Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report
- Black commercial radio station owners, like all other broadcasters, hold their licenses on the condition that they faithfully serve the public interest. But commercial black radio, whether owned by African Americans or not, is failing that test. Commercial black radio treats its audience exclusively as a market, not a polity, and acknowledges no public service obligation worth mentioning.
At the coming National Conference For Media Reform, plans will be unveiled for a national campaign to bring locally gathered news and local news departments to commercial black radio. Changing the way black radio operates is only possible by mobilizing key constituencies in the communities broadcasters treat as passive markets. And this may be the time it begins to happen.
