Donna Lamb, Black Star News
- No, it isn’t just your imagination. Black radio really is vanishing.
The new film “Disappearing Voices – The Decline of Black Radio” explains why. Written and narrated by veteran radio personality Bob Law and directed by independent filmmaker U-Savior, this documentary is an historical overview of a uniquely American media format that rose in the late 1940’s and 50’s, reached its peak in the 1960’s and 70’s, and has gradually spiraled downward ever since.
At the time of filming, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that out of 10,315 commercial AM and FM radio stations in the United States, only 168 are Black-owned – and even that number is declining.
As the documentary explains, radio took on tremendous importance in the Black community because it spoke directly to its audience through Black radio “jocks” such as Frankie “Hollywood” Crocker, Hal Jackson, Eddie O’Jay, Jocko Henderson, Jack “The Rapper” Gibson, Gerry Bledsoe and “The Mad Lad” E. Rodney Jones, each of whom developed their own distinctive style and sound in their on-air – and sometimes on-top-of-the-record – patter.
