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| photos by Steed Media Service |
Johnathan Rogers’ illustrious career in print and electronic media includes distinguished stints at Sports Illustrated and Newsweek
magazines, running the newsrooms at CBS and NBC television stations in
large metropolitan regions, and being president of Discovery Networks,
U.S. Now, as the president and CEO of TV One, Rogers, the son of a
Tuskegee Airman, has helped catapult the African American audience
focused network to the apex of urban programming. Rolling Out spent a
few minutes with the redoubtable news virtuoso at the 2009 Trumpet
Awards in Atlanta, where Rogers was bestowed an award for his
outstanding contributions to the corporate world.
Rolling Out: How has your extraordinary experience in general market media prepared you to be the president and CEO of TV One?
Rogers:
“Unlike a lot of other African Americans who started off in black
media, I started off in general market media. I started off in Sports
Illustrated, then Newsweek, and later to NBC and CBS. And then I went
to black media. What’s great about that is that by the time I got to
black media, I was very experienced. So I had a great idea on how to
make it successful.”
RO:
During your tenure TV One has become the premiere electronic mechanism
to disseminate positive images of African Americans to the community
and the world.
Rogers: “During my days in general market
media, via Sports Illustration or NBC News, one of my great concerns
were how we African Americans were portrayed. If there was a story on
welfare, there we are. If there was a story on crime, there we were.
But if there was a story on finances or success, we were never around.
And it was my mission to help change that, to make sure that we were
all treated the same. And that’s why I’m happy to be at TV One today.”
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| Johnathan Rogers and Cathy Hughes, founder of Radio One |
RO:
TV One is now the premiere African American network that serves the
community. How do you see TV One moving forward in terms of programming
and newsgathering?
Rogers:
“What’s interesting for me is TV One was designed to serve African
American adults. With the election of Barack Obama, I think we’re going
to change our mission slightly to serving all adults. Because it’s
important for us that mainstream America, non-black America, see us as
we see ourselves. Let us pick our images. Let us pick our stories.
Don’t have some casting director from Hollywood decide what we look
like, what we sound like, [and] what we think.”
With
Rogers at the helm of TV One, augmented by the ultra-influential Radio
One brand, African American adults are finally witnessing the type of
programming they have long wished for. – terry shropshire
