On Friday, March 24th, an EF4 tornado ripped through the town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Much of the town of 1,700 was destroyed. When the storm cleared and the aftermath was revealed, 104.3 WZYP knew what they had to do for the small community, and they weren’t going to let the 336 miles between them and the town stop them.
The Cumulus Media station is located almost six hours away in Birmingham, Alabama – a town that wasn’t even close to being touched by the tornado. That didn’t stop the cluster’s WZYP’s PD Steve Smith and morning host Mojo from collecting and delivering the station’s box truck full of relief supplies.
WZYP set up three live relief drive events last week, and listeners filled up the box truck with clothing, food, cleaning supplies, toiletries, plastic bins, toys, and other needed items. Smith and Mojo then drove the truck to West Mississippi to get the donations there as soon as possible.
This isn’t the first disaster far outside their listening area to which WZYP has rushed aid. Smith and Mojo took the WZYP truck to Waverly, TN, after the town was washed away in a deadly flash flood, and also to Mayfield, KY, after they were hit by a tornado.
When asked about the service, Smith said, “We’ve been very lucky in recent years around our area with no major disasters, so we choose to help others who are in need.”
