DETROIT, MI - Beginning Monday, September 30, 2002, The Tavis Smiley Show from NPR(r) will air weekdays from 9-10 am on WDET FM 101.9 FM, following Morning Edition(r) with Bob Edwards.

The Tavis Smiley Show, a weekday, one-hour magazine, offers intelligent talk, news and ideas presented by one of America's most exciting, young personalities. Smiley's trademark passion and energy fuel his NPR show, which features substantive and provocative discussions, commentary, exclusive interviews (Bill Clinton and Bill Gates have been recent guests) and reports on everything from politics to popular culture.

"Tavis Smiley's show is unlike any other on the radio," said WDET Program Director Judy Adams. "Tavis is making history on the radio. He offers a perspective, scope and credibility not often found in the media today. His guests and topics aren't always the usual suspects. There's another conversation going on in America, and The Tavis Smiley Show is where to hear it."

"I'm thrilled to join the morning airwaves on WDET in Detroit, a city that is intricately connected to music, industry and black life in America. I think Detroit listeners will find the many issues and perspectives on my radio show thought provoking and relevant to their daily lives," said Smiley. "We cover everything-politics, money, relationships, race, class, culture and more. If it's being discussed-or better yet, if it's not-we'll be talking about it, and we'll be breaking news."

The Tavis Smiley Show, launched on in January 2002, is now heard on nearly 40 stations, reaching both mainstream and African-American audiences. In his first seven months on the air, Smiley interviewed newsmakers and personalities from Bill Cosby to Bill Clinton to Senator John McCain and Halle Berry. His show includes regular guests, including professor Cornel West, who in recent months announced his departure from Harvard for Princeton on Smiley's program; Omar Wasow, technology guru and executive director of blackplanet.com; Michael Eric Dyson, author and University of Pennsylvania professor; and Johnnetta Cole, president of Bennett College.

"We're proud to offer The Tavis Smiley Show to our listeners," said Adams. The addition of this program helps us to better serve the entire metropolitan Detroit community and provides the audience with a perspective that they can't hear anywhere else."
Accomplished author and broadcaster Tavis Smiley has gained national attention as a smart, lively interviewer. Time magazine selected Smiley as one of America's 50 most promising young leaders while Newsweek profiled him as one of the"20 people changing how Americans get their news" and dubbed him one of the nation's "captains of the airwaves." The New York Post screamed "Look out Larry King - here comes Tavis Smiley!"

As the former host of BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley on Black Entertainment Television, Smiley became known as Black America's favorite talk show host, honored with the NAACP Image Award for Best "News, Talk or Information Series "for three consecutive years. He is also the recipient of the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association of Minorities in Communications.

Smiley is the author of five books. His new book, Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing and Hope from Black America will be in bookstores this month. Smiley offers political commentary on the Tom Joyner Morning Show and is a contributing editor for USA Weekend magazine. He is also a correspondent for CNN and an ABC-TV special correspondent for Good Morning America and Primetime Thursday.

The Tavis Smiley Show is the result of an ongoing collaboration between NPR and a consortium of African American public radio stations, including WCLK-FM in Atlanta, GA.; WNCU-FM in Durham, NC; WJSU in Jackson, MS; and WEAA in Baltimore, MD.

The show's Web presence at npr.org/programs/tavis allows users anywhere in the world to find information on show topics and guests, listen to the latest broadcast, hear archived versions of previous shows and find stations that broadcast the program. Listeners can also access information on The Tavis Smiley Show through the program schedule at wdetfm.org.

The Tavis Smiley Show is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

NPR, renowned for journalistic excellence and standard-setting news, information and entertainment programming, serves a growing audience of more than 20 million Americans each week via nearly 700 public radio stations. NPR Online at www.npr.org brings hourly newscasts, features, commentaries and radio programs to Internet users through original online reports, audio streaming and other multimedia elements. NPR also distributes programming to listeners in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa via NPR Worldwide, to military installations overseas via American Forces Network and throughout Japan via cable.

WDET, Detroit Public Radio is a community service of Wayne State University and has been serving the metropolitan Detroit community with quality arts and information programming since 1949. Nationally recognized, WDET is a full-service station that has been honored with countless awards for its music and news programming. In 2002, WDET received top honors from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, Michigan Associated Press and the Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. WDET delivers its programming world-wide via its web cast at www.wdetfm.org and is a sponsor of numerous area cultural events including the Detroit Festival of the Arts, Ford-Detroit International Jazz Festival, Concert of Colors, Arts, Beats & Eats and the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.