[Posted Jan. 2, 2008]

"Cheryl Presents" Returns Popular Host To Airwaves

By Leonard E. Colvin

Chief Reporter

New Journal & Guide
 
    Cheryl Wilkerson has not been on the air hosting a weekly morning talk show on local, political and social issues for about two years.
       But come January 5 at 9 a.m. on WSKY-TV Ch. 4, she will return as host as the weekly talk show “Cheryl Wilkerson Presents.”
    Wilkerson’s outspoken and popular weekly radio talk show on a local station was eliminated as part of the station’s revamping. Since then, she has been doing a daily news blog and watching the events  of the day go by.  She says she wants to get back into a position of providing analysis and insight on the daily goings-on in the world.
   “I have been sitting home and it has been hard watching the news and just getting one side of  so many stories” said Wilkerson.  “Think about what happened to Michael Vick.  He was made to look like such a monster. We know what he did was wrong, but did it warrant so much time in jail. Did they have to destroy his career and his family?”
    Wilkerson said she wants intelligent, insightful and  passionate people appearing on her half hour show to give the “non establishment view of critical issues facing the black community.”

      Wilkerson is premiering her show at a time when there is no such local public affairs program, especially looking at issues which face the African American community.
      With most of the radio stations which cater to African Americans owned by media outlets outside the region, the production of homegrown public affairs and political talk shows is virtually non existent.
      “There seems to be one editorial perspective on a lot of issues out there,” she said.  “There is no public affairs programming that gives a different view from the ones we read in the daily newspaper. I want to provide that different view of the world.”
     Most of the start up cost for the show she says is coming out of her own pocket.
      “I think we will have a group of very solid  advertisers,” she said.  “From what I gather they are excited about what we are doing.”
Wilkerson’s program is being planned and produced by a small production crew composed of veteran media types from Hampton Roads.  She says that her  production budget is thin at this point and is working on recruiting a viable and deep pocketed community of advertisers.
      Most of her six member production team are fellow worshipers at Grove Baptist Church.
      In a press release she sent out December 21, Wilkerson said that “I am determined that people will have a voice,” she said.  “Don’t’ be surprised  to tune in and see a school custodian in dialogue with a state senator  on the topic of the minimum wage.
   “This show  was created with the community in mind  so the show will also be used as an informational and learning platform We expect to cross cultural and lifestyle divisions in the process.  It is all about learning and being heard.”

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