No current plans to revive local African-American Internet radio station

A Internet radio station based in Cedar Rapids' African American community that closed last year apparently won't be revived anytime soon.

There are no present plans to resurrect The New KOJC, which closed last year amid disagreements over programming and financial contributions among its owners, co-founder Karl Cassell said.

“I won't say it will never come back,” Cassell said. “Now that we've done this, we know how.”

The station was launched by Cassell and Gregory Jackson's In Our Community LLC in 2009 as a for-profit station. Its slogan was Keep On Jammin' Continuously.

Cassell said some of the six owners wanted to introduce more “risque” music into the format, and others disagreed. He said there was also reluctance by some to continue making personal contributions to fund the station, which had not yet achieved profitability.

The owners split “probably three to three” on whether music with lyrics and themes inappropriate for some ages should be allowed, Cassell said. He was among those who did not wanted to stick with music appropriate for all ages.

“We weren't going to play risque music,” Cassell said. “That's the reason we were an alternative.”

Cassell, who is also executive director of the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission, said the station stopped streaming last October.

The New KOJC's hybrid format included jazz, gospel, Caribbean music and broadcasts of local church sermons. Its call letters were borrowed from the on-air Oakhill-Jackson Community radio station that closed in the 1990s.