LOS ANGELES, June 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Worldwide Radio Network and its barely 16-weeks-old "reality" radio program, "The Recovery Radio Show," which targets a listening audience of active and recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, their families, friends and those involved in the nation's expanding drug and alcohol recovery communities, today confirmed that it has agreed to enter the hugely competitive Orlando, Fla. radio market on that region's No. 1 talk radio station, WORL-AM (660).
Network officials, who made the announcement after signing sponsorship agreements with a number of existing and new advertisers in the Florida market, said its first Orlando broadcast will air live on Saturday, July 2, from 9 p.m. to midnight (EDT).
Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, Calif. near Los Angeles, executives at the network, which was the first to call its product "reality radio" due to its mature subject matter and dramatic calls that it broadcasts live, has seen its listening audience skyrocket since its inaugural broadcast in March. The recently expanded three-hour program is beamed to stations via satellite on the ABC Radio Network and also can be heard on the Internet at www.recoveryradioshow.com.
"Not only have we gained access to another important market, but we continue to touch the nerves of listeners in other markets through the Internet with a brand of programming that we like to call 'reality radio,'" said network executive and one of the show's three co-hosts, Dr. Stephen Groth M.D., a recovering drug addict and former head of the trauma unit for 14 years at one of the busiest medical centers near Los Angeles. "We are in constant discussions with a variety of stations in a variety of markets to expand our celestial, or over-the-air, programming, but we also are finding the Internet very alluring as a method to expand our listening audience, and we are investigating that, too."
Co-founders of the network and the show are Robert Munck and John Tomkinson, both of whom are recovering alcoholics and drug addicts and both of whom act as co-hosts of the weekly radio show. Munck, who has been sober for 14 years, walked out on his family nearly two decades ago, giving up a million-dollar income from his own company to live on the streets of Southern California where he sold drugs to finance his own alcoholism and drug addiction. Since becoming sober, he has counseled hundreds of men through his own Christ-based ministries, owned a number of sober living homes, and re-built his career as the owner of one of the area's leading mortgage brokerages.
Likewise, Tomkinson, the show's lead co-host, ended up living out of his car due to his addictions to alcohol and drugs after successful careers in advertising, marketing and broadcasting, including co-hosting duties on the No. 1-rated morning television talk show in Florida, "Good Morning, Miami," and prior to that, as the No. 1-rated rock and roll music disc jockey in Tampa. He also co-owned an advertising agency in northern California and a multi-million dollar real estate marketing business in Southern California.
In addition to WORL-AM in Orlando, the Recovery Radio Show now airs live each week over KKLA-FM (99.5) in Los Angeles; KNUU-AM (970) in Las Vegas; and KFNX-AM (1100) in Phoenix. Programming information, broadcast times and themes for upcoming shows are available by contacting the network at (949) 334-0471, or through the Internet at www.recoveryradioshow.com.