

* Classical WGMS-FM (103.5) presents an "African American Musical Salute," a four-hour program featuring performances by Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Marian Anderson, Andre Watts and Wynton Marsalis, and notable symphonic works by William Grant Still and William Dawson. The program airs Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.

It's a MAD World

Rush Limbaugh has made it. Oh, it's not the 19 million listeners on 624 radio stations or the rebroadcasts heard on the Armed Forces Radio & Television Service. It's not the television show; not the best-selling books or even the full-page editorial that he wrote about the Bobbitts for Newsweek magazine two weeks age. It's MAD.

Advertisement

The zany magazine aimed at tickling adolescents (okay, some adults too) features a four-page parody of talk host "Rush Windbaugh" in its February issue. In the setting of an interview with "Ed Badly" of "60 Mad Minutes," the host explains that having guests on the program "would violate my first axiom of broadcasting for my kind of show! Never let someone that might have logical thoughts that disagree with your own have a live microphone!"

And Limbaugh's reaction to the parody? Borrowing from MAD icon Alfred E. Neuman, Limbaugh mused, "What, me worry?"

Big Bucks All Around

Oldies newcomer WBIG-FM (100.3) yesterday launched a major campaign for baby-boomer listeners to beef up its standings in the winter ratings survey. The deal: The station pays $5,000 to the 10th caller when it plays the "BIG money oldie of the day" between 7 and 8 each weekday morning with Jim London and Mary Ball.

Advertisement

General Manager Bennett Zier said Friday that the cash giveaway will last "at least" four weeks. It's being promoted with an expensive TV ad campaign.

Clearly, the contest is part of a well-funded plan by Colfax Communications to quash direct competitor WXTR-FM (104.1), which has been an oldies station for nearly a dozen years. The cash craziness comes at a particularly delicate time for "Xtra 104," which is expected to be transferred to a new owner, Liberty Broadcasting of Philadelphia, within the next two weeks for about $28 million.

Liberty has said the format will stay and has earmarked more than $20,000 for an oldies concert March 12 at Patriot Center featuring Chuck Berry, Lesley Gore and Peter Noone.

Another deal Liberty expects to settle the same day is its $15.6 million purchase of WHFS-FM (99.1). Programming changes at the modern rocker are unlikely: Arbitron's fall listener survey showed that the station had its largest following in its 26-year history, reaching a 3.5 share (or 13,000 listeners 25 to 54 years old during an average quarter-hour).

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nnJ6zpr%2FTsqOeZ2FuhnV7j2tmaWlfl7KqusZmmaWZk6B6qrqMrZ%2BeZWllwHCClJ%2BcmpyWZnqlgpZwZG1uZmZ6ebHBm2ScmpKbhXeFwGqdbXFf