Community Radio

The history of black public radio parallels the history of noncommercial radio, the oldest form of radio broadcasting in the United States. Philip A. Thompsen notes that "noncommercial radio arose from the radio broadcasting pursuits of college students, community groups, political parties, and non profit organizations" (Albarran, p. 133). The first noncommercial station in America, WHA, began as a radio experiment in the physics department of the University of Wisconsin in 1902, according to Thompsen.

Black Public Radio Early History

Black public radio's early stages evolved on the campuses of the historically black colleges and universities. The missions of the black college stations were to train, educate, and inform, though their primary purpose was to educate students in radio. The radio station functioned as a learning laboratory that students programmed with the over-sight of a faculty advisor. A strong commitment to public affairs programming emerged as a means to inform the local community, which was typically politically disenfranchised by commercial mass media. The local black community began to have a voice through the medium of black public radio.

In 1945 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated one-fifth of the FM band from 88.1 and 91.9 megahertz for the exclusive use of noncommercial educational radio. The term public radio is sometimes used by listeners and holders of noncommercial educational FM licenses to refer to FM stations operating in this band. In fact, all AM and FM radio service in the United States is public.

Black noncommercial radio began in the early 1960s with WCSU-FM at Central State University in Ohio and KUCA at the University of Central Arkansas. North Carolina has the largest number of black noncommercial stations with seven. In 1967, the Public Broadcasting Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The act created a federally funded radio service that would greatly increase public interest programming and relieve commercial broadcasters from FCC-mandated public service obligations. The passage of this law and the subsequent formation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting opened opportunities for black colleges and universities to secure federal funding and establish noncommercial stations. It was in the early 1970s that black public radio began to flourish. Eighteen black college radio stations began broadcasting during the 1970s as a result of the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act and the federal funds made available through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additionally, the description of "public radio" refers to black college stations with an affiliation to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio.

Categories and Formats of Black Public Radio

Black public radio consists of two categories: educational and community stations. These stations are primarily owned and operated by black colleges and universities. Within the classification of educational noncommercial stations licensed to the black colleges and universities is another form of radio broadcasting called cable or carrier current stations. These stations broadcast primarily on the college campus by closed-circuit cable connections or carrier currents. Carrier current stations are limited in power and not required to be licensed by the FCC. Carrier current stations are mainly operated by students.

Some historic black colleges and universities have both educational noncommercial and carrier current stations. Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta and Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, have student-run carrier current stations and FM noncommercial stations. Carrier current stations located on the campuses of Clark Atlanta University, Tennessee State University, Bethune Cookman College, and Howard University are the most influential. Presently there are at least fifty-four terrestrial and carrier current/closed circuit black college radio stations, with forty-two stations broadcasting over the air regularly.

The general format of most black public radio stations is a mixture of music, news, information, and public affairs. In addition, many of the black colleges have a regular schedule of gospel music aired daily. The most common formats of public radio stations are news, information programs, jazz, and classical music.

Serving the Community

The majority of black public stations owned and operated by historically black colleges and universities play jazz music. However, some black college stations are changing to include contemporary and other music genres. At Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, the general manager of KBWC states, "The station was only a one-format station (jazz), and the community wanted more of a variety." Accordingly, in recent years the station has offered more of a variety, a mix of gospel, R&B, hip-hop, smooth jazz, blues, reggae, and old school. The inclusion of more music genres helped KBWC cater to the community it serves.

On the other hand some black public stations have extended the ideal of serving the community through more informational programming. Clark Atlanta University station WCLK produces its own public affairs programming for distribution to forty black public stations in urban areas, including Atlanta; Houston, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Memphis, Tennessee; Columbia, South Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Durham, North Carolina. The primary method of program distribution includes satellite communication, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), and programs recorded on tape and compact disc. One of the most popular public affair programs is Power Point produced at Clark Atlanta University.

Recent advances in Internet technology increased black public radio's ability to distribute programming through a new method of program distribution called media on demand. Media on demand enables the listener to download a program on the Internet at any time from a specified content provider. Black public radio since its inception has attempted to provide programming to serve the local community whether it is music or information.

Community Radio Stations

Community radio stations by contrast are owned and operated by nonprofit foundations controlled by a local board of directors and operated by mostly volunteers. Black community stations were an outgrowth of a movement pioneered by the Pacifica Foundation in the 1950s. The primary task of community radio stations is to provide programming that is an alternative to commercial radio stations. The most distinctive feature of the black community station is its commitment to sustain an independent, critical, and oppositional stance.

One of the first black community radio stations was WAFR in Durham, North Carolina, in 1971. The black community station rose as a means to facilitate access to the airwaves for black viewpoints and music typically ignored by commercial stations. Black community radio stations have adapted a wide range of organizational structures and program formats to meet the communication and informational needs of a particular community.

Listener support is the primary funding source for the black community stations. Federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is limited because most community radio stations do not meet the minimum transmitting power requirement of 100 watts. In 1974 the National Federation of Community Broadcasters was founded to develop a national organization representing community broadcasters. The federation helped stations obtain their FCC licenses and set up a program exchange to facilitate sharing of programming tapes among stations. To date there are over 125 community radio stations, but of that number only ten are black controlled and operated.

Black-controlled community radio started on the west coast. KPOO in San Francisco was the first black-controlled community station, although it was actually established by white community activists in 1972. Other black-controlled community radio stations were founded by nonprofit foundations such as Pacifica, Radio Free Georgia, and the Students for a Democratic Society. In 1977 in Warren County, North Carolina, a black nonprofit organization called Sound and Print United established WVSP-FM. One of the most successful community radio stations is WPFW in Washington D.C., founded by the Pacifica Foundation and funded by listener support. WPFW is a powerful community radio station with a transmitting power of 50,000-watts and a broadcast coverage radius of over thirty-five miles.

The New Role of Black Public Radio

Most of this country's broadcast media have been stripped of an authentic sense of place, culture, and experience. In this media environment, black public radio is one of the few trusted sources of information, dialogue, and culture in a rapidly changing international environment. Black public radio provides opportunities for new voices and innovative programming. Producers work independently crafting exceptional documentaries for black public radio, such as Radio Smithsonian Black Radio's Telling It Like It Was. Other program productions, such as Clark Atlanta University's Power Point and the Tavis Smiley Show, were developed to fill the information void in the black community. Black public radio brought a position of strength by reinvigorating public radio's public vision and extending its core values to minority audiences.

Despite the financial challenges of federal funding cutbacks and dwindling listener support, black public radio stations provide a wide variety of innovative, interesting, and illuminating programs designed especially for the communities it serves, filling the information vacuum created by commercial radio because of dwindling news, cultural, and public affairs programming, as well as the focus on profits.

The Challenges of Black Public Radio

The changing political landscape of the United States also has had an effect on black public radio. Since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act, the CPB has had to argue its case to every newly elected Congress. The climate for funding black public radio has not fared well. The black colleges and universities that hold a broadcast license are putting less money into the radio stations. Many stations dramatically slashed budgets and adopted alternative fund-raising methods to stay operational. Many of the early community stations, notably WAFR in Durham, North Carolina, are no longer broadcasting because of lack of financial support. Money has been the biggest challenge to black public radio.

Yet with both political and economic challenges black public radio remains resilient, with a focus toward a unified network. The road of a unified consortium is being paved through annual meetings of the African American Public Radio Futures Summit, which started in 1998. This group of some twenty-one powerful black college and community stations has mapped out strategies for the future of African-American public radio. The consortium, headed by radio stations at Clark Atlanta University, Morgan State, Jackson State, North Carolina Central, and Texas Southern universities, urged executives at NPR to bring Tavis Smiley on in order to appeal to African-American listeners. The black college consortium felt that this program was necessary for diversity and to provide information to the African-American community. The consortium of unified black college and universities within the Corporation of Public Broadcasting presented in 2001 a persuasive argument to bring the program to National Public Radio. In addition to program inclusion the consortium focuses on finance, audience research, technology, and development during its annual summit meetings.

On the Horizon

The future for black public radio in the new millennium is very promising. The FCC has conducted several engineering studies regarding interference and concluded that there is available spectrum space for new low-power FM (LPFM) stations. These stations are authorized for non-commercial educational broadcasting only and operate with an effective power of 100 watts or less. LPFM stations are available to noncommercial educational entities and public safety and transportation organizations but are not available to individuals or for commercial operations. Current broadcast licensees with interests in other media (broadcast or newspapers) are not eligible to obtain low-power FM stations. These stations would open the door for more broadcasting opportunities to African-American and other minority communities. The combination of digital technology with traditional broadcasting is helping public radio stations connect with the community better. Several black public radio stations, including WBGO-FM, WEAA-FM, WPFW-FM, and WWOZ-FM have websites and broadcast on the Internet.

In addition, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is taking the initiative to fill the information void left by commercial radio by awarding public and community stations with grants to enhance listener and community service through the Internet. Black public and community stations are taking advantage of the technology and adding Web broadcasts to their broadcasts, thus making the smallest of stations accessible not only to their communities but to the world.

See also Radio

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reginald d. miles (2005)