Long the most influential voice of Lafayette’s black community, KJCB is off the air. And it’s unclear whether it will return.
The AM station, 770 on the dial, mysteriously disappeared from the airwaves last week.
Earlier this week, Bishop Roy Winbush, president of R&M Broadcasting, which owns the station, told The Daily Advertiser that technical problems were the cause of the shutdown. But, if true, that would be only part of KJCB's problems. What he didn’t tell the daily paper, which was reported Friday, is that the Federal Communications Commission canceled its broadcast license in April of last year for being “delinquent on debts owed to the commission.” That means the station continued to broadcast for almost a year without a valid license.
Station manager J’Nelle Chargois this morning referred The INDsider’s questions to Winbush, who is out of town, according to the woman answering the phone at Winbush's church, Gethesemane Church of God in Lafayette.
It’s unclear what debts the station owes the FCC, as FCC officials did not return phone calls Friday morning. An FCC rep told the Advertiser that when these types of matters go unresolved, the station's frequency is typically auctioned off.
Other financial and potentially legal troubles have recently surfaced for KJCB, as a group of landowners is threatening to have the station evicted from 28 acres of land off Parklane Road in Carencro if it does not vacate the property in the next 10 days. KJCB’s tower and other equipment are on the Carencro property, with its studio located on St. John Street in Lafayette.
A family representative for the Carencro landowners says the station has not paid rent for the property since the late 1980s and that the landowners have tried for years to evict it. “They don’t have a lease. They are really just trespassing,” says the family member, who referred additional questions to attorney Albert Karre.
"My clients and I have no comment," Karre wrote in an email Friday.
JUNE 17 If anyone ever wonders why Saints fans hate Atlanta with a capital H, here's a good indication. Radio "professionals" at an Atlanta station created an entire segment around making fun of former Saints player Steve Gleason, who is now paralyzed by ALS. Listen, nobody's ever accused DJs of being rocket scientists. But how could someone think it is amusing to pretend to ask a man with a degenerative, fatal disease if he will be alive next week? The DJs have been fired, and are now whining about how gutless their former bosses are. Wow.
JUNE 18 Here's the latest from the Advocate on the fatal hit-and-run accident allegedly involving the president of the Livingston Parish School Board. He's accused by police of hitting a 21-year-old man on a highway early Sunday and driving away. The man died at a hospital later. On Monday, police seized the president's truck and towed it away. But he's available for board meetings: apparently a $500 bond is sufficient for this type of thing over in St. Helena Parish.
JUNE 18 Former broadcast journalist Griffin Scott has posted this plea on his blog for financial assistance from his readers. Scott, who says he was fired after he wrote something fairly innocuous (for Facebook) on his wall, is suing a media giant for his job back. He's framed himself as David going after a bloated media giant, and he's probably not far off.
JUNE 18 Here's a fairly absurd column posted on DIG Magazine about the completely absurd practice of naming killer storms. Tornadoes don't have names. Blizzards don't have names. But hurricanes do, and there's a big process to bestow them, Jacques Cormery writes. He's right about the crazy assemblage of names -- this year, there's everything from Tanya to Humberto -- and his idea that we don't waste good names on killer storms is a good one.
JUNE 17 Political columnist John Maginnis has some advice for Louisiana Republicans: grow up. After the schism that occurred in this past session - fiscal hawks teaming up with Democrats to spank the Republican "majority" and hand Gov. Jindal his, er, aspirations for continued solon control -- they need to figure out how to get along with each other, Maginnis writes.
JUNE 17 Here's the Picayune's obit story for Dorothy 'Miss Dot' Domilise, the lady who made poboys at the uptown restaurant that bears her name. Miss Dot moved to New Orleans during World War II, where she met and married her husband Sam. When she passed away Friday she was 90, and had spent more than 60 of those years working at the restaurant on Annunciation Street.
JUNE 17 This editorial in the Advocate speaks in favor of the consent decrees that have federal judges overseeing police operations and the sheriff's parish prison in New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu and Sheriff Gusman can't get along, so outside forces, like the Inspector General and the judges, are needed to make sure things run right, the editorial opines.
JUNE 18 Here's a post from Manny Schewitz on Forward Progressives that is good for a chuckle. Manny had an epiphany back in November, and is sharing it with us today: he believes that Fox "News" is killing the GOP by pandering to right wing nuts. Now, don't get it twisted: Manny's not broke up about it. He says he enjoys watching the downward spiral with a shot of whiskey and "a schadenfreude chaser."
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Maybe this is not an all bad thing.We'll see, said the Zen master.