{"id":13678,"date":"2012-04-02T16:10:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T20:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13678"},"modified":"2012-04-02T16:10:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T20:10:42","slug":"efforts-continue-to-bring-black-radio-station-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13678","title":{"rendered":"Efforts Continue To Bring Black Radio Station Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY TAMECA JOHNSON<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Freelance Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If at first you don\u2019t succeed, keep trying.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mindset of members of Tampa Organization of Black Affairs as they continue efforts to help the community find ways to restore classic R&amp;B and community talk show programming to Bay area air waves.<\/p>\n<p>Their mission has been ongoing since this market lost WTMP last September, the area\u2019s only R&amp;B and Classic Soul station that provided local talk shows geared towards the Black community.\u00a0 Davidson Media Group took over the station\u2019s lease, call letters, website, FM and AM dials and according to TOBA spokesman, <strong>James Ransom<\/strong>, regaining ownership has been extremely challenging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had people in place who had the means to invest money to buy back WTMP.\u00a0 We did our research and determined the value of the station is $1.5 million, but the asking price went from $3 million, to $4 million to now $5 million, with no justification for it.\u00a0 So, those potential investors felt it was not in their best interest to pursue the deal because the asking price was inflated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ransom<\/strong> says TOBA then met with a larger group of smaller investors in an effort to lease an AM dial station, but later determined of the 14 people who were interested, only five really had the means to move forward financially.\u00a0 The larger group of investors was willing to commit\u00a0 approximately $125,000, however, that amount fell short of the $300,000 needed to move ahead with the lease deal.<\/p>\n<p>TOBA is now calling on the community at large and asking those that have an interest in this effort to contribute what they can to a community investment fund.\u00a0 Investors should contact TOBA at P. O. Box 3485, Tampa 33601, include a contact number and\/or email address along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ransom<\/strong> says a certified accounting firm would be hired to establish an escrow account to receive and manage the funds.\u00a0 The names of investors and the amount they invested would be published regularly in the <strong><em>Florida Sentinel Bulletin.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 If the amount raised falls short of the $300,000 needed,<strong> Ransom<\/strong> says all monies would be returned to those who sent it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe call to action is simple,\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not what we say, it\u2019s what we do.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have a strong record of philanthropy on a major scale in Tampa, but if we all pull our funds together we can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY TAMECA JOHNSON Freelance Writer If at first you don\u2019t succeed, keep trying.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mindset of members of Tampa Organization of Black Affairs as they continue efforts to help the community find ways to restore classic R&amp;B and community talk show programming to Bay area air waves. Their mission has been ongoing since this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}