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Public Radio International (PRI) announces the April 29, 2005, premiere of The Tavis Smiley Show, a high-energy exchange of views, information, and insight, featuring the incomparable Tavis Smiley and guests. The two-hour weekly show will offer a unique blend of news and newsmakers in expanded conversations, along with regular high-profile commentators such as Cornel West, Connie Rice, J.C. Watts, and Michael Eric Dyson. The Tavis Smiley Show will be available to PRI's 727 affiliate stations nationwide for broadcast and simulcast streaming. Produced for Friday evening broadcast, it is part of a PRI program initiative designed to help public radio stations grow audience and attract new listeners after evening drive time. Stations will also be able to air the program throughout the weekend, providing additional tune-in opportunities in their markets.

Eleanor Harris, senior vice president and head of PRI Marketing and Distribution, says, "Tavis Smiley deserves to be heard on public radio. His show is extraordinary, and we are proud to partner with him to bring his much- needed perspective to the discerning public radio listener. PRI and our station affiliates are committed to broadening the range and reach of public radio programming, and The Tavis Smiley Show is a key component of that strategy."

Smiley states, "There is no place like public broadcasting for the critical conversations that help bridge America's cultural, political, and social divide. Radio has been and always will be an important part of my mission to bring empowering and enlightening information to diverse communities."

Tavis Smiley is one of America's most prominent media personalities. Texas Southern University honored him with the opening of The Tavis Smiley School of Communications and The Tavis Smiley Center for Professional Media Studies, making him the youngest African American ever to be so honored. He hosts Tavis Smiley on PBS, is a regular political commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, and now returns to public radio on PRI with a two-hour weekly edition of The Tavis Smiley Show.

Recipient of numerous honorary doctorates, including one from his alma mater, Indiana University, he established the Tavis Smiley Foundation "to enlighten, encourage, and empower black youth." He has authored eight books -- including The Unfinished Agenda of Brown v. Board of Education, Keeping the Faith, and On Air: The Best of Tavis Smiley -- and has his own imprint (Smiley Books) with Hay House. He lives in Los Angeles.