Coyote J. Calhoun gets Fired from Z-102, Live On The Air in 1988 when music format changed from Rock and Roll to Pop

Happy National D.J. Day!

 

Ja Morant with the BEST DUNK OF THE ENTIRE SEASON 🤯

The State of Media Ownership Diversity in America

 

Barbara Arnwine

News Release by Trice Edney Communications It's Time to Irrigate the Fallow Ground of Minority Media Ownership By Barbara Arnwine I’ve fought for civil rights my entire career. In fact, in honor of my late mother, Vera Pearl Arnwine, I will tell you that my actual birth was amidst a fight for justice and equality to desegregate a White Hospital that refused to service the African-Americans in the nearby community.    After being driven past the White hospital during two previous labors, my Mom was determined to force change. She purposefully waited until her contractions were advanced and called the ambulance, which seeing her state, took her to the nearest hospital, the White hospital. When the White nurses tried to refuse service, the examining doctor said it was too late and ordered, “We got to deliver this baby.” Thus, my Mom defied the "Whites Only" designation and ultimately won as she gave birth to me, the first Black to force the integration of the now closed Seaside Hospital in Long Beach, California.     Being born a “civil rights protest baby” It is no wonder that I went on to graduate from Duke University School of Law and became president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where I served for more than 26 years.    That hospital story, of course relayed to me by my mother, is quite relevant during this season in which we not only celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but we escalate our commemoration of Black History. Now, as founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, I remain keenly focused on issues of justice from every walk of life.    In 2023, one aspect of civil rights and racial justice that barely remains addressed is racial inclusion in media ownership. It's high time to irrigate that fallow civil rights ground as America’s access to trusted, credible and diverse local and national news sources is the key to democracy. There is far too much misinformation and non-inclusion out there; especially impacting communities of color.   An article by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, headlined, “The Abysmal State of Media Ownership Diversity in America,” says that “Access to the media by the broadest sector of society is crucial to ensuring that diverse viewpoints are presented to the American people, but racial and gender disparities in media ownership that date back to the beginning of the civil rights era continue to persist. Diverse voices in the media landscape help to ensure that diverse topics and perspectives are presented to counter disinformation and misinformation.”    The article continues, “At a time when more people, particularly Black people, are distrustful of the media, diversity in media ownership has become more important than ever for the functioning of our democracy. Diversity in ownership is part of that solution.”    This crucial issue is the reason that my good friends and colleagues in the current civil rights movement are going on the record in support of Standard General’s application before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to acquire TEGNA, a media company which owns more than 60 television stations across the country. Those colleagues include Dr. Benjamin Chavis, president/CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, president/CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Standard General has a proven record of investing in local news and enhancing diversity with a goal to have newsrooms look like the communities they serve.    Enhancing media diversity is a primary objective at the FCC, but it has a lot of work to do. The FCC just reported that Blacks account for only 3% of majority interests in full-power TV stations with Asian Americans at only 1%. Now it has a chance to really show that it cares about this goal as the Standard General transaction would radically enhance minority media ownership of broadcast channels. Asian-American Soo Kim, Standard General’s Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, has expressed commitment to helping newsrooms evolve and stay relevant in this age of on-demand content.   One of my primary venues for taking stances on civil rights issues is my 8-year-old radio show, “Igniting Change with Barbara Arnwine,” heard weekly on Tuesdays at Noon on Radio One’s WOL 1450 a.m. During the hour-long show, I have spent much time discussing voter participation and suppression. Based on the questions and concerns expressed by my listeners on the call-in format, it is clear that preserving local news and making it better and more reflective of the changing faces of America will make our democracy stronger and produce more informed voters. We cannot get this done without aggressively irrigating and sowing into the now fallow ground of minority media ownership. This is a goal that we must all share and promote.    Barbara R. Arnwine, Esq, is president & founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition and former president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Black Voice Matters in Podcasts as listenership grows exponentially - "53% year-over-year." Urban One teams with Sounder!

 

Urban One, Sounder Look For More Nuanced Approach To Brand Safety.

• Jan 18, 2023 

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Story by Inside Radio

Across podcasting, efforts are underway to help bring more diverse voices into the medium. Now the industry is getting some help in that endeavor from the largest African American owned-and-operated media company. Urban One is teaming with Sounder, the podcast management and monetization platform, on research geared toward ensuring that all audio content creators have equal access to monetization opportunities.

In a joint announcement, Urban One and Sounder say the research will specifically address the industry’s limited brand safety technology capabilities for audio content created by African Americans and other creators. The ultimate goal is to develop new solutions that enable advertisers to sponsor BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) audio content at a higher rate and with greater confidence.

Black podcasters have faced a bigger challenge than most others as marketers have put more focus on brand safety. The parameters they draft disproportionately flags and restrict content created by diverse voices due to inaccurate classification and no-buy lists that many find discriminatory.

“Corporate America has always been comfortable with safe Black people and that’s not what a lot of us are,” Black Effect creator Charlamagne Tha God told a Podcast Movement conference panel. Others have aired similar complaints.

As part of the new research partnership, Sounder will work closely with Radio One and Reach Media, Urban One’s audio divisions, as well as the new Urban One Podcast Network, to analyze a variety of content from its catalog and create a report identifying strengths and challenges facing audio ad technology in classifying diverse media. The results will be used to refine Sounder’s brand safety and suitability solutions. The companies say the results will be a new, fairer standard for the industry.

Urban One Chief Revenue Officer Josh Rahmani says it is part of his company’s long-running mission to educate advertisers and the broader industry on the evolving cultural landscape of Black America. “Through this work we hope to bring awareness of Black culture and its nuances to the industry at large and support an ecosystem of the diverse voices that drive mainstream culture,” he said in a statement.

Current brand safety tools often present an all-or-nothing option to clients, which Black creators say misrepresent their content and short-change them on ad buys in the process. Through their research Urban One and Sounder aim to develop what they describe as a “more nuanced approach” that will refine speech classification accuracy and sensitivity, and in the process restore parity to the ad buying process while also improving performance for clients.

“Sounder was founded on the belief that we could help diverse voices connect with listeners who cared about what they had to say. We also believe that these voices should have the same ability to monetize and fund their content,” said Kal Amin, co-founder and CEO of Sounder. “Yet suitability and brand safety can’t be optimized until technology catches up to culture and holistically supports a thriving, diverse world of audio content. Our mission to transform audio insights includes redefining the brand safety status quo with contextual intelligence tools to support diverse creators.”

Black Podcast Listening Growing

The focus on podcast advertising diversity comes as listenership also diversifies. Edison Research’s Black Podcast Listener Report showed that listening among African Americans soared 53% between 2020 and 2021 as a growing variety of shows targeting Black listeners attracted more users of the media. It said weekly listenership rose to 26% among Blacks, up from 17% in 2020. And more than 12 million Black adults report listening to podcasts each month, of which 42% say they have been listening to podcasts for a year or less.

In terms of advertising, Edison’s survey also found that four in ten African Americans also said that they are more likely to buy a product they hear advertised on a podcast they listen to. And 84% are either “very” or “somewhat” likely to consider a brand. When shows come from Black creators, the Edison data showed those affinity levels are even stronger.

“We’ve been on a journey of trying to get brands to understand the Black voice. That’s what it all boils down to,” Black Effect President Dollie Bishop told Podcast Movement. “Everyone is very receptive, but it’s a process,” she said. “We’re on a mission to show the value of the Black voice, no matter what that voice is speaking about.”