The first black owned television station was WGPR-TV Detroit. It was founded by William Venoid Banks and it meant programming targeted to the black audience. Banks was a minister, attorney, and member of The International Free and Accepted Modern Masons (IFAMM), in which he founded. He also controlled Detroit’s first black owned radio station, called WGPR-FM.
It all got started when Banks sat down with President Richard Nixon, and they started conversing about blacks involvement in the broadcasting field. Nixon told him that he needed to obtain a Federal Communications Commission License. With that license you are required to have enough fund to run the station for a whole year.Since Banks was the founder of the IFAMM, he used that money from member’s monthly subscriptions to start his radio station (WGPR-FM), but with purchasing the television station, he sold 100 acres of the Mason’s land in the…
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Danii Gold 