The Story That Black Radio is Afraid to Tell

Radio broadcasters have done a number on Black America over the past fifteen years. First, by allowing a "pay for play" list of hip-hop that distorts or alters the mind set of the next generation with a steady diet of misogyny, violence and drug culture. We all sat back and watched while BET and Black radio simply mirrored the local news at eleven, reinforcing stereotypes and replacing lyricists with the lyrically challenged.

Paul Porter's blog appears online at Ebony/Jet website. He is 25+ year industry professional and the co-founder of Industry Ears, a non-profit that seeks media justice. Thanks to Dave Warren Communications Industrialist & Social Satirist myspace.com/dave_warren for the FYI.

For decades, Black America has been the victim of all kinds of media distortion. It doesn't take a keen eye to see the regression of images in the past twenty years, in the eighties Cosby was America's number one sitcom and twenty years later VH1's "Flavor of Love" held television's highest rated African American program. Historically, one critical form of communication – Black radio - was the antidote to that distortion, consistently standing as a reliable source of news, information and culture throughout local communities nationwide.

Unfortunately, Black radio is swiftly becoming part of the problem, not the solution. It began, of course, with black-owned stations losing their independent voices and turning into sterile corporate jukeboxes limiting both information and community access, while feeding us music that reinforced the same stereotypes that for decades radio helped to defeat. Read more