From 2001 to 2003, the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show aired on Emmis-owned WRKS/Kiss FM.

But, after being dropped in favor of building a local presence in the morning, Joyner (far right) and company are returning to 98.7 Kiss FM.

Starting on February 7, Joyner, along with J. Anthony Brown, and Sybil Wilkes will be heard on Kiss from 6 to 10 a.m.

This time around, though, Joyner’s show will include Bob Slade, the veteran WRKS news director, as part of the on-air team.

Since comedian D.L. Hughley was dropped from his morning duties last August, Emmis management was left to ponder their next move.

“I am excited to welcome Tom Joyner to the KISS family,” Jill Strada, WRKS program director, says,  ”Tom’s a radio veteran whose work ethic and dedication to empowering the Black community is a perfect fit with KISS FM’s culture.  Together we are going to do some BIG things in the big apple.”

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If you can’t wait for Jay Leno to change the face of primetime television when “The Jay Leno Show” debuts on September 14, Time magazine has you covered.

This week’s cover story is about the talk show host, his new show and the future of television and NBC. Leno is the future of television, you see, and the success of his show could make or break the network. The expansion of “The Tonight Show” brand is also typical of the Jeff Zucker regime at NBC. Explains Time writer James Poniewozik:

“NBC in the Zucker era has been less successful at creating new hits than at strategically deploying old ones. Zucker gave us the supersized ‘Friends,’ the fourth hour of ‘Today,’ the two-hour ‘Biggest Loser.’ What’s still working at NBC? ‘The Tonight Show’? Why, then, NBC shall have two of them!”

Poniewozik says Leno is the future, but his new gig is just a retread of a strategy already employed by NBC and other networks. Talk shows and reality shows are some of the cheapest shows to produce, making them very attractive to nets, especially if they can snag high ratings. So what makes this newest venture different, revolutionary even?

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