And Then there was None....
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A study done In 2006 showed there were only 18 African American-owned and operated full-power commercial TV stations in the country.
That represented just 1.3 percent of all such stations.
Fast forward 6 years later to December 2012 and the number of Black owned stations had shrunk to just 5.
Today, there are none.
Roberts Broadcasting, a black-owned media company, just announced a deal to sell its three remaining full-power TV stations to ION Media Networks for nearly $8 million.
Media consolidation has made it harder for people of color to own broadcast stations because it raises entry barriers for small owners. Concentration makes it harder for any small owner to compete, and the few non-white broadcast licensees we have are far more likely to be small owners who control just a handful of stations or a single broadcast outlet.
It’s hard to fathom the sorry state of broadcast ownership during the administration of our nation’s first black president. After all, during his first presidential campaign, President Obama pledged to “encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media.”
Obviously that hasn’t happened.
