Urban radio station seeks to jam with city schools for academic improvement

By Harold Gwin

Mini-concerts by national recording artists could be a performance incentive.

YOUNGSTOWN — JAMZ 101.9 radio wants to form a partnership with the Youngstown city schools to help encourage children to apply themselves in school and their parents to support their children’s studies.

The radio station can bring national recording artists to visit schools to give pep talks on the importance of education, bring in a national artist for mini-performances at top performing schools and institute student of the week, student of the month and school of the month recognition, said Skip Bednarczyk, general manager of The Y-Town Radio Stations.

He said JAMZ decided to get involved in the city education system after learning about the school district’s latest ranking on its state-issued report card. Ohio ranked Youngstown in academic emergency, the lowest report card rating, for the 2008-09 school year.

“We are a radio station that, I think, has a certain responsibility to the community we serve,” Bednarczyk said, explaining why the station is making the offer.

“A majority of the kids are African American (69 percent), and we have incredible reach with the African American market,” he said, pointing out that recent radio rating estimates show that JAMZ 101.9 has “an 88.3 percent weekly reach with African-American adults aged 25-54.” That group represents the mothers, fathers and some grandparents of the children in the city schools, he said.

Bednarczyk presented the station’s proposal to Superintendent Wendy Webb Thursday, saying that he thought the meeting went “exceptionally well.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.