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Soul of the South

P

Pat3

Guest
Do any of you watch this channel? It's on mostly subchannels and low power stations with programming mainly geared towards a black audience. They have a few talk shows, a nightly news cast and a few movies, most of which look like came from old fuzzy videotapes or scratchy 16mm prints converted to tape. Some are barely broadcast quality and in the past some were uncut with profanity including the "F" word and even brief nudity. A no-no for a broadcast channel. although they have gotten better about bleeping out the naugty bits. Some films are older Blackploition flix with big afros and funky soundtrack music. lately they've been having more and more infomercials which may indicate they are short of cash. Judging by the content, I don't ever see this channel being as popular as "Bounce". I really don't think this channel be around for many years.
 
there was a B&C article back in April. Here it is

B&C article
Soul of the South, an African-American diginet that has struggled from the start, is strongly considering pulling the plug two years after launch, according to a story in Arkansas Business. Complicating matters is a $2 million lawsuit from WMDE in Washington, stemming from a contract dispute.

The publication obtained a memo from CEO Doug McHenry to his board.

“It’s time for the board to consider winding down the company’s operations,” McHenry wrote. “Currently it doesn’t have sufficient resources to continue to operate and given the legal environment it is unlikely to attract sufficient funding to work out a plan for success. Therefore the board must make a decision to wind down operations and do so in the best manner to preserve shareholder value and company assets.”

Based in Little Rock, the channel needs $250,000-$500,000 to stay afloat for the next 3-4 months.

Soul of the South initially planned to launch in the first quarter of 2012, then shot for fall 2012 before going live in the spring of 2013. TV vets Edward Avent and Larry Morton were in the launch team. McHenry said at the time: "There are many prominent African-Americans who hail from the South and we plan to involve them as integral parts of our programming strategy. This is an important content component of Soul of the South and we are proud to give voice to these talented Americans."
 
I was suspious that this network was in trouble, based on the poor quality of the content they were showing. It looks like they were running it on the cheap. Adding more infomercials is a red flag. WLOO in Jackson, MS which is owned by Tougaloo College airs the network on a subchannel.
Tougaloo College in Jackson seems to be affiliated with Soul of the South in some way.
Another failed African American network was Urban American Television that also aired on mostly low power stations. Mostly consisting of old public domain films including some old Steppin Fetchit films which today are considered offensive to blacks due to the stereotypes. That network was short lived and bit the dust in 2006.
 
They had a Detroit affiliate, low powered WDHE, but it was dropped from there months ago with only a station title card continually broadcast. It appears to never have been anything near appropriately capitalized.
 
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