The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters has been selected to be the first recipient of an award from the General Motors Diverse Owned Incubator Fund.
The $50 million Diverse Owned Incubator Fund is part of General Motors’ “Road to Equity” efforts, which seeks to make investments over the next decade to support and scale diverse media and marketing companies.
“Blacks make up 13% of the American population, yet own fewer than 247 of 12,374 commercial radio and television stations in the U.S.,” a spokesperson for NABOB said in a newsletter sent to supporters on Tuesday. “The 2022 Black Owned Radio Stations Ownership & Revenue Report concluded that of the 168 stations researched, 121 (72.0%) gross less than one million dollars per year in advertising revenues, and average just 2.8% of Local Commercial Share.”
Jim Winston, the president and CEO of NABOB, discussed the mission of the Diverse Owned Incubator Fund during a recent conversation with Tarshena Armstrong, General Motors’ director of diversity marketing and development.
“During the first year, the Incubator Fund plans to issue awards to three organizations with the long term goal to seek additional opportunities that reinforce our strategic pillars in a scalable way,” Armstrong said.
NABOB was announced as the first recipient of funds from the incubator program during General Motors’ 2nd Annual Diverse Owned Media Summit. Other recipients include the Black Owned Media Equity and Sustainability Institute (BOMESI) and the National Minority Supplier Development Council.
The General Motors Diverse Incubator Grant was developed to achieve three goals for NABOB: Increase the number of Black-owned broadcasters by providing audiences with access to resources and knowledge necessary to buy a commercial broadcast station; provide additional resources and education for NABOB members, so they can develop digital sales operations and increase digital sales revenue; and increase access for Black and minority talent within media sales through the NABOB Telecommunications Education and Management Foundation, in partnership with the Media Sales Institute.
