Radio Broadcasting Influence On African American Culture

These days when people think of a television station that is just for African Americans, they might just think of BET, Black Entertainment Television, is what they call it. However, that is not just the only station that is built to entertain African American. There might not be many television stations that have this particular goal of broadcasting to the world through black culture, but BET is not the only one. In my opinion, some of these new up and coming television stations that are created for my people, the black culture, are slowly becoming better than the infamous BET. Nonetheless because I have not done much research on this topic I know that my guess is most likely wrong. In this paper I will be examining a particular media industry

Radio One, is a multi-media entertainment company that is typically built for the African American and urban audiences. Created in 1980, this company has successfully built themselves up to become one of the largest radio broadcasting companies in the US. According to a November 2015 SWOT Analysis, this “company’s strong market position enhances its brand image and gives it a competitive advantage.” This company is mainly based off its radio broadcasting franchise. Today this company owns around 54 radio broadcast stations and these stations are aired in about 16 different urban areas. Some of these areas include Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, St. Louis and plenty more. Radio has not been the only reason this company is successful. This company is also successful because of the investment in complementary business. Radio One has couple of other segments which include their online business, and television broadcasting station. In 2012, the interests of the company increased because of its investment in Reach Media, which operates the infamous Tom

African Americans could be considered a niche audience but the question that must be thought about is do advertisers invest what some might call an urban based company. According to owner Cathy Hughes, “advertisers allocate only 1% of their budget to black programming” (Rance, 2016). The advertising income that is most others companies rely heavily upon is hardly ever given to urban markets such as this one. This did not discourage the owners of this company, as the company grew, more and more media companies that were under performing were bought by Radio One. The goal here was for them to buy these companies and flip them, making them more profitable than they were before. Even though Radio One may have to try to convince advertisers that the African American market is successful, one of the company’s owner believes that, “Every urban radio station in America has had to go through this, However; it's absolutely getting better, but only because of the emphasis placed on the issue by FCC Commissioner William E. Kennard” . Without the presence of Kennard in Congress the regulations of the FCC would never favor the companies based off of minority