I am creating this thread precisely because of the presence and attention of Thrasher, the pseud of a media star in black Detroit. Having done a stint for a year at NPR and still getting the occasional email from my piece on TV One, I've done a bit of mainstreamish media. I much prefer writing, but one cannot deny the power of the broadcast.
Having attended a conference sponsored by 3BAAS Media at USC last year, I was made more critically aware of a predicament that I could see coming. That is that black radio is going broke and its fortunes hang on the shoulders of a handful of people who don't always see eye to eye. That old media is having a worse time of it than the rest of old media and somehow it has to change or die. I've seen a great deal of political energy expended on convincing several powers that be that black (as the forefront 'minority') interests must be served, but none of them sound like the sort of joint collaborations more capitalist-minded folks like Spike Lee or Rush Simmons would sign on to. Instead they sound more like the sort of racial tantrum of another era - we are 10% of the consumers, therefore we demand 10% of the power or else we'll boycott and charge racism.
My complaint is specific and I've spelled it out here. There is no Tony Brown.
You take a local black radio station like KJLH. Extremely loyal following, but struggling in these tough times just like everybody else. They might not be able to get Colin Powell to drop by the station, but the Congressman from the district? Sure. There is plenty of pull that radio stations have locally, but when their audience wants them to get serious about news and politics they have to use the web the way the Netroots have. 50,000 listeners might be very small for a radio station, but it's huge for a community website and if you had 50,000 registered folks on a community website, there would be no issue that would escape notice. So how does black radio make the handoff to those bloggers and local politicos in the Netroots? That is what this kind of conference can facilitate.What is to be done? Will black radio go the way of black newspapers, basically passing into irrelevance as all of black culture is mainstreamed, like Glovers Mange into Clairol? Will all black news cease? If so, is that a bad thing? Where is the business model and where is the capital, or are black American audiences actually served adequately anyway? In other words, does anyone care?Let me give you an example of the gap. When Jamiel's Law became a hot topic of discussion here in Los Angeles, I blogged about it and I spoke about it on Warren Olney's radio program. I also followed the issue in the online part of the LATimes. I didn't get an opportunity to follow up at any of the hearings or press conferences, but I think I saw pretty much everything that went on online. There was an energized, activated community around a hot political topic of broad interest and of special concern to blacks and latinos in Los Angeles County. A radio station like KJLH could have increased its connection to its audience and brought a great deal of focus and actual representation if they worked the issue in coordination with bloggers and online communities. I can't say that they didn't spend a good deal of time on that issue in their broadcast, but I don't listen. I do watch the web, and I know they weren't here.
There are no black issues but local issues. The question is, who owns access to those voices? Local radio working in tandem with online communities are the absolute best way. And the sharpest voices online will naturally syndicate themselves in the blogosphere. That's the way it works. Townhall.com is the proof. If black radio doesn't move soon to use their local cred to cover community politics on the web, they will lose the opportunity. It's really the only thing they have.
Recent Comments