Bloomberg Radio

"The thing that I find outstandingly amazing is the rapidity with which the black elected [officials] and ministerial representatives of our city fell in line," the acid-tongued co-host proclaimed. "I can find no excuse [by] any one of them—including Reverend Sharpton, who has called for a boycott, which he backed off of." Sharpton, Ethridge fumed, waffled on the question of his support for Green. "We have a black political leadership that is willing to go and sell out the black voters to the Democratic Party. . . . "

Last Sunday, Michael Bloomberg placed a thank-you call to The Open Line. But it was co-host James Mtume who reminded all the Johnny-come-latelies that it was black talk-show activists like himself, Bob Slade, and Bob Pickett who first sold Bloomberg to African Americans. "All the stations that have black talk spoke out on this first, [and] everybody else came on a little later," bragged Mtume, the legendary musician who wrote the theme for the TV series New York Undercover.

In closing out the "victory broadcast," Pickett, a former New Jersey administrative judge, put Bloomberg's win in its proper context. "What it says is that if you give black folk information they will take that information, absorb it, dissect it, and make the best possible decision they can make," Pickett opined. "I am proud of all talk radio for pitching in these last four weeks and giving our folk information they needed to make a critical decision. And I congratulate . . . the 25 percent of you [who] changed your minds, and I also congratulate the 75 percent of you who did not. . . . Maybe! Maybe! You learned a lesson."

Peter Noel is a co-host of WRKS'sThe Week in Review and a commentator on WWRL'sThe Morning Show.

pnoel@villagevoice.com