Call for Increased Black Participation in Broadcast Opportunities
Recently FCC Commissioner, Michael Copps, declared that the state of Black media ownership was, well deplorable. In case you missed it, here's what Copps said during his speech at a forum held at the 10th Annual Wall Street Project Conference of Rainbow/PUSH on Jan. 9, 2007:
"While people of color make up over 30 percent of our country's population..they own only 3.26 percent of all broadcast television stations...There has been no improvement in the level of minority ownership since 1998, even as the total universe of stations has increased by 12 percent...there has been a sharp drop in the total numbers of African-American stations since 1998--by 30 percent. This isn't just a problem. It's a national disgrace."
Of equally alarming concern however is the advent of new media and lack of Black participation. As an attendee during this conference noted, "the media [should] be more broadly defined and not be limited to traditional TV and radio stations."
Thus,this is a urgent call from The A-List (http://thealistmagzine.blogspot.com) publishers to the FCC to increase Black media inclusion and economic power through new initiatives, formal policy and regulations. Our goal is to see not only increased Black television ownership by at least 10% by 2010, but also the creation and enforcement of regulations regarding policy on partnerships between mainstream media conglomerates and Black businesses (particularly new entrants in new media) as well as creation of an "incubator" to help launch new media business ideas.
Since Black Americans, who as a whole support the media, exercise a spending power of $679 billion; it is now the era of balancing the investment to create a rich tapestry of diverse business inclusion, a tapestry which has made America great. signersigner