25 years of Blacks in media

Black Enterprise, July, 1995 by ALfred Jr. Edmond

"THE WORLD THAT TELEVISION AND newspapers offer to their black audience is almost totally white, in both appearance and attitude."

This was one of the most important conclusions of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Better known as the Kerner Commission, it pointed to the lack of African Americans in the media as a chief contributor to the frustrations that exploded in civil unrest in American cities during the late 1960s. The solution to this problem seemed obvious--get more black images and voices on the air. But a generation of entrepreneurial African Americans had a higher goal--ownership of both broadcast and print media properties. Black faces and voices had to be backed up by black decision-makers.

Prior to 1970, black decision-makers were all but nonexistent. Johnson Publishing Co., the Chicago-based publisher of Ebony magazine, was a lonely sentinel of black media ownership on a national level, while African Americans relied primarily on their local black press for any news about them that did not involve crime, sports, entertainment or poverty.

However, a black America newly awakened to the dangers of a whitewashed media was hungry for alternatives. The founding of BLACK ENTERPRISE and Essence magazines in 1970, as well as the acquisition of radio and television properties in the years that followed, gave African Americans an opportunity to shape their own images before the nation. Twenty-five years later, the climate for black media ownership remains turbulent, particularly with the anti-affirmativeaction platform being advanced by the conservative dominated Congress. Already, FCC tax provisions that were designed to increase minority ownership of broadcast properties have been eliminated.

However, African Americans should have enough momentum to continue acquiring more media turf, particularly as new outlets in interactive media evolve. Today, two of the three publicly traded BE 100s companies, BET Holdings Inc. (NYSE) and Granite Broadcasting Corp. (NASDAQ), are media properties with holdings in cable television and network broadcast properties, respectively. A new generation of black magazines, including Emerge, Heart & Soul and YSB (Young Sisters & Brothers), have joined Ebony, Essence and BE to help further illustrate the diversity of African American interests. And media powerbrokers, including Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones and Robert Johnson, should increase the level of influence wielded by African Americans in the media.

The next 25 years promises to offer a more diverse world, featuring broader and more impactive examples of black "appearance and attitude" to America.

1970

The Hollingsworth Group Inc., led by Ed Lewis and Clarence Smith, launches Essence, a magazine for African American women.

Earl G. Graves Publishing Co. publishes the first issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine.

1972

A conference on minority broadcast ownership leads to the formation of the National Association of Black-owned Broadcasters.

Percy Sutton and Clarence Jones organize investors to buy New York's WLIBAM. The acquisition establishes Inner City Broadcasting, which today is the nation's largest black-owned group of radio stations. Inner City now owns cable television, video and music production properties as well.

1973

The National Black Network, the nation's first black-owned radio news network, begins broadcasting to 40 affiliates.

1975

Detroit's WGPR-TV becomes the first black-owned television station in the U.S.

The National Association of Black Journalists is founded.

1978

The Federal Communications Commission adopts tax certificate and distressed sale policies that result in increases in the number of minority-owned broadcast properties. In 1995, Congress would eliminate the tax certificate policy as part of a conservative assault on minority business development policies.

1980

The first black public broadcasting TV station, WHMM, begins broadcasting from Howard University in Washington.

Black Entertainment Television, a cable television programming company, is founded by Robert L Johnson. In 11 years it will become the first black-owned company traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

1981

Pamela McAllister Johnson is named publisher of the Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal, becoming the first African American woman to run a non-black-oriented, mass circulation newspaper.

Don Barden founds Barden Communications. Fourteen years later, he would sell Barden Cablevision, the Detroit cable franchise making up the bulk of his business, for more than $100 million.

1983

Robert C. Maynard purchases the Oakland Tribune, making him the first African-American publisher of a major metropolitan daily newspaper.

1985

Ebony Man, a magazine started by Johnson Publishing Co. for black men, is launched. EM ultimately outlasts its only direct competitor, MBM: Modern Black Men, launched a year earlier.

J. Bruce Llewellyn leads a group of investors to launch Queen City Broadcasting Inc., set up to acquire network television broadcast properties.

1988

W. Don Cornwell, along with partner Stuart Beck, launches Granite Broadcasting Corp. After going public on the NASDAQ exchange three years later, Granite becomes the top performing media stock of 1994.