By Alton Drew

It’s time for the FCC to move on promoting incubation for minority radio ownership

.

In 1938, two engineers, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, started work in a rented garage at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo, California. They had $538 in capital. Their first product, a resistance capacitor audio oscillator, would be used to test sound equipment for the Walt Disney Studios. The following year the two would formalize their partnership, deciding whose name would go first on the letterhead based on a flip of a coin.

The story is a romantic one, at least in the technology world. While the flip of the coin would be the least of their gambles (just ask Carly Fiorina), the stakes are much higher for minority entrepreneurs trying to break into the media marketplace.

Simply put, there is a dearth of minority ownership of radio and television stations in the United States. According to the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, while minorities make up one-third of the American population, minorities own approximately seven percent of all full power commercial radio stations, which represent approximately one percent of the industry’s asset value. In addition, minorities own only 29 out of over 1300 full power television stations in the United States.

The reason these numbers are important is pretty straightforward. For all the prevalence of social media and our disproportionate use of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, Americans overall and the minority community…

Read more

Related Posts with Thumbnails