St. Pete’s new radio station ‘Black Power 96’ seeks community support
St. Pete’s new radio station ‘Black Power 96’ seeks community support
ST. PETERSBURG – Burning Spear Media will host a day-long event Sept. 20 at the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg to raise funds for Black Power 96, the new radio station that will begin broadcasting on the FM dial in January 2016.
Black Power 96 is radio by and for the black community! The new community station is owned by the non-profit African People’s Education and Defense Fund. It will deliver a fresh sound featuring locally produced music and neighborhood news, as well as news and information from the Caribbean, Africa and the world.
96.3 LPFM will stand tall as a non-commercial radio station owned and controlled by the black community of south St. Pete where 70 percent live under the poverty level and full access to employment, housing, healthcare and quality education is routinely denied.
Today over 90 percent of the airwaves are controlled by six corporations: Comcast, News Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS. Clear Channel alone owns more than 1000 radio stations and 80 percent of the music playlists in the U.S. are identical. Black journalists are severely underrepresented in newsrooms throughout the U.S.
Black Power 96 will address these disparities by serving as a hub for the training and employment of broadcast professionals, musicians and engineers.
The Sept. 20 event is free and open to the public and will include brunch, tours of the new studio space, participation in the studio audience for a live broadcast and a Karamu (African feast).
A special round-table discussion on the importance of independent black media will feature Charles Barron, New York State Assemblyman; Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda Report; Gazi Kodzo, popular video blogger; James Cole, WTMP host; Connie Burton, Tampa radio host and Dan Davis, St. Petersburg entrepreneur.
All those who want to support or get involved in community radio in south St. Pete are invited to come to the Uhuru House at 1245 18th Ave. S. Sept 20. From 10-6 p.m. you can meet and greet the organizers of this new radio station and learn how to lend your support.
