Kuumba Njia TV: The Road to Independent Black Media

I have to admit....I hated the conversion from analog to digital reception for basic television.  I thought that it was unnecessary, not to mention intrusive; why should the government be telling you how you can watch free TV?  I was one of the people that resisted; I never got one of those converter boxes, nor did I get cable (couldn't afford it).  Not to mention...the rising cost of cable, and the unregulated and unchecked greed of the various cable companies that were out there.  I just spent more time reading, or writing up my various projects (screenplays, novels), or surfing the web.

It wasn't until recently, when I heard about a new Black-owned digital channel, that I began to change my mind about the digital conversion.  I had heard of this new channel called BounceTV, based out of Atlanta, GA.  There was an article about it written in one of the local Black newspapers out here in Baltimore (I believe it was The Afro).  The channel was being headed by Martin Luther King III, and Andrew Young.  That's when the idea hit me...

If they can do it, why can't the rest of us?

Considering my media background, I had already known about  the past attempts at creating a Black-owned cable network (NUE-TV, MBC/Black Family Channel, Real Hip Hop Network, etc).  Most of them eventually folded, while BET was sold into white hands.  TV One, in my own humble opinion, leaves much to be desired as far as original content is concerned.  Not to mention, TV One is only 1/2 Black owned; Comcast owns the other 51 % of the company.  But...a digital television channel, on the other hand?  That was uncharted territory.  This was actually a first.

I went online, and did some research about creating a digital television channel.  Financially, it is so much more feasible to accomplish, than to create a cable network.  It would cost I believe around $100k-$150k to start up the network.  You would have to apply with the FCC for an operating license, and also find a Network Engineer to run it.  Also, you would need to see what available carrier space is available for your network to run on.  With more channel space being made available every other week, that's not very hard.  And...all you would need to see the channel is an HDTV antenna, if you're not already hooked up to a cable service.

To find out more, you can just go to the FCC's website, or just type HDTV channels into the search engine for either Google, Bing, or Yahoo.  The information is able to be printed out for your own personal records.

I decided to come up with my own idea for a digital television channel, hence the title for this particular entry.  Kuumba Njia Television; "Looking to Edu-tain the Masses".  Many of us in the 'conscious community' always talk about owning our own media so as to be able to control our own images, and how they are presented to the public.  Not to mention, how a venture like this can help to create jobs for our community.  You have jobs from production workers (directors, camera people, editors, graphic artists), to office assistants, to technicians (lighting, sound, computers), to actors and writers. 

The initial treatment for the channel has already been written up.  It could be completely funded by the black business community, and global black dollars.  Why complain about Black media not receiving funds from Main Street or Wall Street like their White counterparts?  We need to fund our own media, and show and prove just how powerful  and successful it can really be.  We could also eventually create sister channels that target other specific types of programming (sports, movies, talk shows, etc).

So, what say you?  Are we ready to build this media empire?