RADIO PERSONALITY AVOIDS PRISON TIME

MONTGOMERY -- Radio talk show host Roberta Franklin avoided jail time
Thursday when Montgomery County Circuit Judge Truman Hobbs Jr. sentenced
her to five years in prison for drug possession but suspended the sentence.

Franklin, who pays to broadcast her daily talk show on Wetumpka gospel
station WAPZ-AM, pleaded guilty last month to 27 counts of illegally
possessing Loritab, a prescription painkiller. She admitted to altering
friends' prescriptions to obtain the drug.

Hobbs ordered Franklin to perform 50 hours of community service, complete a
drug rehab program and serve a year under supervised probation.