Part Three: 3.25.09 – 3.31.09
Teaching was my primary source of income so I continued to do that at the university and pursue my masters at the same time. Teaching students historical and contemporary black political thought and challenging them to learn it was something I loved doing. I worked as a consultant on a number of federally funded programs as well. And Livin’ Black was now aired weekly.
Needless to say, I didn't have much time for anything else, so of course I got married in June of 1972 at the ripe old age of 24. My wife, Natalie Jane Bruce of Indianapolis graduated from St. Mary's of the Woods in Terre Haute, Indiana and was teaching music in grade school. At 22 she was even younger than me.
Natalie and I met as undergraduates when her choir traveled to Cincinnati one college weekend. We dated a little but had not seen or talked with one another for a few years. Natalie’s father, Dr. Reginald Bruce, was one of the most successful doctors in Indianapolis. He and Natalie’s stepfather, Charles DeBow, were Tuskegee airmen. On my way home from covering the First National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, for Livin’ Black I stopped in Indianapolis and called Dr. Bruce and asked for Natalie’s number. Four months later, June 1972, Natalie and I were married and living in Dayton.
As Livin’ Black continued to grow I was even more attracted to television and wanted to leave the university and pursue a full-time career in television. In 1972 the FCC began to require that television stations hire more minorities. That created a number of opportunities for me as an on-air news personality at television stations in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis; but that t wasn't what I wanted to do, much to the surprise of those who wanted to hire me to fill their minority quotas. “You should do this,” a news director said, “and in a couple of years the network will move you into a major market where you'll start making a lot of money.”
I was much more interested in writing, producing and creating content for television instead. “Oh,” the general manager of the station would say, “we don’t have any of those jobs.” So I continued teaching, consulting and working on Livin’ Black.
A year later, however, Dayton was selected as one of the five pilot cities in the federally funded Model Cities Program. And the city was one of the first in the country to have an Ombudsman’s Office, a joint center for citizens’ complaints modeled after the Ombudsman Office in Sweden founded in 1809. The first commercial I ever created was in fact a public service announcement for them.
Dayton was also home to the very first rape crisis center in the country and the first federally funded drug rehab program where addicts weaned themselves off heroin using methadone as a substitute. And the Dayton Police Academy was the first in the country to be called a Criminal Justice Center instead, shifting the mindset from teaching recruits basic police work to having them better understand their role in relation to the community. Remember, there were many riots in our urban centers during the late ‘60s and a lot of unrest generally, so a great deal of federal money was spent to educate, inform and sensitize police personnel. I was involved in some way with all those programs.
But racism is institutionalized and very powerful and trying to change something that was so ingrained in society was at best difficult. Whenever policemen had sniper practice at the Criminal Justice Center their favorite target was a silhouette of an African American male with Afro. In fact, it was the favorite target nationwide, so much so that the manufacturer couldn't keep up with the demand.
It was during this time that a colleague of mine and I submitted a proposal to the federal government to produce documentary films. The day they notified us that our application had been approved was an exciting one. I was finally going to be able to leave teaching and concentrate full-time on film making. However, except for the news film that we would occasionally shoot for some of the interview segments of Livin’ Black I didn't know anything about film or film editing. But I was determined to learn. NEXT: Trying to find a documentary cameraman…
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Client spending in a recession...
Everyone knows we are experiencing an economy unlike any in our lifetime - for reasons that continue to be discussed and debated worldwide, we're in a recession. Ultimately consumers aren't spending and clients are budgeting significantly less to market and advertise their products as a result. But clients are approaching the problem very differently. Some of them understand the importance of developing overarching strategies that guide their every action - and they are less reactive and arbitrary in their decision making as a result. They understand the importance of continuing to engage the consumer as well. As their agency partners we must help them maintain the market share we've all worked hard to gain. At a time when fewer media dollars are being spent we must create ideas that are even stronger and more innovative than ever before. But clients must give their agency partners sufficient resources in order for us to do so. Those who understand that, are more likely to protect their current market share in this downturn and be particularly well poised to increase that share when the economy rebounds. Those clients who don't understand that, won't be. It's that simple.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Journey of a Black man in advertising...Part Two
PART TWO: 3.25.09
Our television pilot was a snapshot of some of the most salient aspects of African American history. Music and narration rounded it out nicely. It was the first television show any of us had created and we were excited when the pilot ran. We were even more excited when the station decided to air the show monthly...even if it was 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. But that would soon change.
The show was called, Livin’ Black. Ed Clay was the director. Before long it aired weekly and the station gave us a better time slot. There were only a few shows like ours in cities throughout the country. Tony Brown's Journal and Positively Black aired nationally. As did Director Stan Lathan's Say Brother, produced by WGBH in Boston. We were all pioneers.
Darlene Hayes was my co-host and a producer for The Phil Donahue Show, which had started in Dayton just two years earlier. Phil’s show was really one of the first talk show/audience participation programs and it quickly gained a national following. We didn't have a budget so he would bring noted African Americans to Dayton that worked for his show and ours. He did his show live, we taped Livin’Black afterwards and aired it weeks later to a different audience.
That’s how we were able to conduct interviews with educators, political activists and politicians: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., just three months before his untimely death; Dr. Alvin Poussaint, world-renowned psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School; Reverend Jesse Jackson, then head of Operation Push; civil rights activists like Floyd McKissick, James Foreman, Amiri Baraka; and, of course, celebrities like Muhammad Ali.
I also conducted interviews with musicians like Herbie Hancock, shortly after his conversion to Buddhism; Jamaican-born pianist Monte Alexander and his Caribbean rhythms; George Benson, who was on tour to introduce the young, very talented Earl Klug; base player Eugene Wright, who played with the Dave Brubeck quartet in the‘50s and‘60s; saxophone legend Eddie Harris, who invented an electric sax and a reed mouthpiece for the trumpet that he said sounded like Halloween until he was able to master it; Dizzy Gillespie, who shared with the audience how he came to blow the trumpet with his cheeks puffed out , for which he was noted;Roy Ayers and Lionel Hampton dueling on the xylophones; the wonderfully mellow sounds of Grover Washington; and the poignant interview with Charlie Mingus as he sat, nodding in his chair, talking about his love of music and his unfortunate but longtime addiction to heroin.
It was quite a time in Dayton. Phil Donahue would soon have Marlo Thomas on his show, fall in love with and marry her. Len Berman, now of WNBC fame in NYC, was then the sportscaster at the station. And the weatherman was Dewey Hopper, who for a time reported the weather from outside the studio. Dewey would go on to a legendary career in Denver and Phoenix where he adopted a showbiz style of weather casting. Look for Part 3 soon...
Our television pilot was a snapshot of some of the most salient aspects of African American history. Music and narration rounded it out nicely. It was the first television show any of us had created and we were excited when the pilot ran. We were even more excited when the station decided to air the show monthly...even if it was 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. But that would soon change.
The show was called, Livin’ Black. Ed Clay was the director. Before long it aired weekly and the station gave us a better time slot. There were only a few shows like ours in cities throughout the country. Tony Brown's Journal and Positively Black aired nationally. As did Director Stan Lathan's Say Brother, produced by WGBH in Boston. We were all pioneers.
Darlene Hayes was my co-host and a producer for The Phil Donahue Show, which had started in Dayton just two years earlier. Phil’s show was really one of the first talk show/audience participation programs and it quickly gained a national following. We didn't have a budget so he would bring noted African Americans to Dayton that worked for his show and ours. He did his show live, we taped Livin’Black afterwards and aired it weeks later to a different audience.
That’s how we were able to conduct interviews with educators, political activists and politicians: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., just three months before his untimely death; Dr. Alvin Poussaint, world-renowned psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School; Reverend Jesse Jackson, then head of Operation Push; civil rights activists like Floyd McKissick, James Foreman, Amiri Baraka; and, of course, celebrities like Muhammad Ali.
I also conducted interviews with musicians like Herbie Hancock, shortly after his conversion to Buddhism; Jamaican-born pianist Monte Alexander and his Caribbean rhythms; George Benson, who was on tour to introduce the young, very talented Earl Klug; base player Eugene Wright, who played with the Dave Brubeck quartet in the‘50s and‘60s; saxophone legend Eddie Harris, who invented an electric sax and a reed mouthpiece for the trumpet that he said sounded like Halloween until he was able to master it; Dizzy Gillespie, who shared with the audience how he came to blow the trumpet with his cheeks puffed out , for which he was noted;Roy Ayers and Lionel Hampton dueling on the xylophones; the wonderfully mellow sounds of Grover Washington; and the poignant interview with Charlie Mingus as he sat, nodding in his chair, talking about his love of music and his unfortunate but longtime addiction to heroin.
It was quite a time in Dayton. Phil Donahue would soon have Marlo Thomas on his show, fall in love with and marry her. Len Berman, now of WNBC fame in NYC, was then the sportscaster at the station. And the weatherman was Dewey Hopper, who for a time reported the weather from outside the studio. Dewey would go on to a legendary career in Denver and Phoenix where he adopted a showbiz style of weather casting. Look for Part 3 soon...
Client Relationships
Our ability to manage and grow our clients' business depends upon our ability to forge and maintain a relationship with them. And that's especially important in the multicultural marketplace where so many clients responsible for managing multicultural marketing do not understand it to begin with. But that doesn't mean they don't want to learn. So we have to help them and educate them so they understand the subtleties and nuances of our market. We must be relentless in forging that partnership with them. And we can't do that by simply sitting in the office talking with them on the phone. We must leave our offices, walk their halls and spend quality time talking with them about ideas that will fuel the growth of their brand in our marketplace. We can't grow their business or ours otherwise.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Journey of a Black man in advertising...Part One
Little did I know that the documentary films I created about social issues, and the television interviews I conducted with legendary African American politicians and entertainers would lead me to a life in advertising. But that's what happened.
My journey started in the spring of 1970 just after I returned to Dayton, Ohio, from the University of Santa Clara where I had completed my undergraduate studies. I began working on my masters in political science at the University of Dayton with an eye toward the fall semester when I was to become the assistant director for the new African American studies program, and a full-time instructor teaching historical and contemporary black political thought and philosophy.
It was a fascinating time, for sure, and often a volatile one -- the Soledad Brothers, Angela Davis, the Weathermen, SDS, Patty Hearst, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party, the Vietnam War, rioting in the cities.... Protests and boycotts were the order of the day on college campuses. The “massacre” of students by members of the National Guard on the campus of Kent State would occur two weeks after I returned to Dayton.
I settled into a house with my best friend from California, Peter, and began my studies. Shortly thereafter I received a call from a local high school teacher, Ed Clay, who wanted me to give a “guest lecture” on black history to his senior history class at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School. The students were excited to learn aspects of African American history and politics they had not heard before. It was an enlightening experience for all.
That summer I continued my graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I also fell madly in love with a wonderful woman I shall always remember. But that's another story. I was in Madison to study African and African American politics and literature with a group of faculty members from around the country. All of us were preparing for the fall term when we would be teaching ethnic studies at our respective colleges and universities.
I'll never forget the August morning when we awoke to discover that the east wing of Sterling Hall had been bombed, we found out, by SDS. Sterling Hall was the math building that also housed the physics department. SDS later said they had intended only to destroy the building and not hurt anyone, but a 33-year-old physics researcher who happened to be working there in the late night/early morning hours of August 24, 1970, when the bomb was detonated, had been instantly killed.
After returning to Dayton a few weeks later I begin teaching the fall semester. I received a call from Ed, who had left teaching to become assistant director for community affairs at the local AVCO television station, WLWD. He asked if I would help him create an hour-long, monthly show by and for the black community in Dayton. We agreed to meet at the television station to discuss the project. The day of the meeting I walked into the station and immediately knew this world, in some way, shape or form, was ultimately going to be my world. I was smitten.
When we were little kids my father and all my uncles had 8mm film cameras, so we were forever watching home movies. I later learned it was my father who introduced my mother’s family to 8mm film, and my brothers and cousins and I often made our own home movies, usually cowboys and Indians, and loved watching them. The families would get together to watch 8mm films of picnics, vacations, holidays and so much more. But it was not until that day, when I entered the television station in Dayton, Ohio, for my meeting with Ed that it all started to come together. I didn’t know how those feelings would manifest themselves but I immediately agreed to work with Ed on the development of the show – even without pay. It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. My journey began.
My journey started in the spring of 1970 just after I returned to Dayton, Ohio, from the University of Santa Clara where I had completed my undergraduate studies. I began working on my masters in political science at the University of Dayton with an eye toward the fall semester when I was to become the assistant director for the new African American studies program, and a full-time instructor teaching historical and contemporary black political thought and philosophy.
It was a fascinating time, for sure, and often a volatile one -- the Soledad Brothers, Angela Davis, the Weathermen, SDS, Patty Hearst, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party, the Vietnam War, rioting in the cities.... Protests and boycotts were the order of the day on college campuses. The “massacre” of students by members of the National Guard on the campus of Kent State would occur two weeks after I returned to Dayton.
I settled into a house with my best friend from California, Peter, and began my studies. Shortly thereafter I received a call from a local high school teacher, Ed Clay, who wanted me to give a “guest lecture” on black history to his senior history class at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School. The students were excited to learn aspects of African American history and politics they had not heard before. It was an enlightening experience for all.
That summer I continued my graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I also fell madly in love with a wonderful woman I shall always remember. But that's another story. I was in Madison to study African and African American politics and literature with a group of faculty members from around the country. All of us were preparing for the fall term when we would be teaching ethnic studies at our respective colleges and universities.
I'll never forget the August morning when we awoke to discover that the east wing of Sterling Hall had been bombed, we found out, by SDS. Sterling Hall was the math building that also housed the physics department. SDS later said they had intended only to destroy the building and not hurt anyone, but a 33-year-old physics researcher who happened to be working there in the late night/early morning hours of August 24, 1970, when the bomb was detonated, had been instantly killed.
After returning to Dayton a few weeks later I begin teaching the fall semester. I received a call from Ed, who had left teaching to become assistant director for community affairs at the local AVCO television station, WLWD. He asked if I would help him create an hour-long, monthly show by and for the black community in Dayton. We agreed to meet at the television station to discuss the project. The day of the meeting I walked into the station and immediately knew this world, in some way, shape or form, was ultimately going to be my world. I was smitten.
When we were little kids my father and all my uncles had 8mm film cameras, so we were forever watching home movies. I later learned it was my father who introduced my mother’s family to 8mm film, and my brothers and cousins and I often made our own home movies, usually cowboys and Indians, and loved watching them. The families would get together to watch 8mm films of picnics, vacations, holidays and so much more. But it was not until that day, when I entered the television station in Dayton, Ohio, for my meeting with Ed that it all started to come together. I didn’t know how those feelings would manifest themselves but I immediately agreed to work with Ed on the development of the show – even without pay. It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. My journey began.
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