Memphis to get Air America affiliate

Jerry Springer is not coming to Memphis radio -- at least not yet -- but Al Franken is. Franken, the former Saturday Night Live comedian who made a splash last year with his book about Fox News, will be featured on a new AM format starting Friday.

Entercom Memphis will change the call letters of radio station WJCE-680AM on Friday, and will launch a liberal talk radio format under the name Progressive Talk 680 WWTQ-AM, broadcasting the Air America Radio network.

Operations manager Jerry Dean says the station will go with the Air America format for the first few months, but hopes to add a live morning show thereafter. The station has not decided who will host that show, Dean says.

The station's new format will offer current political topics, social activists, occasional comical twists and "a creative approach to liberal talk by the best artists available," he says. It also will offer local news, weather and traffic.

(It should be noted that this is the second Entercom-owned station to flip to liberal talk. Entercom also owns WROC-AM in Rochester, NY.)