Former WLBT-TV General Manager William Dilday dead at 85

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

William H. Dilday Jr., First Black TV Station Manager in U.S., Dies at 85

Hired to run a troubled Mississippi affiliate of NBC, he turned it into a respected and highly profitable operation, with a more diverse staff.

www.nytimes.com

Trailblazing African American manager, who led WLBT for more than a decade, dies

This is a developing story.

www.wlbt.com

Note William Dilday is mentioned as the first Black GM of a TV Station in the Jackson, Mississippi TV Market. This was at a time when WLBT-TV was viewed as a "Pro-Segregationist" channel at that time. However once William Dilday Jr and New management took over WLBT it became a model how local TV stations should address the concerns of their audiences.

Former WLBT General Manager William Dilday passed away Thursday after a fall in Massachusetts, his daughter confirmed.

Dilday became general manager of WLBT in 1972. He served at the station until 1984.

He joined WLBT after the Federal Communications Commission revoked the station’s previous broadcast license for its racially discriminatory practices.


The federal government would only restore the station’s license under new leadership. Dilday was part of the team that made up what was a caretaker organization called Communications Improvement Inc., according to a New York Times profile in 1977.

The Rev. Everett Parker, who fought a TV station's racism, dies at 102

In the mid-1960s, the Rev.

www.latimes.com

 

[crainbebo]

A trailblazer in television broadcasting and in civil rights. Thank you sir! May you RIP.
You might remember that Fred Beard and the Lamar Life Insurance Company were the original owners of WLBT. They were the ones that kept putting up 'trouble' and 'please stand by' slides when Black people were interviewed on the NBC network or when the Huntley-Brinkley Report had a story on the ongoing Civil Rights movement and integration, and the owners were pro-segregation. When the FCC yanked the license, Dilday came in so WLBT could be revived on the grounds of racial equality.