Foxy 99.1 will hold off on the hip-hop and R&B.

Country music will go silent on 95.7 WKML.

BOB 96.5 will not be playing music from the 70s, 80s OR 90s.

Instead, five local stations in the Beasley Media Group will devote one hour, from 5 to 6 p.m., on Tuesday, Jan. 30, to a frank discussion of opioid addiction in our area and how to get help. The other participating stations are 107.7 Jamz and Sunny 94.3.

Together, the stations reach 68 percent of the Fayetteville listening market, according to a press release. The simulcast will run commercial-free.

I applaud the move, called “Beasley Stops the Music.” Beasley is sponsoring the event in partnership with Cape Fear Valley Health.

Foxy 99’s Jane Dough and WKML’s Don Chase will host a roundtable discussion that will include several studio guests, including N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein; Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin; Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins; Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright; medical doctors and other officials; and Jesse Garner, with N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition, a nonprofit on the frontlines of the opioid crisis. N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper is scheduled to call in.

Listeners can submit questions for the roundtable at capefearvalley.com.

The event is believed to be unprecedented in this region.

And it addresses a problem that is of unprecedented magnitude.

Opioid-derived drugs are so pervasive and deadly that health officials say they have caused a rare decline in U.S. life expectancy.

I recently interviewed a mother and sister of a Fayetteville man who lost his battle with addiction, and was stunned as the younger woman counted off several family and friends she said had struggled, or died.

Fayetteville ranks 18th in the country for opioid abuse, says Darvin Jones, community health coordinator for Cape Fear Valley.

He says: “When I’m out doing my community work, I run into folks with opioid problems just as much as I run into folks with diabetes or high blood pressure.

“Absolutely, I’m hearing it more and more. It’s across all ages. I’ve heard everything from kids having pill parties with (overdose-reversing) Narcan there now, just in case somebody goes over, to older folks who are taking opiates and don’t know they are taking opiates.”

Jones added something that echoes what I heard from the family of the late Stephen Thornton - that the medical community tightening restrictions on prescription drugs have made the problem of dangerous street drugs worse.

“These are folks who have become addicted,” he says. “The closest thing they can find is heroin. It’s cheaper and more powerful. This thing is tearing families apart. People don’t know what to do.”

The stop-the-music event seeks to lead people to helpful resources. The health system and the Beasley stations will stream the event on Facebook Live. The hospital’s website will link to more information.

Erika Beasley, vice president and marketing manager for Beasley, said the radio stations’ job is to inform the local community.

“With the high rate of opioid abuse in North Carolina, we felt very strongly about being involved in this cause,” she said. “This information is so vital to get out to the listeners in our community.

“We can’t solve the problem in one hour, but we can start the conversation.”

Columnist Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.