Back to press releasesNewark, N.J., April 19, 2004 – IDT Media today announced that Jose Diaz-Balart, co-anchor of both WTVJ’s (NBC 6) news at 5:30 pm in Miami and Telemundo’s national morning new program “Hoy En El Mundo,” will host JD Balart’s American Radio Journal, a daily talk show on the Liberty Broadcasting Network. IDT Media is a division of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT, IDT.C), a multinational carrier, telephone and technology company.
Mr. Diaz-Balart’s American Radio Journal will cover a wide range of topics from politics, news and international relations to popular entertainment and culture. Guests will include notable Washington, D.C. insiders and today’s top newsmakers. The show’s format is designed to encourage lively discussion. Listeners will be welcome to call in and exchange views with JD and his guests. JD Balart’s American Radio Journal will be broadcast live Monday-Friday from 12:00 noon to 2:00pm ET and will be available for rebroadcast 5:00pm-7:00pm ET.
“War correspondent, political reporter, TV anchorman: JD Balart is an accomplished journalist with global experience,” said Jim Courter, IDT’s CEO. “By adding his voice to our programming lineup, Liberty Broadcasting elevates the national discourse on politics, policy and breaking news.”
Mr. Diaz-Balart began his career as a journalist as the Florida broadcast editor for UPI in Miami. He is a veteran broadcaster who has covered conflicts and news stories in the United States, Bosnia, Spain, the Soviet Union, Panama and Nicaragua. Mr. Diaz-Balart has served as the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the Telemundo Broadcast Network and as its European bureau chief in Madrid, Spain. While at WTVJ-TV in Miami, where he co-anchored the 12:00pm and 5:30pm broadcasts, he was awarded two Emmys for reports on a disputed election in Panama and protests in South Florida about U.S. Haitian policy. In 1992 he was one of a group of reporters who received Dupont and Peabody awards for their coverage of Hurricane Andrew. Hispanic Media Magazine has named JD Balart a leading journalist for 3 years in a row.
“JD Balart’s American Radio Journal has all the ingredients of a ratings and syndication leader,” said Jerrold Rapaport, CEO of Liberty Broadcasting Network. “As an objective journalist, JD knows how to go behind the headlines and get to the heart of a story. As a broadcaster, he knows how to deliver a story with passion, energy and humor in a way that makes people sit up and take notice.”
Mr. Diaz-Balart joins Liberty Broadcasting Network’s outstanding programming lineup which includes recent additions, The Linda Chavez Show and The Daily Agenda with William Kristol, as well as other outstanding programs such as: News You Care About, Second Thoughts and American Spirit with Mort Crim, The Bruce Williams Show, For The People with Chuck Harder, Ask Heloise and Hints from Heloise, The Geoff Metcalf Show, Doug Stephan’s Good Day, and Doug Stephan’s Talk Radio Countdown, The Lowell Ponte Show, Money Matters with Barry Armstrong and The Movie Show on Radio with Max Weiss and Mike Mayo.
IDT Corporation, through its IDT Telecom subsidiary, is a facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to retail and wholesale customers worldwide. IDT Telecom, by means of its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance and domestic all-distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. IDT Entertainment is the IDT subsidiary focused on developing, acquiring, producing and distributing computer-generated and traditionally animated productions and other productions for the film, broadcast and direct-to-consumer markets. IDT Media is the IDT subsidiary principally responsible for the Company’s initiatives in radio broadcasting, brochure distribution and new video technologies. Winstar Holdings, LLC, which provides service under the IDT Solutions brand, is the IDT subsidiary focused on providing broadband and telephony services to commercial and governmental customers through a fixed-wireless and fiber infrastructure. Net2Phone, Inc., a subsidiary of IDT Corporation, is a leading provider of high-quality global retail Voice over IP services and offers a fully outsourced cable telephony service to cable operators allowing cable operators to provide residential phone service to their subscribers.
IDT Corporation’s Class B Common Stock and Common Stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols IDT and IDT.C, respectively.
Important Note: In this press release, all statements that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which the words “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “plan,” “intend,” “estimate, “target” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 are used. While these forward-looking statements represent IDT’s current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors, including, but not limited to, those described in IDT’s most recent report on SEC Form 10-K (under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”), which may be revised or supplemented in subsequent reports on SEC Forms 10-Q and 8-K and other filings IDT may make with the SEC.
