Will Black Business Invest in Skills Improvement to Survive?

                                     By

                        Sherman N. Miller

 9/6/1989

     The Civil Rights Movement humanized Black America in the

eyes of the economic mainstream.  It afforded blacks the right to

shed their black identity and begin a metamorphic change into a

mainstream American clone.  This same metamorphosis is now

reshaping black business in America.

     This cloning process is seen in former black radio stations

now adopting urban formats.  This repositioning of black stations

to a broader audience has left a bitter taste with many of the

Who's Who in black radio today. 

     "Black stations are no longer proud to be black...," is a

comment that still reverberates in my mind from Jack "The Rapper"

Gibson's (Dean of American black radio) annual convention for the

leadership of black radio. 

     This statement implies that there are advantages in not

being perceived as too black.  It also suggests that the

mainstream business community does not respect the black targeted

stations' business acumen.

     Yet my ill-fated conclusion need not be the urban stations'

sole rationale for adopting a mainstream format.  We can make a

case that a general format significantly expands the urban

stations' target market.  They are, then, able to sell national

advertisers on both a larger and a more affluent audience. 

     On the other hand, urban stations have repositioned

themselves  away from a niche business strategy where they served

solely the black community.  This paradigm shift is contrary to

the thinking of many mainstream business executives who relish

the opportunity to control niches in the marketplace.

     Nevertheless, the one urban station president with whom I

chatted at Gibson's convention showed me a detailed marketing

study of his target market.  I was impressed by a quick scan of

its demographics.  He also left me with the feeling that he was

prepared to compete on mainstream standards.

     I was stressed by my chat with the urban station president

because he was very upbeat while the leadership of black radio

railed about a bleak future.  Advertisers will not abandon the

black community especially since Black America's gross national

product rivals that of many nations throughout the world. 

     Black radio will play a significant role in advertisers

reaching the black community, if its management develops the

necessary skills to prosper in a mainstream specialty market.

Thus, the black radio management must accept that the world is

now driven by technology, so those businesses who fail to exploit

it are doomed to extinction.

     Will black radio invest to upgrade the skills of its

professional staff to meet the emerging mainstream challenge? 

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