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On January 19, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, television viewers in a few major cities across the country tuned in to a broadcast of the 1978 miniseries King, starring Paul Winfield. The broadcast marked not only the historic contributions of the civil rights leader, but also the launch of TV One, a new cable channel targeting Black adults aged 25 and older.

TV One says its programming focuses on "African American themes, issues, culture and politics." The suburban Maryland-based network hopes to attract viewers with a mix of reruns, documentaries and classic movies, game and variety shows, and original programming. Sitcoms such as Good Times and 227 are in regular rotation on the network, but features such as an original documentary on slave reparations and On Point with Armstrong Williams, a series of interviews with newsmakers like Condoleezza Rice, are also on the schedule.

But with all the specialized cable channels, public television, regular network television and, of course, BET and the lesser known Minority Broadcasting Cable Network, one has to wonder if viewers really need a new Black channel.

To that query, Johnathan Rodgers, TV One's president and CEO, answers with a resounding "yes." And not just one Black channel, Rodgers says, but a whole offering of channels directed to Black niche markets, including a men's network, a family network and a women's network.

"The media is such an important part of the fabric of American society it belongs to all of us and should serve all of us," says Rodgers, who was president of Discovery Networks U.S. for six years and prior to that spent 20 years at CBS.

"African Americans watch more television than the rest of America. Given the amount of television we watch, the amount of money we have invested in cable, it seems logical to me that there should be one, or more than one, African Americanowned television outlet on the dial."

Research indicates Blacks do watch a lot of television. A 2001 PBS study estimated that on average African Americans watch a whopping 75.8 hours of television per week. Blacks spend the bulk of their entertainment outlay - $2.7 billion annually according to Nielsen Media Research on cable alone. Given these statistics, TV One may, as Rodgers asserts, be logical.

TV One is a joint venture between Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, and Radio One, the largest Black-operated radio broadcasting company, which owns 67 stations in 22 markets. Comcast, Radio One and four other parties intend to invest a total of $130 million over four years in TV One. When it launched in January, the network was available in five main markets Atlanta; Detroit; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore and Richmond, Va. It has since expanded to Oakland, Calif.; Philadelphia and Chicago, and recently began airing in Delaware, Cleveland and Dallas.

This writer spent more than 20 hours over the course of a couple of days in mid-February watching TV One. Like any startup, the programming offerings on the channel are limited. After tuning in, I soon had my fill of the witty repartee between Jackee and Maria Gibbs on the 227 reruns, but I also happened upon a few unexpected gems.

Weekday mornings on TV One start off bright and early with fitness instructor Donna Richardson's Mind, Body and Spirit. The upbeat live band and Richardson's corps of toned, curvaceous backups could inspire almost anyone to get out of bed or off the couch. During the two-hour show, she offers culturally specific tidbits about fitness, nutrition and lifestyle. At the end of one episode, Richardson admonishes the women in her audience not to let hair issues keep them from exercising, pointing out a few styling options - natural twists, locs, a well-conditioned relaxer - that can sweat in the morning and still look presentable in time for the office.

B. Smith with Style, another daytime staple, brings a savvy flair to the programming lineup. More approachable than Martha Stewart, former model Barbara Smith covers interior design, cooking, fashion and entertaining. The syndicated show, now in production for its seventh season, runs on other networks as well, but Smith will create a few holiday specials specifically for TV One. During the days I watched, a winter holiday episode of Smith's show aired - two months behind season - but was enjoyable nonetheless.

Midday programming on the channel consisted of a matinee movie, such as the Sidney Poitier/Paul Newman classic Paris Blues, bookended by sitcoms, some time-less, others less well-known. Back-to-back episodes of 227 were followed by Between Brothers, a show co-starring Tommy Davidson and Kadeem Hardison that aired for a full season on Fox in 1997-98 and later returned for a brief stint on UPN. The Bill Cosby vehicle The Cosby Mysteries (1994-95) features a young Mos Def playing the gumshoe's geeky sidekick. TV One's programming repeats in three-hour blocks, so viewers who missed B. Smith or 227 the first time around can catch them again in the late afternoon.

A double dose of the '70s sitcom Good Times leads off prime time. City of Angels, the urban hospital drama starring Blair Underwood, airs nightly at 10 and could easily become a tune-in-for show with a devoted audience in the same manner as TNT's nightly airings of Law & Order. Unfortunately, this critically acclaimed show, produced by Kevin Hooks and Steven Bochco with a stellar cast (including Vivica A. Fox, Hill Harper, Gabrielle Union and Michael Warren) and great writing, was short-lived on CBS in 2000. That City of Angels has found a place on TV One strengthens the case for having more Black television networks, especially if they could eventually create or continue these kinds of high-quality shows.

When I tuned in on Saturday, I wasn't prepared to find a 227 marathon. When it concluded five hours later, the airing of the Cowboys of Color Invitational Rodeo was a welcome surprise. This rodeo competition featured events like bull riding, steer wrestling and barrel racing. With its fast-paced action and amiable hosts explaining all the ins and outs of the western lifestyle, this reviewer was unexpectedly hooked.

Sasha Torres, professor of information and media studies at the University of Western Ontario and the author of Black, White and In Color: Television and Black Civil Rights, applauds TV One's decision to target an adult demographic. She hopes the station will feature more of those "Black" series that never found solid footing on the networks, programs like Frank's Place, Gideon's Crossing, South Central and The Nat "King" Cole Show.

"There are tons of shows like that, but not that many episodes of them," Torres says. "It would be great if they figured out how to make them available to audiences and scholars. There are definitely ways to capitalize on the nostalgia...to make these shows into events."

Torres suggests that finding consistently good programming will be the greatest obstacle facing TV One.

"The pitfall is to make it the graveyard for bad sitcoms. That's a real risk, because there's so many of them," says Torres. "But there are many other types of television that haven't been explored. A cooking show would be great. Something to showcase Black chefs, interior designers, fashion designers, Black architects, who are not getting much play in other media."

TV One does feature some original programming and unscripted series, with plans to roll out more, such as a dating show called Get the Hook Up and a makeover show. TV One's Gospel Challenge takes the talent show model in a spiritual direction. In front of a live studio audience, three judges and a host weigh in on various choirs from around the country (whose performances are shown on video) competing for a Sony recording contract and a $15,000 contribution to their church. StarJamz, a music show that joins old-school artists with up-and-coming stars (an early episode paired American Idol winner Reuben Studdard with Peabo Bryson) began airing in April.

The bulk of the programming thus far is produced by veteran actor/director Tim Reid and his New Millennium Studios, based in Petersburg, Va. In addition to producing and directing, Reid also hosts American Legacy, a takeoff on the Black history and culture magazine of the same name. These mini-documentaries cover unsung figures in African American history. One episode features Valaida Snow, a once-celebrated female jazz trumpeter. Snow played with Count Basie and Louis Armstrong, who called her the second best trumpeter in the world.

TV One's commercials contain the usual mix of national brands. Many of the ads are mainstream, not targeted specifically to an African American audience. There are also a number of public service announcements, such as an extended piece on breast cancer detection and a 30-second spot on housing discrimination. But Rodgers says advertising sales are only part of the picture distribution is key.

While network broadcasters rely entirely on advertising revenues, cable TV stations generally get about 60 percent of their operating budget from advertising and about 40 percent from subscriber fees through cable operators (which typically average anywhere from 3 cents to 30 cents per subscriber per month).

Rodgers says the channel reaches about 4.5 million homes, compared with approximately 80 million homes for channels like Lifetime or BET. For the station to grow rapidly, cable subscribers need to call, write and email requests for TV One to their cable operators.

Rodgers doesn't see his network as competing with BET so much as complementing it. But this concept isn't as obvious to the cable distributors.

"We will go to a cable operator and try to convince them that it's to their advantage to put TV One on their dial," says Rodgers. "For them to say, 'We've got BET,' it's highly insulting. That's like saying to a White person you've got MTV - live with it."

Rodgers says TV One is not trying to be all things to all Black people. It's about democracy, he asserts. It's about choice.

Holly Bass is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated May/Jun 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

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