The full-page color ads have been running since last month in national magazines oriented to the African-American market, and now the news is out right here where it all began:
"Sinbad's Soul Music Festival Part 5" makes its debut a week from this Friday as a Pay-Per-View television special.
Thousands of local and just-arrived funk fans who grooved on the sod in Lionel Roberts Stadium and millions more who were thousands of miles away have equal opportunity to catch the artists on teevee as they performed for the crowds and the PPV cameras at the end of May.
That would be, in case you've forgotten, Smokey Robinson, Chaka Khan, The Stylistics, Roy Ayers, DeBarge with El DeBarge, the SOS Band, the Gap Band, Morris Day and the Time and, of course, Sinbad himself. Oh, yes, and celebrities Halle Berry and Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who stopped in on St. Thomas for the occasion.
The show debuts on PPV TV at 9 p.m. on Aug. 20. It'll be shown again at midnight that night on Viewer's Choice (Hot Choice), DirecTV, TVN and EchoStar.
In September, there will be "encore" broadcasts on Viewer's Choice 2, DirecTV, TVN and other local cable systems nationwide.
"I have enjoyed making every Soul Music Festival over the years," Sinbad says in a release promoting the PPV show, "and once again I have to say it can't get no funkier than this!" Of all the memorable moments of Festival 5 on St. Thomas, he cites this: "Watching Smokey Robinson move onstage with the excitement of a teenager that just got his first concert gig is enough to make you wanna holler and throw up both your hands. (I think I heard that somewhere before.)"
St. Thomas-St. John Cable TV is advertising the show at 8:30 p.m. on the 20th on Channel 76. The price is $24.95 for those who place orders by Aug. 18 and $29.95 who wait until the 19thor 20th.
Additionally, the cable company is tying the offering into an amnesty of sorts. Customers who've been disconnected for non-payment can reconnect for just $15, half the normal fee, if they sign up for Sinbad by the 20th.