The developments over the past five years have raised, in my mind at least, a serious question of the declining value of "integrity" and "commitment." High minded philosophers would speak of fidelity to principles and of honor. But on the street, it simply comes down to how good is your "word?" In the case of B-96, the FM station in the Twin Cities now owned and operated by the publicly traded media conglomerate Radio One, the value of that "word" is virtually worthless. Five years ago, Kandu Communications teamed with Ross Love, Chairman & CEO of Blue Chip Communications to acquire a full power commercial FM station, the first to be owned by people of color in the State of Minnesota. Ross Love publicly promised to establish and build a strong relationship between the new station and the African American and other communities of color in the Twin Cities. He promised a substantial contribution to the Urban League and a dialogue with school and community leaders to address concerns, failures and successes of the communities that were underserved by the mainstream white owned and controlled media. To be sure, every promise cannot be kept. But commitment and integrity is demonstrated by at least good faith attempts to honor a promise freely given.
Ross Love went on to sell the 15+ radio stations of Blue Chip to Radio One, a publicly traded communications corporation headed by Black Media leader Katherine Hughes. He sits on the Board of Directors of Radio One. When B-96 was set up, Love chose Steve Woodbury to run the station. Woodbury, a white radio professional manager, had experience with sports and talk radio stations, but no discernible experience whatsoever with a music based station that was connected to a community of color. Kandu Communication principals raised concerns to Love at the time, which he acknowledged as a "potential problem." The role of Kandu Communications, after the acquisition was primarily to advise and assist the station management in developing and strengthening a relationship with the communities whose support had allowed the station to be acquired in the first place.
In the intervening five years, the track record of B-96 and Radio One has been dismal with respect to any relationship with the Black Communities of the Twin Cities. Kandu Communications principals were brushed aside and ignored. Indeed, Woodbury refused to even meet with them to discuss concerns. In five years, Woodbury has never once met with Al MacFarlane, the Publisher and Editor of Insight and a public leader in the Black community for decades. The same holds true for the radio station's relationship with the Spokesman/Recorder, the other respected newspaper organization of the Black community in the Twin Cities. Ross Love publicly promised active collaboration with KMOJ, the non-profit community radio station which represented the sole voice of the community on the airwaves prior to B-96, but whose broadcast range does not cover the Twin Cities area because of its limited power. None of that collaboration has materialized.
Were the words of honor and the promises and commitments by Ross Love regarding the ownership and operation of the new B-96 station of any real value? Ross Love, a former Proctor & Gamble Executive may have simply been selling the Twin Cities communities of color more "soap." Of course, there is always a risk with the change of ownership that a dilution of power and diminished ability to deliver on a promise can occur. In that case, it would have been reasonable for Love to have communicated to Kandu Communications and the Twin Cities communities that he tried but was unable to gain Radio One's approval of the commitments he had made when Blue Chip acquired the station. But despite numerous communications with Love, he never once suggested that he had made the effort and failed. In fact, Love has not confirmed that he communicated to the Radio One Senior Management that he had made public promises and representations when B-96 was acquired.
One need only listen to the station these days to assess the level of B-96's fidelity to the declared "principles" of barring profanity and gratuitous degradation of women and youth in the Black Community. Just because the record companies promote such destructive messages in "hit records" they push to the radio stations does not mean that Program Directors of principle need to broadcast them. We all know about sewage too, but that does not oblige us to pump it into our livingrooms. And we are not talking about censorship, but rather civic responsibility. We all know about the existence of profanity, prostitution, gratuitous violence and the destruction of young Black men and women in our communities. But we each make a choice in how we discuss those realities. Do we glorify them? Or do we discuss them in a rational perspective that educates as well as entertains the audience? It is not a question of genre, as there is Rap and Hip Hop music with a message. What is involved is an intelligent, creative, disciplined and principled Program Director. The stated vision of B-96 was to adhere to the latter positive image. But 20 minutes of listening to the B-96 current playlist demonstrates how far the actual practice has strayed from the promise. I listen to B-96 periodically for professional reasons. My teenage children, who looked forward to the station with anticipation when it was acquired, no longer even put the station on their preset station roster in their cars. No, it is not the demographics, it is the content and character of the broadcast that keep the station from rising in the Arbitron ratings.
Kandu Communications has continued to monitor B-96, sometimes with solemn regret that the project that took ten years to bring to fruition has strayed so far from the initial goals. Yet there is a station, and there is at least a chance that Radio One will hear the message from the Twin Cities communities of color and re-evaluate its course. To that end, Kandu Communications continues the struggle of honoring its commitment to bring a responsible and responsive broadcast media voice to the communities of color in the Twin Cities.
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