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Decision near on talk show host's appeal

By Times Staff Writer
Published February 23, 2005

TAMPA - The board of directors of WMNF-FM 88.5 is expected to decide this week about the status of dismissed talk show host Connie Burton, who has appealed the cancellation of her show, Straight Talk.

The board met with station management and Burton Monday evening to hear final arguments from both sides.

The board hearing is the last phase in the station's procedure for evaluating grievances. Burton, an outspoken African-American activist, already has appealed the January decision to cancel the show to station manager Vicki Santa and to the board's personnel committee. In both cases, the cancellation was upheld.

Station management says it canceled Burton's hourlong Sunday morning talk show because it no longer met the station's mission and because Burton had aligned herself with the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, a St. Petersburg activist group of which she is a member. Burton and her supporters have protested the cancellation, staging a demonstration outside the South Tampa home of WMNF's news and public affairs director Rob Lorei.

Burton supporters attended the public portion of Monday's meeting, making comments that lasted more than an hour, said Louis Putney, vice president of the board. Burton said she is not expecting the station to alter its position on the show.

"I believe the board has made it very, very clear that they have a position that they plan on sticking to in regard to how economic and social justice will be dealt with," said Burton, who was a volunteer host of Straight Talk for nine years. "And I have a position, based on coming from the oppressed population."

[Last modified February 23, 2005, 00:34:19]