News for All the People by Juan Gonzalez

Author:Juan Gonzalez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media
ISBN: 9781844676873
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2011-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Early Black Radio

From the inception of wireless telegraphy dozens of African-Americans showed a keen interest in the new technology. That interest continued once radio took off after World War I. Miles Hardy founded the Pioneer Radio Club in New York City in December 1921 and Roland Carrington founded the Banneker Radio Club in Baltimore in 1922.5 In one of several columns he penned for the Afro-American on the subject, Carrington wrote:

We are offering an invitation to all radio fans, novice or expert. The fellows with crystal sets are as welcome as the ones with audions to join the club. We are in the game to help in every way possible anyone who desires our assistance. Operating on a non-commercial basis, there is much in the club to be gained.

We are teaching the radio code, giving thorough instruction of the working of sets, suggestions for improving them, and many other useful hints. We consider this the surest way of getting the proper information concerning radio, as many other ways are confusing to beginners. Let not the price of a set, or lack of knowledge, prevent your joining this club … Think the matter over and consider your loss by not being interested in this ever-increasing field of science. We will be pleased to interview any radio fan along these lines. Think of getting concerts as far away as Kansas City, Mo., Davenport, Iowa, and Chicago, Ill., on inexpensive amateur radio sets. Don’t fail to grasp our offer.

Roland Carrington, Pres.6

The fascination with radio extended far beyond the east coast or youthful amateurs. In September 1922 the African-American YMCA in Louisville, Kentucky, started its own radio school, while Rev W. A. C. Hughes, head of the Negro Work Department for the Methodist Episcopal Church, pressed his denomination in December 1924 to install radio sets in rural communities in the South; his dream was to use the new technology to help African-Americans overcome the harsh conditions of Jim Crow. “Race relations must be bettered and some of the finer things of life brought in,” Hughes urged. “Otherwise negro migration may be expected to increase rather than diminish.”7

In 1927 the Pittsburgh Courier sponsored an hour-long news show devoted to the black community. Called “The Pittsburgh Courier Hour,” it aired on WGBS in New York City, and marked “the first time in the history of Negro journalism that a Negro newspaper has brought its own program to the radio world,” the Courier proclaimed, proudly adding: “although John B. Russwurm must have viewed the future of his profession a century ago as doubtful and uncertain, if he could witness today the centennial of his effort being celebrated with its first ‘Radio Hour’ he would probably feel that his labors were not in vain.”8

The Harlem Broadcasting Corporation was founded two years later. With offices at 307 Lenox Ave., it initially leased time on WRNY in New York City, where it produced several widely heralded shows, among them “A Raise to Culture” and “The Negro Achievement Hour.” While the

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