It was so different back then. No Twitter, no Facebook, there weren’t even any smart phones. So when news of the storm hit while we were taping our TV show in Los Angeles, we found out the old-fashioned way…on the news.
We loved New Orleans, and all the cities on the Gulf Coast. Since the beginning of the TJMS we were heard in the Mississippi towns of Gulf Port, Biloxi, Natchez and Meridian, some of the places hit hardest by Katrina. And when they had a problem, so did we.
Radio, black radio in particular, has connections with its audience like none other. Whether it’s electing a president or covering a major disaster, our audience knows we will represent them and offer a perspective unlike what they’ll get from mainstream media.
We knew something was going on but like the rest of the country we thought the worst was over once the storm was downgraded. But then …you know the rest.
What you might not know is that me, Sybil, J. and Myra J. were travelling with Jedda “Ms. Dupre” Jones at that time. While her home, her sisters, her daughter, her grandson, and her mom were all in the 9th Ward and she had no way of getting to them. She knew they were safe, but that’s all she knew, and she didn’t know how long that would be the case.
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source: BCNN1/BlackAmericaWeb.com
DISCUSSION: Tom Joyner On Hurricane Katrina was originally published on praisecleveland.com
