Greetings CV Family-

As the month of April rolls in, we are immediately reminded of the importance of ownership. Starting April 1, 2004 the joke was on the Caribbean listening audience of WLIB 1190-AM. As the month of March ended so did the radio voice of the Caribbean community at large. The format of the radio station, that has informed and entertained New York City’s Caribbean community for the past 30 years, was changed without so much as a thirty day notice to it’s listeners and advertisers. Upon reporting to work, employee’s of the station were greeted one Wednesday morning with severance checks and told to go home. This type of disrespect should not be tolerated and Percy Sutton, the station’s owner, ought to be ashamed. He claims that the station has been operating at a loss for the past 30 years – that seems hard to believe- but anyway, he claims the decision was financial. But was the disrespectful manner in which he treated an entire community that has been loyal to the call letters WLIB warranted?

So now we are left with a void to fill. The new liberal all-talk format of the station is not speaking to our community so we must create our own and be accountable to ourselves. In response to the recent hole left in many corporate advertising campaigns companies like Link Up Media have bought additional air time on WRTN 93.5 FM so Caribbean companies can still reach their customers. Also, there are business men and entertainers like Tony Miller and The Mighty Sparrow looking for investors to join together and create a new 24 hour radio station that will be owned and operated by us and represent the fullness of this strong and economically viable community.

In the spirit of supporting our own, we’d like to announce the First Annual Miss Caricom International Beauty Pageant to be held on July 10th in beautiful Georgetown, Guyana. This pageant, the brainchild of Monica Sanchez, is expected to empower and support women of the Caribbean as well as promote HIV/AIDS Awareness throughout the region. For more information on this event the preceding fundraisers, including an “Evening with Danny Glover”, being held in the Metro area, please visit us at www.caribbeanvibeonline.com.

See you there.

One-

Teron Foster