HR 848 and Black Talk Radio: Ending Wackness In The Name Of Blackness
The recent debate over the condition of Black talk radio reveals several factors. Among them, the niche format is suffering a crisis of talent, content, business model, demographics, and political sagacity (or the lack thereof).
The crisis is one of the reasons I decided to launch my own program, "The Cedric Muhammad And Black Coffee Program."
In a sense the crisis of talent is one whereby an entire army and cadre of strong young, diverse and dynamic voices simply cannot break through an old guard network of well-connected voices from previous generations.
The crisis of content is marked by the extreme choice listeners have to make between superficial entertainment, gossip and part-time activists/hedonists (I see you Michael Baisden!) on one hand or rigid political ideology more loyal to political parties than local and global realities. Could it be that the titles and teams known as ‘Left,’ ‘Right,’ and ‘Center’ are more top-down controlling modalities and marketing niches (designed to control the masses and direct their consuming power) than real genuine bottom-up political forces? Here, the ebb and flow is determined by elections and the flavor of the month cause celebre’ rather than the critically important subject of how economics, entrepreneurship and technology are the global change agents - with independent-thinking Blacks an endangered species...
Read more at Cedricmuhammad.com:
http://www.cedricmuhammad.com/hr-848-and-black-talk-radio-ending-wackness-in-the-name-of-blackness/
Sunday, May 31, 2009