Dear Editor:

It has been most troubling to me as an annual contributor, and to the many avid fans of WDUQ Radio (DUQ 90.5 FM), that this great station may be leaving the airways, at least in its present form.

TIM STEVENS

I listen to this station literally every morning, and usually at various times throughout the day. The blend of news and jazz has had tremendous appeal to me, and apparently to close to about 270,000 other fans of this media gem. I really can’t imagine not hearing the melodic voices of Tony Mowod and Bob Studebaker, as well the other excellent hosts such as Helen Wigger, bringing this community the sounds of this nation’s original art form, jazz!

REAL TIMES MEDIA)—If you were a kid in the late ’80s or early ’90s who spent their summer watching television, there are few things you remember. Hours of game shows, soap operas and Donovan Freberg. Trust me, you know who Donovan Freberg was. He was the blonde-haired kid with glasses who did all of those commercials for encyclopedia Britannica from ’89 to ’93 where he talked to the narrator about having to do a book report on “space.”

Throughout Allegheny County T. Rashad Byrdsong can mobilize more people than any other person. There has to be a reason for it. Allow me to expound on why I believe he has that capability.

First he has a sense of commitment, which will not allow him to be intimidated by those in the community who deem themselves to be powerbrokers, and based on principle he is willing to challenge even those with the purse strings. He also is one of those who took incarceration and made it positive. It provided him with a sense of compassion, caring and understanding that too many of us lack. We all understand the unemployment statistics among Blacks who have no police record, and also the fact that unemployment among those who have run afoul of the system is staggering. Byrdsong has taken this tragedy head on.

(NNPA)—Campbell Brown’s decision to quit hosting her weeknight program on CNN because of poor ratings has left a void that some network officials are considering filling by hiring former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, possibly using him in an old “Crossfire” format. Yes, that’s the same Eliot Spitzer who had to resign two years ago after patronizing prostitutes.

Spitzer was forced to step down after arranging for a New York prostitute contracted by Emperors Club VIP to meet him at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., on St.Valentine eve. According to authorities, Spitzer paid the 22-year-old prostitute $4,300 in cash, which included a $1,100 deposit toward future services. The former New York attorney general and governor was said to have paid the agency more than $15,000 over six months, which was part of the $80,000 he was said to have spent on prostitutes over several years.