Is Black Radio in threat of disappearing? In April, New York's KISS-FM was
merged into WBLS. "Open Line" a popular talk show was kept, but the
Michael Baison Show, also popular, was not, thus the merge did not include all
of the KISS-FM programming. Now there is fear that WBLS itself is about to be
bought by YMF Partners. This has prompted former WWRL "Night Talk"
Show host, Bob Law, to file a petition along with Councilman Charles Barron,
Michael North and Betty Dopson of the Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to
African People, asking the FCC to delay the sale of WBLS to YMF since YMF
cannot purchase the station without FCC approval.
A community activist, Bob Law is the founder of the National Respect
Yourself Youth Organization, which established a national network of
Respect
Yourself Saturdays involving academia. The respect organization has
operated a baseball little league, a summer entrepreneur program which helps
young people start their own summer business. He is also the organizer of the
New York Peacekeepers campaign which encourages non-violence.
A filmmaker, Law is involved in film projects with the Black Spectrum
Theatre in Queens, where he is chairman of the board. His play, "The Magic
Clown," a play for children, is being performed in NYC Public schools. He
is also the author of "Voice for the Future." Mr. Law is the owner of
"
Namaskar," Bob's Health and Wellness store, and
Bob
Law's Seafood Cafe, located in Brooklyn.
In 1949, WLIB was purchased by the New Broadcasting Company headed by Morris
and Harry Novik. Although White-owned, the Novik Brothers served ethnic
audiences, targeting the Jewish and African American communities. The station
eventually became the voice of the Black community, with the Noviks developing
a press room and a Community Affairs department that allowed the Black
community to utilize the station for their own public affairs announcements. By
the 1950s, disc jockeys such as the late Hal Jackson were part of the on-air
staff. The staff also included actor William Marshall and Victor Bozeman. By
the 1960s, WLIB was one of several commercial jazz stations in New York
featuring radio jocks such as Billy Taylor, Del Shields and Ed Williams who
built up a large listening audience and worked together to establish a radio
music format that is used to this day.
In the 1970s, there was a political outcry by African Americans for a
black-owned radio station. Due to political pressure and after years in radio,
the Novik brothers were ready to retire. Therefore, the Noviks looked for
someone to buy the station that would meet with the approval of the Black
Community. Therefore, when Percy Sutton, backed by several black investors came
along, the Novik brothers felt Sutton met with the approval of the Black
Community so chose Sutton just as much as he chose them. Sutton and his backers
bought the station and formed Inner City Broadcasting. Eventually Inner City
fell into bankruptcy and now their stations are under threat of being bought by
YMF Partners once YMF obtains FCC approval. It is the contention of Messrs.
Law, North, Barron and Ms. Dopson, that it was predatory lending and the
Arbitron ratings system that helped to reduce advertising revenue (which is
oftentimes doled out disportionately to black Media), that brought about the
bankruptcy. They are also concerned that once YMF gets the approval from FCC to
purchase WBLS, YMF will simply turn around and sell it to a mega corporation
that will eliminate the black format for their own format. Thereby effectively
wiping out black talk media and thus eliminating the black voice which reflects
Black culture.
"I am not sure it's coincidental that there is an effort to silence
Black voices and dismantle Black radio," remarked Law. "This agenda
is set to go full steam in this election year. The Million Man March was
supported by black radio since there was no popular political support, Black or
white, who supported the march. Black Radio told the people to go when the
politicos said not to go. Did the people go? So then who had more clout and
influence?" “As I see it, this may have brought attention to the
powers-to-be, how influential Black radio is, thus the desire to silence
it" stated the community leader.
"So what happened next is, Black radio was made unprofitable. This
happened via a consistent and deliberate undercounting of black listeners in
NYC and perhaps across the nation. Arbitron (the ratings company) has been
accused of giving out information to the ad industry that undercounts black
listeners so the radio station cannot get paid for the audiences they actually
deliver. No matter how well these stations perform, their performance is being
under counted. When Andrew Cuomo was attorney general, he brought a lawsuit
against Arbitron here in NY. The language in Cuomo's indictment said "
Arbitron
was willingly and knowingly giving out incorrect information to their clients,
both ad agencies and radio stations, and they were doing so to the detriment of
black radio stations." Cuomo's findings said
"...that Arbitron's
numbers is so far off and black radio is being so underpaid, that it is actually
causing the financial demise of black radio." In February 2012, the
Attorney General in Los Angeles, California, also brought a suit against
Arbitron stating nearly the same thing Cuomo said in his litigation. Arbitron
settled out of Court, although I have yet to see they corrected what they were
doing," remarked Mr. Law.
"There is a thing they do in ad agencies called "Minority Set
Aside," wherein X amount of dollars are set aside for minorities. But all
the minorities dip into this same "minority set aside" pot, no matter
if one minority station is doing better than the Hispanic or Asian stations, or
vice versa, since the amount of money is fixed. Therefore, those whose market
may surpass the others still cannot get the money they earned. This is part of
the process of how these minority radio stations are kept poor inspite of their
performance," claimed the former "Night Talk" host.
Bob went on to say this is not just a Republican agenda but some Democrats
are also involved.
"Bill Clinton when he was president authored and pushed through a
telecommunications bill which took the limit off of how many stations someone
can own and removed all the protections the general public had in how the
airwaves were used. Clinton's legislation said that anyone can have as many
stations as they want as long as they can afford to buy them. Who can afford as
many stations as they want? Disney can, MS Clear Channel can, CBS can, Fortress
can, and all those mega companies can. But the little stand alone stations cannot
afford to compete with these huge corporations. I believe Bill Clinton knew
that full well when he authored his bill. I think it was a conscious and
deliberate decision on Bill Clinton's part when he orchestrated this bill. Of
course, these smaller stations want to own more radio stations. This puts the
smaller stations in the position of having to purchase a cluster of stations in
order to attract the advertisers who can advertise with the bigger
corporations. Since the bigger corporations can approach the advertiser and say
advertise with us because we can run your product in our "multiple"
stations while the smaller station can only run your product in their
"one" station. So where do you think the advertiser is going to
advertise? Therefore, in order to stay in business, the minority stations and
the black owned stations were forced to buy other stations. And, that is when
the predatory lenders came along. The predator lenders gave loans that said
these stations had to allow the lenders to have veto power in their stations,
power to vote on policy, and be involved in the stations' operation. These bad
deals were made because the stations could not get loans from the banks so
could only hope to pay these predators off as soon as possible. The Black owners
found out that they had made a deal with the devil and their loan became a
loan
to own scheme. The fact that the lenders had insinuated themselves into
the daily operations of the station and making policy, made it virtually
impossible for the stations to pay the money back. Then of course the predatory
lenders began to demand their money and thus forced the stations into
foreclosure and into bankruptcy so they could seize the stations. So now what
we are looking at -- is the loss of black voices from the airwaves, not just in
NYC but across the nation," continued the community activist and author.
"Advertisers looked at the Arbitron figures and told Black stations
that "Black" doesn't sell. Yet, advertisers make huge profits from
the Black communities even though they do not ask black folks for their money.
White advertisers as a whole do not advertise in black newspapers, radio
stations, newspapers or businesses. Yet, black folks spend their money with
these white advertisers freely. Our FCC petition, we understand, (and we do not
stand alone in this petition), may not be granted. We will see. But we think
that the FCC will more than likely rule against the people and opt to go with
the big money, ignoring our petition no matter how strong our argument is
and/or how credible," said Bob, of what he expects will happen in terms of
the petition he and others filed to stop the sale of the last black radio
station in NY.
Bob discussed what he thinks the Black community must do -- not only to keep
their stations but to secure their position as a culture within the rapidly
changing American society.
Black people are not paying attention remarked Law. He is concerned that
Black folks need to start to pay attention, not just black folks, all the minorities,
if they plan to survive in the 21st Century. Minorities must pay attention to
the political climate around them because whether they realize it or not, it
impacts them. It impacts them via educating their children, surviving
economically and culturally.
"The Black community as consumers will have
to come together. We have been intimidated and embarrassed and made to feel that to mention
black is being racist.
Some black folks feel that way because others have convinced them that nothing
black has any merit. And because they have that mindset, everything is being
taken away from Black folks -- from our dollars to our vote. It’s time to step
up and not be silenced or sidelined. We need to learn critical spending.
Begin to spend our money wisely. We do not
have to march in the streets, we simply need to go to our pantry and ask
ourselves can I do without these products. Look around your homes and determine
what you really need and what you can do without. Do you need that pizza, that
coke, that beer? You don't even have to sacrifice that long, just long enough
to get the advertisers attention. Tell these advertisers since they are not
paying attention to the people or believe that black people for example, are a
huge consumer market base, show them you are.
Just stop buying and see how long it takes
before these mega-corporations start missing your dollars?" concluded the
playwright, activist, author and entrepreneur.
Take back your consumer power because that is a viable power. One that will
not be ignored once you show the powers-to-be you know how to cleverly use your
consumer power.
If you wish to hear more of the interview with Bob Law, click onto the radio
icon above under Bob Law's photo.
