WERD Atlanta was the first radio station owned and operated by African-Americans.
WDIA in Memphis was on the air in 1948 doing Black—or Negro as it was then
called—programming, but the owners were not African American). Jesse B.
Blayton Sr., an accountant, bank president, and Atlanta University
professor, purchased WERD in 1949 for $50,000. He changed the station
format to "Black appeal" and hired his son Jesse Jr. as station manager."Jockey" Jack Gibson was hired and by 1951 he was the most popular DJ in Atlanta.
Additional information is available here.
In this video, which was published on YouTube on October 20, 2015, Executive Director, David Williams, gives us some history of the
historic WERD radio station in Atlanta, GA. The first Black-owned Radio
Station, established in 1949, It was also a hair salon owned by Madam
C.J. Walker.
Source: Wikipedia and Dani Rodgers
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