http://www.thechar1ottepost.com
8C
Cliarlotte
BUSINESS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2005
Sports 1C
movers
&
shakers
Daniels
Brown
■
Minorities get few Katrina contracts
Ryiand Homes has promoted marketing
coordinator Marcia Colson to
marketing manager in the
Charlotte region.
Colson was recently recog
nized as marketing coordinator
of the Year for 2005 by the
Charlotte Homebuilders Assn.
She earned degrees fix>m both
Colson UNC Charlotte and Winthrop
University in Rock Hill, S.C.
• Michelle Daniels, licensed N.C. and S.C.
Realtor has joined Re/Max
Executive Realty as the
newest member to the sales
team in the Fort Mill office.
Daniels has an extensive
marketing background in real
estate. Her previous experi-
^ce was working as a former
marketing director for a large
residential reed estate compa
ny for over five years.
Leadership Charlotte has named
Charles Brown newcomer of
the year.
Brown, director of libraries
for the Public Library of
Charlotte and Mecklenburg
County, has been a library pro
fessional for 36 yeare. He has
worked as an administrator in
library systems in Solano
County, Calif, Arlington, Va.,
and Hennepin Coimty, Minn.,
before moving to Charlotte in 2004.
• Dionne Spence has joined Ad-Success
Marketing as public relations
H eissociate.
Before moving to Charlotte,
Spence worked at Morehead
State Public Radio in
Kentucky where she identified
prospects, developed proposals
and developed fimd raising
Sopnrp events. At Ad-Success, she will
^ support public relations for
clients as well as internal pub
lic relations.
• Nathaniel Pollard PhD has been
appointed executive vice pres-
ident/provost at Johnson C.
Smith University In this posi
tion, PoUaid is the school’s
chief operating officer. His
responsibilities include serv
ing as the official communicat
ing agent between President
Pollard Dorothy Cowser Yancy and
vice president for academic
affairs, assistant vice president for student
affairs, deans, department heads and faculty
Yahoo! tunes
into podcasting
with new tools
By Ame Williams
niE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO - Hoping to tune into the
latest cr^e in digital media, Yahoo Inc. is
introducing tools for finding, organizing and
rating “podcasts” — the audio programs
designed to be played on Apple Inc.’s iPod and
many other portable music players.
Ihe Sunnyvale, California-based company
which operates the world’s most visited Web
site, plans to begin testing the new service
Monday at http;//podcasts.yahoo.com.
Although it can do several things, the fi^
service focuses on making it easier for people
to sift through the tens of thousands of pod
casts currently available on the Web to find
the programming best suited to their person
al interests.
“We intend to be the most compr^ensive
source for podcast content,” said Geoff
Ralston, Yahoo’s chief product officer.
Yahoo isn’t the first Web site to search pod
casts. Specialty Web sites such as Odeo.com
and Podcast.net already do the same thing.
But Yahoo is the first Internet heavyweight
to tackle the task. "We fed like we are really
getting ahead of the curve with this,” Ralston
said.
It’s only a matter of time before Yahoo’s
rivals, including online search engine leader
Goc^e Inc., introduce similar podcasting fea
tures, predicted PKil Leigh, an analyst for
Inside Digital Media in Thmpa, Florida.
“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the future of
search is in audio and video. Searching'
through text on the Internet has really
reached a maturity point,” he said. “If you look
10 years down the road, everyone is going to
be searching for podcasts.”
All the m^or search engines are adding
more bells and whistles in an effort to retain
and attract visitors. 'Hie traffic is crucial
because the search engines need a substantial
audience to continue generating the ad sales
that account for most of their profits.
See YAH0017C
mmo\
By Hope Yen
WE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Rfinority-owned business
es say tiieyre paying the price for the decision
by Congress and President George W. Bush’s
administration to waive certain rules for
Hurricane Katrina recovery contracts.
Only about 1.5 percent of the $1.5 billion
(eurol.3 billion) awarded by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency has gone to
minority businesses, less than a third of the 5
poToit normally required.
On Tlresday Sen. Olympia J. Snowe and
Rep. Donald A. ManzuUo asked the
Government Accoimtability Office to investi
gate whether small and minority-owned busi
nesses have been given a fair opportunity to
compete for Katrina contracts.
Andrew Jenkins doesn’t think so.
Once Katrina’s destructive waters receded,
he began making calls in hopes of winning a
government contract for his Mississippi con
struction company
Jenkins, who is black, says he watched in
fiustration as the contracts went to others,
many of them larger, white-owned companies
with political ties to Washington.
“That just doesn’t smeU right,” said Jenkins,
president of AJA Management and Tfechnical
Services Inc. of Jackson, Mississippi, noting
the region has a higher percentage of blacks
and minority-owned businesses than other
areas of the country.
lb speed aid, many requirements normally
attached to government contracting were
waived by Congress and the administration,
Ihe result has been far more no-bid contracts
going to businesses that have an existing rela
tionship with the government.
There also was an easing of affirmative
action rules for contractoie and a suspension
of a "prevailing wage” law that black law
makers and business people believe will hurt
the disproportionately large number of black
hourly workers in the region.
‘It sends a bad message,” said Harry Alford,
president of the National Black Chamber of
See MIN0RITY/7C
is
PHOTO/CURTIS WILSON
WPZS (FM 100.9) Music Director Alvin Stowe is also the station’s afternoon personality. The Charlotte station is one of two in North
Carolina to broadcast on the FM band. Combined with urban contemporary sister station WQNC, the Radio One-owned properties have
an 8.1 share of the Charlotte market
Broadcasting praises
WPZS makes its mark in Charlotte FM market
The beautiful thing
about FM is the clari
ty. Having praise on
the FM dial makes it
more appealing
Debbie Kwei-Cook,
Radio One Chailotte
general manager
By Cheris F. Hodges
ckerisJiodge5@thecharlonepo5t£om
Radio One’s WPZS (100.9 FM) is one of only
two FM gospel stations in North Carolina and
the only one in the Charlotte market.
On the air less than a year, Praise 100.9 has
tapped into the adult market and combined
with WQNC (92.7 FM), Radio One has an 8.1
share of the market. Those numbers give both
stations a chance to get advertising dollars
that traditionally would go to secular stations
only
According to Radio One Charlotte general
manager Debbie Kwei-Cook, the biggest rea
son for Praise’s success is that it is an inspi
rational station rather than a traditional
gospel station that would feature preaching
and ministry
T^ically gospel stations are found on the
AM dial and not very dear. That’s not a prob
lem for Praise.
“The beautiful thing about FM is the dari-
ty,” Kwei-Cook said. “Having Pi'aise on the
FM dial makes it more appealing.”
A sign that Praise is growing is the addition
of mid-day and afternoon personalities.
Tbnya Rivens, formerly of WBAV 101.9 and
Sunday Morning Praise, was hired as the
midday host and music director Alvin Stowe,
known to radio listeners as “AC” has been
program director of Q92.7 and Praise 100.9
since February
He will be the afternoon personality
Stowe said the biggest challenge facing the
station thus far is the question fixim listeners
about why they don’t run local ministries on
the air,
“Another challenge was with local artists,”
he said. ‘We have a system and a rotation.”
Unlike older AM stations where knowing a
DJ would mean aiiiime for your music, Stowe
says local artists with national distribution
have a chance of getting their music played on
See PRAISE/7C
Real estate consultant looks to
score with upscale solutions
By Herbert L. White
herb.whiie^. thecharlottepost^om
Moving to a new home was less satisfy
ing than tackling quarterbacks for Hardy
Nickerson.
As a professional football player,
Nickerson moved 29 times over 16 years,
piling up more than 66,000 miles between
cities. Now he’s using that experience as
owner of Nickerson Realty Group in
Weddington to deliver custom-taileored
solutions for clients looking to invest in
real estate or relocate into new homes.
‘When Hardy retired fiom the NFL (in
2003), we looked into different cities to set
tle to raise our children and begin our com
pany,” said Nickerson’s wife Amy, who is
co-founder and vice president of the com
pany “When we visited fiiends in
Charlotte, we instantly fell in love with
this area.”
Hardy Nickerson got around during his
NFL days as one of the sport’s best middle
linebackers. He played in Pittsburgh,
Thmpa Bay, Jacksonville and Green Bay,
played in five Pro Bowls and was named to
the 1990s All-Decade team in 2000.
Navigating real estate as a professional
athlete opened Nickerson’s eyes to the
process.
“Because of trades, fiiee
agency, iiyuries and other
issues, the life of a profes
sional athlete can change
fiDm minute to minute,” he
said “That sort of instability
has definite consequences
for real estate decisions and
the types of services that
athletes need in order to
address their unicjue personal and profes
sional situations.”
After moving to Weddington, Nickerson
earned real estate and broker licenses
fix)m the ^fin^e School of Real Estate and
an executive education program at the
Wharton School. The prc^am, sponsored
by the NFL and its players asscxdation,
helps athletes prepare for careers after
football.
Nickerson
Microsoft:
The small
business
solution
By Fred Green, Jr.
SATtOSAL SEWSPAPER PL'BUSHERS ASSOCIA'IION
I know of several people who decided to
start their own business. Some decide on
one of the myriad of home-based business
fi*anchises, others may have started an
original concern in their homes but had
dreams of growing beyond the walls of their
den, basement or garage. Some even leased
a space and hung out a sign. There was one
thing they all had in common; none were
prepared for the huge amoimt of adminis
trative work their efforts generated.
Sometimes just keeping track of invento
ry or returning phone ca^s was a job unto
itself What many people don’t realize is
how much of that burden can be relieved by
See MICROSOFT7C