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.
Once considered a phenomenal success story in an industry known for its stunning lack of diversity, Roberts Broadcasting was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2011.The decline stemmed primarily from Viacom’s decision to shutter the UPN network, which Roberts affiliated with due to UPN’s unique focus on programming featuring ordinary portrayals of African Americans.
Roberts Broadcasting’s exit from the market comes on the heels of the departures of two other prominent black owners.
In late October, the Sinclair Broadcast Group continued its buying spree by acquiring a Fox affiliate in Portland, Me., from a company helmed by Charles Glover, a funk musician turned broadcaster. That same month, Access.1 Communications agreed to sell its Atlantic City NBC station to Locus Point Networks, which is expected to close the station and give up its license as the FCC takes broadcast stations off the air and auctions those airwaves to cellphone companies.
Public interest and civil rights groups have warned the FCC that its policies allowing for greater media consolidation were going to push out the few remaining people of color who owned broadcast stations.
At the end of 2011, the FCC reported that people of color owned 15 percent of all low-power TV stations, compared to just 3 percent of full-power TV outlets.
The FCC has a long and pitiful track record here, failing to promote or even preserve what little ownership diversity remains.
There’s hope this could change now that the agency has a new chairman … but leaders have to lead. In this case, that means the new FCC has to acknowledge that we’re well beyond a crisis point. Its own policies are responsible for the shameful state of minority ownership. The elimination of black owners is a tragedy, but the FCC has to take action to address its own failures.
Joseph Torres is senior external affairs director and S. Derek Turner is research director for the Free Press.
To read this story in its entirety visit the atlantadailyworld.com
About Post Author
