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7 On Air Black: The Breakfast Club, Visual Radio, and Spreadable Media

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Watching While Black Rebooted!
This chapter is in the book Watching While Black Rebooted!
1067On Air BlackThe Breakfast Club, Visual Radio, and Spreadable MediaADRIEN SEBROFrom the Jazz Age to Jim Crow, from wartime to rock ’n’ roll, and from Black Power to hip-hop, locating the pulse of Black America has been a hard- fought battle through the history of radio. With its ability to empower and entertain, radio has proven to be a pedagogical space for Black popular culture, politics, and education. For twenty- five years, before the show ended in 2019, The Tom Joyner Morning Show (1994– 2019) existed as that sonic space capturing the Black perspective, for us by us. Charting as the nation’s number one syn-dicated urban morning show, Tom Joyner spoke directly to the Black public sphere by super serving the Black population through his progressive politi-cal talk, soul music, humor, advice, and celebrity gossip. In this present digital moment, often overlooked in academic discussions, radio has also continued to evolve. With contemporary radio programming such as The Rickey Smiley Show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, and The Breakfast Club, Black audiences are able to experience these discussions of Black life and culture through sound and sight. With a particular focus on Black radio, its history, and shifts to the visual in New York’s Power 105.1 FM The Breakfast Club, this chapter addresses how The Breakfast Club works for and speaks to a contemporary Black audi-ence. Through this case study, I discuss how the turn to visual radio allows The
© 2024 Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick

1067On Air BlackThe Breakfast Club, Visual Radio, and Spreadable MediaADRIEN SEBROFrom the Jazz Age to Jim Crow, from wartime to rock ’n’ roll, and from Black Power to hip-hop, locating the pulse of Black America has been a hard- fought battle through the history of radio. With its ability to empower and entertain, radio has proven to be a pedagogical space for Black popular culture, politics, and education. For twenty- five years, before the show ended in 2019, The Tom Joyner Morning Show (1994– 2019) existed as that sonic space capturing the Black perspective, for us by us. Charting as the nation’s number one syn-dicated urban morning show, Tom Joyner spoke directly to the Black public sphere by super serving the Black population through his progressive politi-cal talk, soul music, humor, advice, and celebrity gossip. In this present digital moment, often overlooked in academic discussions, radio has also continued to evolve. With contemporary radio programming such as The Rickey Smiley Show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, and The Breakfast Club, Black audiences are able to experience these discussions of Black life and culture through sound and sight. With a particular focus on Black radio, its history, and shifts to the visual in New York’s Power 105.1 FM The Breakfast Club, this chapter addresses how The Breakfast Club works for and speaks to a contemporary Black audi-ence. Through this case study, I discuss how the turn to visual radio allows The
© 2024 Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Foreword ix
  4. Introduction: I Still See Black People . . . Everywhere 1
  5. Part I Historicizing Black
  6. 1 Audiences and the Televisual Slavery-Narrative 15
  7. 2 History, Trauma, and Healing in Ava DuVernay’s 13th and When They See Us 27
  8. 3 Thinking about Watchmen with Jonathan W. Gray, Rebecca A. Wanzo, and Kristen Warner 41
  9. 4 From Sitcom Girl to Drama Queen: Soul Food’s Showrunner Examines Her Role in Creating TV’s First Successful Black-Themed Drama 57
  10. Part II Attending Black
  11. 5 Gaming as Trayvon #BlackLivesMatter Machinima and the Queer Metagames of Black Death 77
  12. 6 “Trying to Find Relief” Seeing Black Women through the Lens of Mental Health and Wellness in Being Mary Jane and Insecure 91
  13. 7 On Air Black: The Breakfast Club, Visual Radio, and Spreadable Media 106
  14. Part III Monetizing Black
  15. 8 Black Women, Audiences, and the Queer Possibilities of the Black-Cast Melodrama 123
  16. 9 In a ’90s Kind of World, I’m Glad I Got My Shows! Digital Streaming and Black Nostalgia 137
  17. 10 Tyler Perry’s Too Close to Home: Black Audiences in the Post-Network Era 150
  18. Part IV Feeling Black
  19. 11 “I’m Trying to Make People Feel Black” Affective Authenticity in Atlanta 169
  20. 12 I’m Digging You Television’s Turn to Dirty South Blackness 185
  21. 13 I Feel Conflicted as F*ck: Netflix’s Dear White People and Re-presenting Black Viewing Communities 201
  22. Notes on Contributors 215
  23. Index 221
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https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978830059-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Foreword ix
  4. Introduction: I Still See Black People . . . Everywhere 1
  5. Part I Historicizing Black
  6. 1 Audiences and the Televisual Slavery-Narrative 15
  7. 2 History, Trauma, and Healing in Ava DuVernay’s 13th and When They See Us 27
  8. 3 Thinking about Watchmen with Jonathan W. Gray, Rebecca A. Wanzo, and Kristen Warner 41
  9. 4 From Sitcom Girl to Drama Queen: Soul Food’s Showrunner Examines Her Role in Creating TV’s First Successful Black-Themed Drama 57
  10. Part II Attending Black
  11. 5 Gaming as Trayvon #BlackLivesMatter Machinima and the Queer Metagames of Black Death 77
  12. 6 “Trying to Find Relief” Seeing Black Women through the Lens of Mental Health and Wellness in Being Mary Jane and Insecure 91
  13. 7 On Air Black: The Breakfast Club, Visual Radio, and Spreadable Media 106
  14. Part III Monetizing Black
  15. 8 Black Women, Audiences, and the Queer Possibilities of the Black-Cast Melodrama 123
  16. 9 In a ’90s Kind of World, I’m Glad I Got My Shows! Digital Streaming and Black Nostalgia 137
  17. 10 Tyler Perry’s Too Close to Home: Black Audiences in the Post-Network Era 150
  18. Part IV Feeling Black
  19. 11 “I’m Trying to Make People Feel Black” Affective Authenticity in Atlanta 169
  20. 12 I’m Digging You Television’s Turn to Dirty South Blackness 185
  21. 13 I Feel Conflicted as F*ck: Netflix’s Dear White People and Re-presenting Black Viewing Communities 201
  22. Notes on Contributors 215
  23. Index 221
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