Posted by Too Uppity Now on November 15, 2013 at 11:47:34:
The Salvation Army will run the Salvation Army Christmas Family Feast event this year without help from the WMCS-AM radio station, which has changed formats. Begin a snippet of Duane Dudek's article:
Some things in the community fall by the wayside without being noticed.
The Salvation Army's annual Christmas Family Feast is not one of them.
It is alive, well and will again serve as many as 10,000 meals to needy families, and hand out presents to children, on Christmas Day, between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the Wisconsin Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave.
But for the first time in 24 years, it will do so without its media sponsor, the Milwaukee Radio Alliance station at 1290 on the AM dial, co-owned by former Green Bay Packers great Willie Davis. And the station's format change could be a reason.
A radio station changes format to improve its ratings, and few recent changes here have been as dramatic as the swapping out of WMCS-AM, whose, news, talk and music format was aimed at the African-American community, for the cocktail-lounge sounds of Martini Radio, WZTI-AM (1290), designed for listeners 35 years and older.
The impact of WMCS in the community with events like the annual Christmas Family Feast was far greater than it or WZTI's modest audience.
Faithe Colas, community relations director for the Milwaukee Salvation Army, said the station started the event, and that her group became a partner the second year. What happened this year is not clear.
When the station's format changed in March, Bill Hurwitz, vice president of Milwaukee Radio Alliance, a partnership of Davis' All Pro Broadcasting and Times Shamrock Inc., said the station would continue its association with the event.
On Friday, Hurwitz said the Salvation Army "elected not to" continue the association after the station made "two or three presentations" to the group. Hurwitz said "we tried" but "weren't able" to reach an accord.
Source: Duane Dudek, JSOnline