The Death of Black Radio

With over fifty years of experience in journalism and radio, author Bernie J. Hayes delivers a detailed personal account of the history of the Black radio industry. Since the 1940s, African-American radio personalities have developed, engineered, and urbanized ‘soul radio”. Their influence has helped to shape the history of radio and the recording industry. But even though Black radio personalities at one time provided cultural continuity for the race, record companies and the current hip-hop movement that dominate the business today have encouraged songs with sometimes suggestive and obscene lyrics that cause division. This cultural shift has impacted the African-American’s attempts to gain fairness in the media, a fight that began in the Jim Crow South and lasted through the years of the Black Migration to today. Although there has been a great diversity in the history of radio, the economic motives of some station owners demonstrate how many current practices betray the promises of the Emancipation Proclamation. With compelling insight into American culture, The Death of Black Radio shares the remarkable journey of the African-American radio experience in America.