Who Owns Television? by Q. Reyes: Artistic Warfare #5

January 11, 2009 Q. Reyes 1 Comment

I had to revisit a lot of things from the past this week.  My memory took a trip down memory lane, which it’s not anywhere near Wisteria lane.  I was looking back at some of the places I’ve worked and some of the things that I’ve done, and I have to admit that my life has been one crazy ride.

Most notably I spent a lot of time at a TV Station in Oakland formerly known as Soulbeat.  The owner was one of the smartest people I’ve known, so smart, he would never try to impress people on how brilliant he really was, because that’s how smart he was.  His name was Chuck Johnson and he’s gone to a better place now.

The thing that made Soulbeat different than any other TV station in the world is that Soulbeat “kept it real”. There was no illusion or deception about it. Soulbeat was as real as real gets. The broadcast came on, things happened, and that was that.  No bells and whistles.  No special effects.

Chuck always claimed that Soulbeat was the only African-American owned TV Station in the Country, and to his advantage, no one can prove him wrong.  Soulbeat relied slightly on advertising, but it had many heavy supporters who made donations.

I’ve met and worked with a lot of great people there.  There was Billy, Cindy, Luenell, Chauncey Bailey, and of course, Night Dogg.

Chauncey was a reporter for The Oakland Tribune and The Oakland Post.  He was shot in August of 2007 and the death rocked everyone in Oakland.  He was very respected for his investigations dealing with the community, and his last investigation might be the cause of him losing his life.  This was truly a catastrophe.  Chauncey was a great mentor and wrote articles about me and my partner Alfonso Amey and our small-time TV production operations.  He wanted everyone to succeed.  He will truly be missed.

On a less somber note, there was Night Dogg.  How can I explain Night Dogg?  Night Dogg lived at the TV station and he would host a show throughout the night.  People would call in and curse him out on live television.  I felt bad, but it was hilarious.  Night Dogg would hang up on them, they would call right back and do it again.  This would go on all night long, every night.

Soulbeat had a homemade feel to it.  That’s partly because in the later years Soulbeat was actually broadcasting out of a house.  Literally.  It was a house-turned-TV Station.

I remember Chuck Johnson would tell us stories about the TV business.  I always wondered why he would struggle to keep the station alive.  He could have sold that station any time and made a whole bunch of money, but instead, he chose to keep it going as best as he could.

Chuck would get many offers from companies wanting to buy the station, but he would shut them down immediately.  I never got a dime to be on Soulbeat, but you couldn’t buy the experience I gained there.

The reason I bring all of this up is that it just dawned on me that there are no minority-owned American television stations.  Even Telemundo is owned by NBC, who’s owned by General Electric.  Viacom owns BET.  So are these really “our” stations?  Who has the last say in what “we” want to watch?

Maybe there is a TV station out there that hasn’t “sold-out”, but I doubt it.  It’s hard to stand for something you believe in; when what you believe in is that you need money.

Oh yeah, if you want to “understand” Night Dogg, check out this clip below.  I’m on the left side of the screen and my friend Demarco is in the middle – we’re acting.  Night Dogg is on the right side and he’s not acting.  This is actually a spoof on a real Soulbeat show.  The set is the actual set used by all of Soulbeat’s shows.  Basically, this is what Soulbeat looked like.

Here’s the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lSJ9u-iGOw