Institutional Racism in Seattle stations - damn right, I said it.

[collardgreens]

Seattle, tell me why...

Tell me why that on every single Seattle 18-34 demo station, you play music by black artists all day yet only have a mere handful of black jocks on air?

For instance, look at Seattle Movin's website, and go on their Artists page. What do you see? Black artists, after black artists, after black artists.

Ok, now go on their jock page. What do you see there? Oh-ho!!! Whitebread, homogenized, substance-less jocks. Right, so you have some Latin mix in there, but what does it matter if they sound white.

The point is, Seattle in general need to have more African American and minority jocks, period. General managers and program directors, please take note - and ACTION.

If this post is offensive to you, it's meant to be. Because it is offensive to me everyday that Seattle, as progressive as this city claims to be, can be so institutionally racist in this industry.

Get with the rest of metropolitan cities and their radio stations and loose that small town mentality!! Continuing to huddle with your ol'boys network will only further remove you from what your audiences really want to hear.

 

[AQH]

Ok, now go on their jock page. What do you see there? Oh-ho!!! Whitebread, homogenized, substance-less jocks. Right, so you have some Latin mix in there, but what does it matter if they sound white.

How do you come to the conclusion that jocks are "Whitebread, homogenized, substance-less" and "sound white" just by visiting a stations' web page?

If this post is offensive to you, it's meant to be.

It's not offensive in the sense you want it to be, what's offensive are the stereotypes that you come up with.

 

[JbeJay]

Seattle, tell me why...

I'm not "Seattle", but Arbitron shows that the full metro is 5.3% black.

I'm also not a believer in quotas. But if you are, wouldn't you say that, logically, one out of every nineteen jocks on Movin should be black? Let me ask you this: Do they have nineteen jocks?

If this post is offensive to you, it's meant to be.

Pardon me for yawning. You're not offending me at all. I find your rant amusing, not offensive.

If you were good enough to be on the air -- which is presumably what this is all about -- you could be on the air, Seattle or somewhere.

Jay

 

[mammaknowsbest]

Very valid complaint. Stations that program to the African/American community should have talent that represents the community. KQMV is aimed at the white mamma's who think they are hip. Look at the demo breakdown of MOVIN stations and it is lily white. KUBE, on the other hand, should have a full African/American staff based on the percentage of their audience that is African/American, yet the staff is white, white, white in prime shifts. The bigger crime in Seattle radio is the lack of female morning shows (and I don't mean the traffic/news sidekick.) Over 50% of the audience is female and yet there is no significant female morning show in Seattle. That is the true prejudice in this lily white market. Ya ya bad.

 

[beefjerky]

I think it's a mistake to say, this station is targeted female, so you need to have many female talents. Or, this station is targeted black, so you must have many black talents. Or, this station plays many songs by black artists so the station should have many black talents.

The appeal of air talents or music doesn't work that way.

People have songs they like, without regard to the color, race or religion of the artists. That's not a factor, you like the song or you do not.

It's the same with air talents. If you are a woman, you don't only like female air talents... and on and on.

That's the point of moving away from the sexist/racism thing, color/race/religion/gender... is not a factor.

And because America is the way it is, there probably is a shortage of black, hispanic, asian and female talents and programmers and managers in this and every other market here in the USA.

 

[searadiofreak]

Bottom line, Seattle has one of the lowest percentage of black population of major U.S. cities. Simple math is in play here, not racism.

 

[sirmusic]

I dont usually respond to any of these posts, but i believe collard's got a valid argument. Trust me, there any of us who's been in radio for any number of years knows that waaay more often than not, it's all about who you know not how talented you are. Let's not be naive. To simplify the argument into some one just not being good enough to be on -air in Seattle is ridiculous...does that mean that blacks just aren't good enough to be on in Seattle, but in a major market like mine (SF) where I co-host a morning show, we are? What, are the standards for talent greater in Seattle than in SF or New York? Lemme tell you, I've been to Seattle a number of times and i've always felt that the talent there was a bit run-of-the-mill..l.which is why some one like T-Man could dominate there...but can't quite duplicate the feat here in the Bay. And I've never had a problem with whether or not a white jock is on at a hip- hop or R&B station, the question is why aren't more African American jocks allowed to showcase on AC's, Hot AC's, Alternatives, and Country?

Is there institutional bias? C'mon y'all...of course there is...the question is how do we fix it?

 

[radio profit]

To my knowledge, T-Man just began in the Bay Area about 6 months ago. Way to early to draw positive or negative conclusions yet. The insider talk from people who had never heard of him before is very positive however.

 

[shawns]

The insider talk from people who had never heard of him before is very positive however.

As are the ratings.

 

[FMSteve]

Good thread. We'd like to think that a black dude or gal, if professional and proficient in broadcasting, could go far in this business, in any format, Country, AC, or Hip-Hop. I've seen quite a few do very well in the Sales department. To answer your question, part has to do with the market. Seattle is still a vanilla-white community. When Movin' runs a promotion about "tickle-me Elmo" dolls-------aiming for the young suburban mothers, you see the problem. Management thinks that that's what the market wants, so that's what the market gets. Why bring in somebody new, maybe Black to set us straight? It's just not necessary, for better or worse.

 

[collardgreens]

My comments for the last time.

AQH- I would hope you are a little more intelligent then you sound. I would not comment on a matter without researching it first.

Jay-“Pardon me for yawning. You're not offending me at all. I find your rant amusing, not offensive.
If you were good enough to be on the air -- which is presumably what this is all about -- you could be on the air, Seattle or somewhere”.

Jay - LOL, WHAT wake up, LOL there are plenty of outstanding jocks that are not on the air here or anywhere else. If you are going to comment on this come with something a little more concrete.


I can’t have a rebuttal to you all because what I have seen on this Board makes my head hurt.

But thank you FMSTEVE for your response and mammaknowsbest for opening my eyes about Kube and women in radio. And Sir Music, your eyes have been open for a long time. Thank you for your comments.

Bye all and I hope this has opened your eyes from someone elses point of view.

 

[AQH]

AQH- I would hope you are a little more intelligent then you sound. I would not comment on a matter without researching it first.

Dude, I'm going off of what you're saying. If you want to do ad-hominems because I went off what you said, then so be it.

Let's see if your ego will let you stay true to your word about being done posting here.

 

[sirmusic]

But doesn't that assume that blacks aren't able to communiciate to the suburban mom about "Tickle Me Elmo?" or other such "suburban" topicss? WHich is precisely my point...that it's automatically assumed that blacks can't "relate" to a non-ethnic audience, but that whites obviously have no trouble relating to a young hip hop/R&B audience.

 

[majoradio]

I can recall how Seattle's former KYAC-AM hired jocks back in the 70's; the city's only soul radio station at the time...

KMTT's former Mike West (caucasian) once worked there, as well as others of the same -
- but nobody there or in the press shouted any rant of discrimination.

Sandusky and their former Seattle soul KSRB-AM had syndication - with the internal computer babysitters...

..so it all depends on how a station hires and fires, but this rests 'primarily' on the person and with his/her resume.

 

[majoradio]

CORRECTION

It rests 'primarily' on the person's EXPERIENCE wth his/her resume (I should say) -

- being a GOOD 'person/applicant' is important too of course, but race (by law) should NOT even be an issue
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
..and collardgreens, pay no mind to AQH's posts...
..he's as closed-minded here as a turtle hiding in it's shell...

 

[JbeJay]

Re: CORRECTION

It rests 'primarily' on the person's EXPERIENCE wth his/her resume (I should say) -- being a GOOD 'person/applicant' is important too of course, but race (by law) should NOT even be an issue

So basically you are joining some of us in rejecting collardgreens' point of view, yes?

 

[majoradio]

Re: Institutional Racism in Seattle stations

The question IS:

DOES Seattle radio need to have more African American and minority jocks - 'right now'?

I believe Seattle's done a great job in this catagory at stations in the past as mentioned...

..whether it's great for stations of TODAY has been unresearched, unless anyone can post some more info here

 

[BeachBum]

Wow, I'm surprised at the general tone of this debate.

Collard definitely has a point; there should be more jocks of color on in Seattle. Okay, let's not play a numbers game; it's still clear that for whatever reason there is, in fact, institutional racism going on (which is still true in many, if not most markets). A lot of it does have to do with who you know, which reinforces the old boy networks, although that should've broken down by now if that was all it is.

I'm white and have been the victim of racism on rhythmic stations (where I feel the most comfortable, actually), but I deal because I know I'm in the minority when it comes to racism in radio. I also know black jocks who had a lot of trouble finding work because they "sounded white," ironically enough. We still have a long way to go, unfortunately.

And AQH--Collard was no more ad hominem than you were. Stop acting superior.

 

[notalent]

So are you looking for affirmative action in radio?

Or wouldn't a "color blind" workplace be better?

Affirmative action of course is racial retribution, getting even for past misdeeds...

FWIW in my 4.5 years in Seattle radio i have not seen institutional racism. I have seem more white idiots holding down gigs than any other racial catagory. I have not yet seen any racial or gender cases where i have clearly surmised that this must be the reason for their employment.

As far as I have seen honestly it has been a case of A: who you know and B: talent.

And another thing... Just who is the regional VP of programming for Clear Channel.... hmmm... and he seems to be doing well overseeing the programming of AC, Country, Rock, Smooth Jazz AND pop formats.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

The thread brings to memory a story that I always get a kick of sharing. A talented jock of color caught the interest of a local PD --- the PD at the time under some serious pressure to make the EEO numbers a little more presentable for license renewal (it had already been publicly challenged once during the renewal process). Talent is hired...and asks if he can bring his gal-pal to the station as she also has jocking experience. PD thinks he just got two talented people, and one of them female and minority .... only to find when the duo arrive in town she's ONLY going to qualify for the "female" checkbox (not minority) and was one of the least-polished talents he had heard in some time.

You know what they say about "assume...."

Guess my read on the thread here is that it kind of comes down to what the station wants to sound like. I'd be horribly out of place on a station like KMJQ/Houston (and listeners would probably be uncomfortable having me on air there) -- and yet I wouldn't be racking it up to discriminatory practices. I understand those practices exist and they should NOT; but the one thing we tend to overlook is that often selection of "talent" in broadcasting goes into categories we'd rather not admit. I'm thinking mostly of television anchors ... tend to be specifically targeted based on the market and the timeslot ("we need a woman....we need a man") where most other professions would go ballastic if you were recruiting an accountant and said "we need a woman....we need a man"!