The State of Urban Radio (Round-table Discussion)

West coast urban radio legend Johnny Morris recently hosted an urban radio round-table discussion at Roscoe’s Media Center (RMC) in Los Angeles, where he serves as facility manager, chief engineer and program director. The discussion centered on the state of urban radio… back in the day, today and the digital future.

The majority of the discussion centered around the apparent demise of community based urban radio around the country, the overall lack of true radio programming in an age of corporate controlled “franchise radio” brands, the strangle hold syndicated shows has on urban radio, and the nearly non-existent pool of new radio air talent. The tone of the conversation wasn’t all doom and gloom. For determined, innovative, creative, passionate and persistent entrepreneurial-focused, content creators… the future in this new economy via the World Wide Web is unlimited. I found the roundtable experience to be informative, spirited and very much necessary.

Morris moderated the talk which featured a stellar group of panelists including veteran programmer, Internet radio entrepreneur, talk show host and radio coach, Lee Michaels; Electronic Urban Report (eurweb.com) CEO, Lee Bailey; long-time urban radio personality/programmer, Cliff Winston; legendary NY urban radio programmer Vinny Brown; Syndication One News-Talk Network Operations Supervisor, Kirk Tanter; and veteran LA radio programmer, consultant and CEO of The Urban Buzz, Kevin Fleming. WBLS-NY OM Skip Dillard and many others listened on line at http://www.rmconair.com/

Check out the urban radio roundtable for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gx75kyWvvg

Kevin Fleming & Johnny Morris

Lee Bailey & Lee Michaels

Cliff Winston