“Among the many social and economic changes being wrought in this country as a result of the civil rights movement has been the development, within the broadcast industry, of Negro radio,” wrote media historian Richard S. Kahlenberg in 1966. The development was newsworthy, Kahlenberg explained, because just twenty years earlier, there were no Black-appeal stations. Some stations carried programming specifically focused on Black listeners, but none devoted 75% or more of their air time to that audience. By the time Kahlenberg was writing his article, there were more than 100 Black-appeal stations on the air. This rise of Black radio signaled a huge shift in media, advertising, and community outreach.
Black-interest radio sprung from early programming slots reserved for Black listeners of white-owned stations. As mass communications scholar Bala Baptiste writes, “In the late 1940s and early 1950s, some stations in the United States sold time slots to blacks, who independently created radio programs and in turn sold commercial time to black businesses.” Those who wanted to reach Black voters would buy 15 or 30 minutes and give it to “an African American to conduct a talk show,” Baptiste explains. Some might buy the time to play music, but they woud also promote products alongside the tunes.
But the real shift happened with WDIA in Memphis, Tennessee.
WDIA was operating as a country station, but, following an ownership change in 1947, it changed to all Black-interest programming, the first in the nation to do so. It was a bold move, not because Black people weren’t listening to the radio, but because the lifeblood of all stations was advertising. And as historian Tanya Teglo writes, the new owners “realized it would be difficult to keep the station running because of the racial attitudes of sponsors.”