October 20, 2022 • 44 mins
In 2019, the Black Information Network— a full-time news service by and for the black community— was in the early stages of planning at iHeartMedia. But when George Floyd was murdered, Tony Coles, one of iHeart’s Division Presidents who had been overseeing BIN’s development, knew the platform needed to launch immediately. Tony, now President of BIN, reflects on how he and his team were able to spring into action so effectively, some stories that have made the biggest impact, and why triumphs deserve as much coverage as tragedies.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to Math and Magic, a production I Heart Radio.
We have to keep in mind that the Black community
is not monolithic and that there are people with wide
ranging views and opinions within the Black community, and for
us to have any amount of credibility, we need to
(00:23):
make sure that we have that balance in the reporting
that we provide. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, and welcome to
Math and Magic. Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing. On
this episode, we're going to hear from one of my
colleagues at My Heart, someone who truly rose through the ranks,
and it is one who led the team that created
(00:44):
one of our most important new products, the only full
time news service for the Black community, the Black Information Network.
He's Tony Coles, the president of Black Information Network and
also a division president overseeing a hundred and fifty six
radio stations in one markets across America. Tony has a
story of a painfully shy kid who lived on a
(01:06):
farm in an incredibly small town in Ohio, who managed
to overcome that shyness and become an on air radio
personality and create an impressive career in radio. He moved
on to the programming side of things from being talent
and then joined the senior management ranks and programming, and
finally took over an entire group of markets and stations
(01:28):
as a division president. He believes in the power of
mentoring in both business and in our society. He had
parents that helped shape his success and he brings insights
we all need to hear. His great grandfather was a
slave in this country and his family even settled in
Ohio through the power of the underground railroad. Farming was
(01:49):
a way of life and his family and four h
was even important part of his life. Tony, Welcome, Thank you, Bob.
It's a pleasure to be here. We have so much
to talk about today and stop you and I don't
regularly explore, but first I want to do you in
sixty seconds. You're ready? Ready? Do you prefer cats or dogs? Cats,
salty or sweet? Sweet? Country or city city country music
(02:14):
or top forty country music? Call or text text a
M R F M. Love them both, but I'm going
to go with FM on the mic or behind the scenes,
behind the scenes every time it's about to get harder.
Smartest person you know, I'm blessed to know a lot
of smart folks, but I'm gonna lean into Greg Ashlock,
who runs our markets groups. Favorite radio station w n
(02:38):
C I and Columbus that was the big motivator. What
was your favorite animal on the farm? Probably our horses,
childhood hero, my dad, favorite band or artist. Probably gonna
go with Tim McGraw. First job, w h I Z
in Zanesville, Ohio, secret talent. A lot of people don't
know about my cooking obsession, but cook. What topic can
(03:01):
you talk about forever? Thanksgiving dinner for hours? Okay, Tony,
Let's start with the biggest breakthrough in our company and
our industry in quite a while. The Black Information Network
twenty four hours of news serving the Black community. It's
on digital, on the I Heart radio app, and over
the air on almost all of our markets where we
(03:24):
have large black communities, including New York, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Detroit, Houston, Billion,
dozens more. It also is the source of news for
over a hundred of our hip hop, R and B
and gospel stations, and it's also carried on some stations
that My Heart doesn't own. It's local, national, and international news.
(03:45):
Tell us how you describe Black Information Network and what's
so unusual about it. The Black Information Network is first
and foremost a news network that comes from the black perspective.
When you have everyone from the writers, to the reporters
to the anchors telling stories not necessarily from their point
(04:08):
of view, but from their perspective, it makes a difference.
And more importantly, we're sourcing stories that mainstream newsrooms would
never tell only because they lack the diversity to bring
some of these stories to light. And in the most
diverse of those news rooms, those black voices don't always
(04:29):
have the loudest voice in the room to make sure
that those stories come to life. Talk about some examples, Tony,
I know you use one with the war in Ukraine.
Can you give us that one? Yeah, when when the
war first broke out, there were a number of blacks
and minorities who were having a hard time fleeing the
(04:49):
country for their own safety. And we wanted to cover
that perspective because it's not just about black life in America,
but black life overall. And our team fortunately was able
to contact a black reporter who was actually on the
ground in Ukraine very quickly, so not only were we
able to bring his perspective to an international crisis, but
(05:14):
also to hear the stories of what was happening to
minorities in that country in time of war was just
incredibly insightful, and to be able to get that on
very quickly was something we were proud of. When you
talk about delivering news from the black perspective, you also
have features as well. Can you talk a little bit
(05:34):
about what some of those features are in the range
of topics that you cover. We really want to make
sure that we're engaging, entertaining, and forming, and I think
that one of that stands out to me is uh,
I bet you didn't know. With Tarik Low, we hear
so many comments both within and outside the black community
(05:56):
because what he does is take historic acts, things that
that are little known to most people, either about people
who were black and uh and made life changing either
inventions or creations or changed the course of history. And
a lot of people didn't know that they were African
(06:17):
Americans who were doing that, or they were just little
known historic facts that often don't show up in your
typical history book. Talk to me a little bit about
the style of journalism. You know, you and I spent
a lot of time in the development of this and
going back and forth about where our place would be
contrasted to the kind of news that we are sort
(06:40):
of in the headlines today as people talk about what's
going on in the in the news media business. We've
assembled a team that not only has you know, brand
new journalists who are bringing not only a fresh perspective,
but a fresh set of eyes and ideas to the
news room and pairing them up with veteran journalist, award
(07:02):
winning TV reporters and watching the interaction and the flow
of ideas and content. It really not only make sure
that the content that we have on the air runs
the gamut in appeal to all ages and backgrounds, but
it's also great to see some of these budding journalists
(07:24):
developing in their own career because they have great role
models within our newsroom. You know, one of the things
I'm proud of stuff and I know you are too,
in the style of journalism you do, is that you
really work on treating the audience as intelligent decision makers,
with an idea that if you give them enough information,
(07:45):
hopefully all the information, they'll make good decisions. And you
seem to avoid the temptation to somehow get people's blood
pressure up in hopes of getting them more engaged quote
unquote round engaged. How tough has that been in a
world in which you know that's turning out probably would
(08:06):
be more than norm than not. It's certainly a challenge,
but it was really important to us from day one.
We looked at why someone else hadn't done this before,
quite honestly, and and the reality is that so many
of the gimmicks and the tactics that that a lot
of news organizations have resorted to over the years is
(08:28):
exactly why a lot of people had turned away from
news and we're beginning to believe the fake news and
narrative because it was really hard for them to know
what to trust and what not to trust, who to
trust and who not to And we wanted to make
sure that from day one we were building a product
that was unbiased. And also we have to keep in
(08:50):
mind that the black community is not monolithic and that
there are people with wide ranging views and opinions within
the black community, and for us to have any amount
of credibility, we need to make sure that we have
that balance in the reporting that we provide. And I
(09:10):
think for a lot of our reporters that was something
that they hadn't experienced in other newsrooms, and the question
of what angle do you want me to take with this?
What opinion should I have on this was a refreshing
conversation when we said, just tell the truth, present the facts,
(09:31):
and it gave them the opportunity to start bringing new
ideas and new stories to the network because they suddenly
realized they could report on what is interesting to the
black community, not what a focus group says their opinion
of a story should be. You know, as you and
I talked early on in development of Black Information Network,
(09:53):
one of the challenges of doing any news product today
that's advertiser supported is that if you're advertising supported, ratings matter,
and the best way to get ratings is to get
people worked up. Because the normal cycle of news is
that when there's a really big story, you get a
lot of listeners, and when there's really nothing going on,
you don't get so many listeners. It is peaks and valleys,
(10:15):
and a lot of news organizations want to fill those
valleys understandably, and we went with a new model of
founding partners versus advertisers, in which we went to a
group of companies and said, here's this mission to create
this important service for the black community. But we need
(10:35):
to free them from the need to chase ratings and
we want them to be able to do what they
do best, which is really focused on informing the community
and creating a trusted news source. Very important, and by
the way, let me give them a shout out, because
I think these are incredibly important companies that stepped up
(10:55):
to say, yes, we believe in this mission. We're gonna
be there as a founding partner Bank of the Aurica,
A Rise in CBS, Lows Tree and Me, McDonald's, Geico
and Sony so b I n As in service to
the Black community. What impact are you having and and
can you give us a couple of stories? Absolutely. One
of the things that's really important to us is that
(11:18):
we're not only reporting on the headlines, but we're having
an impact and a positive impact on the black community.
And I think of so many of the stories that
our reporters have brought to us. Vanessa Tyler came to
us with an idea of doing a special that was
completely about the missing black women all across America that
(11:41):
weren't getting attention, and she highlighted those and we've now
incorporated much of that content on an ongoing basis, I
think about what we're doing right now in our effort
to help one hundred thousand black listeners either up skill
into new careers, fine new careers, or completely change their
(12:02):
perspective on work. The partnership that we're doing with career
building right now that's focused on getting Black Americans into
more powerful positions and better opportunities. Those are just two
things that come to mind. But we've done so many
things to have a positive outcome for our community. Tony,
(12:24):
I think all of us who are not part of
the black community would benefit from hearing stories that are
a part of the Black families narratives. You have a
very powerful family narrative going back to your great grandfather.
Would you mind sharing that with us? Sure? I have
to start with the fact that you know, when you
(12:45):
think of some of the things that have happened in
related to social justice over the past few years, there's
this movement, there's this energy around the history of black
people in America, and I think what a law out
of people lose sight of is It wasn't that long
ago that people who are escaping slavery and the long
(13:09):
term impact that slavery has had when I think back
to my own family, and you know, my great grandfather
being one of the last slaves in America, my grandfather
being one of the first people in my family who
was able to read and to to learn to read legally,
(13:30):
and my father being the first person in our family
to actually go to school, and then my sister and
I being the first people in our family to be
able to graduate high school and go to college, just
a few generations from slavery is something that I think
about quite often. Let's stay on your background. You grew
(13:53):
up in a small Ohio town. I think the population
was five people, very small. Your dad was an oil driller,
your mom worked on the family's farm. You were in
four age, you were active on the school newspaper. Paint
a picture for us of growing up in the seventies
and eighties and that really small town, obviously rural environment.
(14:14):
I don't want to make it sound too Norman Rockwell,
but in many ways it really was. It was just
a wonderful experience for me growing up in a small town. Obviously,
we were the only black family in our town, so
that presented some some unique situations. But but more than anything.
It was such a learning experience. You learn the value
(14:37):
of hard work. Your view of the world is different
when you grow up around five hundred people. Every family
knows every other family. There's a genuine concern for your neighbors,
and especially in the farming communities, because anything that impacts
one farm impacts another, and so you have a lot
(14:58):
of shared experience is no matter how different you are.
You know, most people listening probably don't even know what
four H is. I grew up Mississippi. I do tell
us about four h and what impact that had on you.
Four h was absolutely pivotal for me and impactful. Uh
and and if you're not familiar with it, I often
(15:19):
refer to it as the farming version of Boy Scouts
or Girl Scouts. You have youth that come together starting
at the age of eight, and every year you can
pick one project, or you can pick multiple projects, and
it can run anything from you know, for me, it
was raising animals to forestry to public speaking and uh
(15:43):
and throughout the year, you have these projects that you
work on and then at the annual county Fair you
present your final projects uh and and you know, you
compete for awards, and there was always an impact to
your community. That was a focal point of so many
of the projects that we all worked on. So, uh,
it helps you grow and develop and it helps your
(16:05):
community be a better place. At the same time, you
thought you were going to be a park ranger or
a Methodist minister. I read, by the way, my dad
was a Methodist minister. So I'm really interested in why
did you think those were going to be your career opportunities? Well,
because park rangers and ministers are so closely related to
one another. Uh. You know, we were a very religious household.
(16:28):
We were very active in our church. Um, we were
in the church on on an ongoing basis, and you know,
it was something that that really spoke to me. I
enjoyed everything in the church. Uh, And so that was
that was something that intrigued me. And and actually one
of my best friends from childhood today is a Methodist minister.
(16:50):
But at the same time, through four h uh, you know,
I was a summer camp counselor. Before that, I was,
you know, a summer camper. You know, we did a
lot out of work around forestry. One of one of
the summers I planted four hundred trees in in a
vacant lot and uh, and so spending that much time
(17:10):
outdoors in nature and and you know, working in the
parks as a part of four age, it was something
that I enjoyed tremendously and uh. And so those two
fields were highly intriguing to me until the concept of
radio was introduced to my life. So let's let's make
the connection here now with the radio. You have a
(17:32):
great story about how your dad pushed you into your
first job, and I really had a way of thinking
about when you went to work. Can you tell us
that story? Sure? So. So, my father grew up during
the Great Depression as part of a very big family.
His father had a rule in place in their house
that anyone that was in the house by age twelve
(17:56):
needed to be paying rent or or get out. They
just couldn't afford to feed all those mouths. And so
my dad, from my earliest memories, told me that I
was going to get a reprieve until I was sixteen,
but I had to either get a job when I
was sixteen or leave home. And uh, and I, you know,
like most kids, never really thought much about it until
(18:17):
one day I came home from school and there were
boxes in my room, and when I asked my dad
about it, he said, well, you're almost sixteen and I
don't see you looking for work, so I want to
at least help you pack your stuff so you can
get out. Now, to this day, I don't think that
my dad would have kicked me out, but as a
fifteen year old, I wasn't ready to find out. Uh.
(18:40):
And so I very quickly started looking for for work
anywhere I could. And about a week after this, uh,
this moment, the program director for w h I Z
came to speak at our school career day and I
was fascinated by what he did, but I was more
terrified than if I didn't get a job, I was
(19:01):
going to be homeless. So I walked up to him
and said, I need a job. Do you have any jobs?
And Uh, Luckily for me, they had an opening for
a you know I CA I call it a gopher
at the time. We're literally anything that you needed in
the radio station. They needed somebody to help with and
I was that kid. And so I took a job
(19:24):
after school working at the local radio station. And uh.
And had it not been for my dad's strong encouragement
to find a job, I may not have found my
way into that radio station. So looking back, how do
you think your parents shaped who you are today? I
tell people all the time that I owe everything to
(19:46):
both of them. Uh. You know, obviously my my father
for not only the work ethic that I learned from
him by watching him over the years, but by him
pushing me to get a job. You know, I'm very
thankful that the stars aligned for that. And then my mom.
She is the one who recognized how shy I was,
(20:09):
and and I mean painfully shy and uh, and she
is the one who prompted and pushed and prodded me
into learning the importance of public speaking, learning the importance
of of interacting with with other kids, because I was
that kid that you know, if I could have sat
in the woods or read my Bible, That's what I
(20:30):
was going to do. But she's the one that said,
you have to break out of this mold. And so
between the two of them, I owe everything to them.
More on math and magic right after this quick break,
Welcome back to math and Magic. Let's hear more from
my conversation with Tony Coles. Let's go back to your
(20:54):
radio career. Everyone I know on the radio has some
twist of fate that land at them that first on
air job. You've got one to what's your story? So
Pie Patoniac, who was the program director at that radio station,
called my house one one Saturday morning. And this was
(21:14):
back during the days where stations signed off at midnight.
They signed on at six am. And he was in
the hospital with appendicitis attack and was frantically searching for
anyone to go in and sign on the station and
do the morning show, which he normally did. And uh,
I was the last person that he called and the
(21:35):
first person who answered the phone. And you know, I
had no clue what I was doing. I you know,
I was the the errand kid at the time. And
he's like, I just need you to go in, and
I don't care what you do, but play the legal
I d and play the commercials and just cover until
someone can get there. And I went in and proceeded
(21:55):
to have what I am sure to this day is
the worst airshift in the history of radio. But I
was mortified. I assumed that that was the end of
my job and I was going to be homeless at
that point. But what shocked me was the general manager
and owner of the radio station called a few days
later and said, hey, you know, we want to teach
(22:18):
you how to be a DJ. And I said, you
clearly didn't hear what happened, and he said, no, we heard,
and it was bad. But what we could tell was
you were really trying and we think that if you
can try that hard, if we show you what to
actually do, you could be good at this. And um,
you know again, I think back to the mentors in
(22:42):
my life and I look at that moment. There was
absolutely no reason, uh that they needed to take that
leap of faith, But they saw something in me that
I didn't see it myself, uh, and they trained me.
And before you knew it, I was sitting in that
studio and I actually realized that people did that for
(23:03):
a living. And that was the moment where I'm like,
I don't want to do anything else but being a
radio station. You know, you had some really good jobs
on the air. You moved around market to market, grew
in bigger markets. But how did you move from being
on air talent behind the saint in programming a radio station?
(23:24):
So I was on in Columbus, Ohio. I was on
a top forty station that was competing with what is
now one of the I heart stations in w n
c I, the station that I listened to growing up
and idolizing. And I was across the street competing and
new manager came in who hired a new program director
(23:45):
who fired everybody on the air and was going to
bring in their own staff. And I remember so many
things about that moment because it was the biggest market
i'd worked in at the time. I loved the job,
I love the people that I worked with. But what
struck me more than anything was the program director at
(24:05):
w n c I, a guy named Dave Robbins. He
was our mortal enemy. We hated him. He was just
a fierce competitor. But within twenty four hours of our
air staff being fired, Dave had called every single person
at home. We had no idea how he even got
our numbers, but he called every single person and he said, Hey,
(24:26):
I've been in your shoes. Come over to our station.
You know, make your demo tapes. If you need to
make phone calls, you can use our phones. Whatever you
need to find a job, come see us. And so
I took him up on the offer. But the thing
that struck me the most was within the first few minutes.
I saw the way that Dave was interacting with his
(24:48):
air staff, I saw the way that he was interacting
with the people in the building, and more than anything,
I saw the passion that he had for what he did.
And in that moment, I just I walked up to
him and I said, I know I came over here
to make demo tapes, but I actually think I want
to do what you do. And he was so passionate
(25:10):
about being a manager and being a leader that he
sat down with me for two hours and told me
everything about why he loved his job, and from that
moment on, I wanted to do that. You continued to
rise in the programming ranks. You had a lot of successes.
He eventually became one of our company's executive vice presidents
(25:31):
of programming, covering the radio stations the markets in the
west part of the country. And then you had the
opportunity to go to the business side, from what I
think all of us in programming would say is the
creative side, and be a division president overseeing a P
and L of one of the company's divisions about four
million revenue twenty one markets across America. Why was that
(25:52):
of interest to you. One of the things that I
loved the most and enjoyed the most on the programming
side was seeing the impact that the programming leads have
on people and the things that you can accomplish, and
more than anything, the innovation that can happen. But what
(26:14):
I noticed was the division presidents and other positions in
the leadership team had far more impact because you weren't
isolated to just one area of a radio station or
one area of the company. And the more time that
I spent talking to division presidents and other leaders I
(26:37):
noticed that exact same excitement and passion that Dave Robbins had.
And so to me, moving from the creative side to
the business side, obviously there are some differences, but more
than anything, it's an opportunity to have a greater impact,
and I'm so excited that I made the leap. What
(26:59):
surprised most about moving from the creative side to the
business side, I would say that, Uh, one of the
surprises was that so many of the challenges that we
faced on the programming side happened in all other parts
of the company. And while it may be off the air,
(27:20):
you're still dealing with personalities, You're still dealing with the
need to come up with ideas. And as I started
interacting with more clients and meeting with more clients, that
was both the surprising and the refreshing thing that I
realized in that on the air, you're trying to sell
people your radio station. You're trying to sell them on
(27:42):
a new artist or a new song. And for our clients, uh,
they're trying to sell new ideas and new products. But
the thought process that goes into the creative work that
we do on the programming side is exactly what you
need when you're trying to help clients market their businesses.
Let's go back to Black Information Network. Before the pandemic.
(28:06):
We as a company, we're looking for new products. You
took on an additional role of leading the effort with
a with a few of our other really talented senior
executives in the company to develop a new kind of
news service when we were talking about which became Black
Information Network, and we led up to the pandemic with
(28:26):
this on the development cycle. Thanks for looking good. Pandemic hits.
As you remember, everyone remembers revenue advertising revenue goes down.
Every company responds by reducing cost. We put every development
product on the hold, and then we have the George
Floyd murder. You call me and you say, Bob, I
(28:49):
know we don't have any extra money. I know we
put everything on hold. We need to do this and
we need to do it right now. Can you tell
that story and how you got this on the air
in a matter of weeks, not months. We started the
development of this network long before the launch, and I
think had we not had so many creative minds in
(29:11):
place and so many people thinking about this and thinking
about the possibilities, that we would not have been able
to launch as quickly as we did. You know, as
you mentioned, even during the pandemic, the people that we
had already been interviewing and talking to before we had
to pause on the project, we're calling me and saying, hey,
(29:33):
are you seeing the disproportionate impact that COVID is having
on the black community for mortality, to hospitalizations, to the
economic impact. And even though none of them had active
jobs at the moment, they were already thinking about this
network and thinking about the kind of content that we
could provide and the impact that we could have. So
(29:57):
when we when we had that conversation. I will never
forget that Saturday us being on the phone. We knew
that there was a need for this network before. We
have a responsibility to put this network on now and
just calling people all over the country saying we're going
(30:17):
to do this. We're going to do this now. What
have you been working on and how quickly can we
assemble this? And what surprised me as conversation after conversation
they hadn't stopped working on this network. They hadn't stopped
thinking about this network. And that's how we were able
to hit the ground running because so many people were
(30:38):
already emotionally invested in bringing this to life. They just
needed the okay to do it. And you had a
lot of allies internally and a lot of folks helping you.
You know, have to mention Doc Winter and Theamtum we
were actively involved in enormous proponents of this as well,
who on the outside really embraced this right away and
(30:59):
said yeah, there for you. We were blessed with so
many allies outside the company. I mean, first and foremost,
I have to start with our founding partners, but not
just the founding partners, but their entire teams really embraced
our team and embraced the work that we were doing. Then,
(31:20):
I think of all of the organizations and the people.
You know, one thing that a lot of people don't
know is we have a board of advisors that help
us with not only our content but just our our
great sounding boards. And we have everyone from Mayor Control,
the mayor of New Orleans, to artist Stevens, the first
(31:42):
black CEO for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the civic support
that we had, the clients that were involved, and then
just other other journalists, other industry people who saw the
vision that we had and were supportive of that, whether
it was giving their time, giving their insights, or just
(32:03):
giving their support to our team. I also have to
give a shout out to Chris Berry, who oversees the
news operations for iHeart Media in general. He from day
one was not only our biggest fan, but but a
great counselor as well. So today you're running one of
our big divisions, also running the Black Information Network. Let's
(32:26):
tag into your management insights. You've been a big proponent
and you mentioned it already a few times of mentoring
why and what's the power of it? Well, it starts
first and foremost with with the journey that I've been on.
I know for a fact that I would not be
here today if it wasn't for a powerful group of
(32:48):
mentors in my own life. And what I realized very
early on is there is a difference between people who
support you and people who will be not only your
champion but your biggest critic and give you perspective and
give you honest feedback. And I think that that's the
difference between having friends in the industry and having mentors.
(33:12):
But what has struck me throughout the years is every
time I attempt to thank them in any way to
a tie, every mentor has said, I'm not doing this
for thanks. I'm doing this because I believe in you
and I want you to grow and succeed. And the
only way that you could ever repay me is to
(33:35):
do this for someone else. And over time, as I've
started mentoring other people both inside and outside the business,
I now understand what those mentors meant because I realize
that quite often, even though I'm mentoring someone else, I'm
learning in the process and I'm becoming a stronger person
(33:58):
because of that relationship. How does corporate culture and your
corporate values impact your business mission. It's the foundation for
for everything that we do. And I remember when when
you joined I Heart Media and you started talking about
our core values and our corporate values and uh in
(34:20):
the very first meeting that they attended, and you had
them up on these these big boards all over the room. UH,
and it was what you and Rich stand for. It's
what the company was going to stand for. And it
became the north star for the company and for me,
who had worked for a number of great organizations over
(34:43):
the years, it was the first time that I'd ever
seen any organization have that proclamation and make it such
a steady and consistent part of everything that we do.
And it has absolutely been I think one of the
greatest things that you and Rich of have brought to
iHeart Media. Talk about how you and your team think
(35:05):
about the responsibilities of journalists to the communities they serve.
It has been fascinating to watch and to learn from
the team the stories that they cover, but more importantly,
what those stories represent and the people that they represent.
And radio in general has always been the original storyteller.
(35:29):
It's been a fantastic vehicle for sharing the impact that
the world is having on people, and people are having
on the world. But watching the team at the Black
Information Network look at not only what is the story
that they're telling, but what does it represent. It can
be anyone from the young girl who won the national
(35:52):
spelling be to a senior citizen to you know, someone
with the latest invention. It not only represents what they're
bringing to the world, but the hope that they bring
to the Black community, the impact that they have on
others within the community. And I think that's one of
(36:12):
the things that we hear back most often about the
network is we're not just reporting on the latest tragedy,
we're reporting on the latest triumph as well. COVID changed
how we all operate businesses. You launch the Black Information
Network during COVID. How did that affect I mean being
(36:33):
in this virtual world, How did that affect how you
build the operation and the organization? And by the way,
what's a lasting problem with it or what's a lasting
benefit coming from that world. Our vision was to build
out this giant news hub in Atlanta and that would
be the source of all things. B I N and
(36:56):
COVID changed everything. We up until that point never would
have imagined a work from home scenario or work from
anywhere scenario. And while I hate to say anything great
came from COVID, one thing that did change the trajectory
of this network was the sudden realization that we didn't
(37:18):
have to have a group of people all sitting in
the same room in Atlanta to make this network a reality.
And the benefit of that has been we now have
journalists and reporters everywhere from New York City to Huntsville, Alabama.
And it's not just about the range of places where
(37:42):
we have studios and we have reporters, it's the perspectives
that they bring. Um you know, are reporting on black
farmers may not have happened or may not have sounded
the way that it does. If we didn't have black
reporters in rural communities, and had we stuck to that
original vision of a team in Atlanta, the network would
(38:04):
most likely sound very different than it is. And I
don't see us ever going back to one centralized newsroom again.
The advantages that we see now of having correspondence throughout
the country. We just have a much more robust pipeline
(38:25):
of stories and content because they're actually living in all
of the communities that were reporting on. Let's spendish up
on you if you could. What advice would you give
your twenty one year old self. It's an interesting question
and timely for me because you know, I've got a
(38:47):
son that's getting ready to leave the house and UH,
and much to his chagrin, I've been torturing him daily
with all of the things that I want to make
sure he knows before he goes out into the world.
You didn't, and so is in his room. Did you? Oh?
I was tempted to. I was very tempted to, but
I gave him a reprieve. But but during this process,
(39:09):
so much of what I'm telling him, I'm thinking back to,
UH to you know, my own childhood and my own
adventure into the world. And something that I read recently
that has really stood out to me was understand the
importance and the value of compounding. And when I was
(39:31):
reading it, it was talking about obviously compounding interest and
how you can build lifelong wealth if you're diligent early on,
and so I've shared that with him. But what I
think is more important is the compounding of everything in life,
investing not only financially, but investing in people, investing in
(39:55):
yourself investing in relationships early on. For me, I look
back and I didn't do that. I certainly didn't do
that financially, but also I was so focused on hopping
from market to market, UH that while I had friendships
in a lot of these towns, UM, I always viewed
(40:18):
it as well, they're my friend from New York, they're
my friend from Columbus, they're my friend from here, UM
and I and I wish that I would have taken
more of those friendships and relationships over time with me
UH to a much deeper level. So I think that
the the value of compounding everything in your life from
(40:38):
early on UH will give you a much richer life,
both financially and personally. Tony, we always and math and
magic with a shout out to the analytics person we
most admire the math side of things and to the
most creative person the magic side to business. So you
(41:01):
have to pick two people analytics, creative, math and magic.
Who are they so for for the math side, um,
it's it's a recent entrant into my life. UM. There's
a man named Rashad Tobacca Wala that a lot of
people in marketing and advertising, though um, he's an advisor,
(41:22):
works with publicists and a number of Fortune five hundred
companies and and I was fortunate enough to get introduced
to him during the pandemic. And one thing that stood
out to me was his ability to take data, to
take research, to take all of the math side of
business and marketing and advertising and humanize it. And I
(41:47):
think that that's what he does best, is humanized data
and trends. And I think that that in and of
itself is an art form to be able to turn
numbers into stories. On the magic side, something that has
fascinated me is the work that Procter and Gamble does
when it comes to the multicultural space. And even though
(42:12):
that's a CpG company, what has impressed me has been
their ability to lean into powerful creative to tell stories
uh and particularly about women and minorities uh and and
to start conversations. And I think that that is one
of the most creative responsibilities that I've seen any company.
(42:36):
Do you know what, You're the first one to give
the magic shout out to a company and uh and
I agree with you on pent Tony, You've got an
inspiring story filled with useful insights for others. Your commitment
to mentoring and helping others is definitely your hallmark. I
want to give a shout out before we leave, of course,
(42:57):
to Black Information Network. So if you don't have the
I Heart Radio app, get it. If you have the
I Heart Radio app, open it up and find the
Black Information Network. You can listen to the national version
which covers the country, or you can go to individual
versions for specific cities, which will have local news, trafficking
(43:18):
weather for those cities added in as well. I actually
find it's my news source of choice because the news
is so balanced and so comprehensive, a really fantastic product
and obviously one of the reasons I'm so happy to
have you on today. Thanks for your contributions to our
company and UH and thanks for your contributions to our communities,
(43:42):
and congrats and all you've accomplished. Thank you both. I
appreciate it. There are a few things I've picked up
in my conversation with Tony. One, good journalism doesn't hinge
on getting people's blood pressure up, Tony Steam doesn't chase clickbait. Instead,
they focus on the stories that matter to know the
power of compounding. As Tony told his son, if you
(44:05):
start investing early, and that's investing financially and in your
personal relationships. You can enrich your life in every sense
of the word. Three, don't let your vision be siloed.
We didn't plan on launching the Black Information Network during
the pandemic, but Tony kept his eye on current events
to ensure he would launch the network when society needed
(44:25):
it the most. I'm Bob Pittman. Thanks for listening. That's
it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to
Math and Magic, a production of I Heart Radio. The
show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks to Susan
Ward for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent, which is
no small feat Marissa Brown for pulling research, our editors
Derek Clements, Mary Dow and Ryan Murdoch, our producer Morgan Levoy,
(44:47):
our executive producer Nikki Eator, and of course Gayle Rahul,
Eric Angel Noel and everyone who helped bring this show
to your ears. Until next time,
You're listening to Math and Magic, a production I Heart Radio.
We have to keep in mind that the Black community
is not monolithic and that there are people with wide
ranging views and opinions within the Black community, and for
us to have any amount of credibility, we need to
(00:23):
make sure that we have that balance in the reporting
that we provide. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, and welcome to
Math and Magic. Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing. On
this episode, we're going to hear from one of my
colleagues at My Heart, someone who truly rose through the ranks,
and it is one who led the team that created
(00:44):
one of our most important new products, the only full
time news service for the Black community, the Black Information Network.
He's Tony Coles, the president of Black Information Network and
also a division president overseeing a hundred and fifty six
radio stations in one markets across America. Tony has a
story of a painfully shy kid who lived on a
(01:06):
farm in an incredibly small town in Ohio, who managed
to overcome that shyness and become an on air radio
personality and create an impressive career in radio. He moved
on to the programming side of things from being talent
and then joined the senior management ranks and programming, and
finally took over an entire group of markets and stations
(01:28):
as a division president. He believes in the power of
mentoring in both business and in our society. He had
parents that helped shape his success and he brings insights
we all need to hear. His great grandfather was a
slave in this country and his family even settled in
Ohio through the power of the underground railroad. Farming was
(01:49):
a way of life and his family and four h
was even important part of his life. Tony, Welcome, Thank you, Bob.
It's a pleasure to be here. We have so much
to talk about today and stop you and I don't
regularly explore, but first I want to do you in
sixty seconds. You're ready? Ready? Do you prefer cats or dogs? Cats,
salty or sweet? Sweet? Country or city city country music
(02:14):
or top forty country music? Call or text text a
M R F M. Love them both, but I'm going
to go with FM on the mic or behind the scenes,
behind the scenes every time it's about to get harder.
Smartest person you know, I'm blessed to know a lot
of smart folks, but I'm gonna lean into Greg Ashlock,
who runs our markets groups. Favorite radio station w n
(02:38):
C I and Columbus that was the big motivator. What
was your favorite animal on the farm? Probably our horses,
childhood hero, my dad, favorite band or artist. Probably gonna
go with Tim McGraw. First job, w h I Z
in Zanesville, Ohio, secret talent. A lot of people don't
know about my cooking obsession, but cook. What topic can
(03:01):
you talk about forever? Thanksgiving dinner for hours? Okay, Tony,
Let's start with the biggest breakthrough in our company and
our industry in quite a while. The Black Information Network
twenty four hours of news serving the Black community. It's
on digital, on the I Heart radio app, and over
the air on almost all of our markets where we
(03:24):
have large black communities, including New York, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Detroit, Houston, Billion,
dozens more. It also is the source of news for
over a hundred of our hip hop, R and B
and gospel stations, and it's also carried on some stations
that My Heart doesn't own. It's local, national, and international news.
(03:45):
Tell us how you describe Black Information Network and what's
so unusual about it. The Black Information Network is first
and foremost a news network that comes from the black perspective.
When you have everyone from the writers, to the reporters
to the anchors telling stories not necessarily from their point
(04:08):
of view, but from their perspective, it makes a difference.
And more importantly, we're sourcing stories that mainstream newsrooms would
never tell only because they lack the diversity to bring
some of these stories to light. And in the most
diverse of those news rooms, those black voices don't always
(04:29):
have the loudest voice in the room to make sure
that those stories come to life. Talk about some examples, Tony,
I know you use one with the war in Ukraine.
Can you give us that one? Yeah, when when the
war first broke out, there were a number of blacks
and minorities who were having a hard time fleeing the
(04:49):
country for their own safety. And we wanted to cover
that perspective because it's not just about black life in America,
but black life overall. And our team fortunately was able
to contact a black reporter who was actually on the
ground in Ukraine very quickly, so not only were we
able to bring his perspective to an international crisis, but
(05:14):
also to hear the stories of what was happening to
minorities in that country in time of war was just
incredibly insightful, and to be able to get that on
very quickly was something we were proud of. When you
talk about delivering news from the black perspective, you also
have features as well. Can you talk a little bit
(05:34):
about what some of those features are in the range
of topics that you cover. We really want to make
sure that we're engaging, entertaining, and forming, and I think
that one of that stands out to me is uh,
I bet you didn't know. With Tarik Low, we hear
so many comments both within and outside the black community
(05:56):
because what he does is take historic acts, things that
that are little known to most people, either about people
who were black and uh and made life changing either
inventions or creations or changed the course of history. And
a lot of people didn't know that they were African
(06:17):
Americans who were doing that, or they were just little
known historic facts that often don't show up in your
typical history book. Talk to me a little bit about
the style of journalism. You know, you and I spent
a lot of time in the development of this and
going back and forth about where our place would be
contrasted to the kind of news that we are sort
(06:40):
of in the headlines today as people talk about what's
going on in the in the news media business. We've
assembled a team that not only has you know, brand
new journalists who are bringing not only a fresh perspective,
but a fresh set of eyes and ideas to the
news room and pairing them up with veteran journalist, award
(07:02):
winning TV reporters and watching the interaction and the flow
of ideas and content. It really not only make sure
that the content that we have on the air runs
the gamut in appeal to all ages and backgrounds, but
it's also great to see some of these budding journalists
(07:24):
developing in their own career because they have great role
models within our newsroom. You know, one of the things
I'm proud of stuff and I know you are too,
in the style of journalism you do, is that you
really work on treating the audience as intelligent decision makers,
with an idea that if you give them enough information,
(07:45):
hopefully all the information, they'll make good decisions. And you
seem to avoid the temptation to somehow get people's blood
pressure up in hopes of getting them more engaged quote
unquote round engaged. How tough has that been in a
world in which you know that's turning out probably would
(08:06):
be more than norm than not. It's certainly a challenge,
but it was really important to us from day one.
We looked at why someone else hadn't done this before,
quite honestly, and and the reality is that so many
of the gimmicks and the tactics that that a lot
of news organizations have resorted to over the years is
(08:28):
exactly why a lot of people had turned away from
news and we're beginning to believe the fake news and
narrative because it was really hard for them to know
what to trust and what not to trust, who to
trust and who not to And we wanted to make
sure that from day one we were building a product
that was unbiased. And also we have to keep in
(08:50):
mind that the black community is not monolithic and that
there are people with wide ranging views and opinions within
the black community, and for us to have any amount
of credibility, we need to make sure that we have
that balance in the reporting that we provide. And I
(09:10):
think for a lot of our reporters that was something
that they hadn't experienced in other newsrooms, and the question
of what angle do you want me to take with this?
What opinion should I have on this was a refreshing
conversation when we said, just tell the truth, present the facts,
(09:31):
and it gave them the opportunity to start bringing new
ideas and new stories to the network because they suddenly
realized they could report on what is interesting to the
black community, not what a focus group says their opinion
of a story should be. You know, as you and
I talked early on in development of Black Information Network,
(09:53):
one of the challenges of doing any news product today
that's advertiser supported is that if you're advertising supported, ratings matter,
and the best way to get ratings is to get
people worked up. Because the normal cycle of news is
that when there's a really big story, you get a
lot of listeners, and when there's really nothing going on,
you don't get so many listeners. It is peaks and valleys,
(10:15):
and a lot of news organizations want to fill those
valleys understandably, and we went with a new model of
founding partners versus advertisers, in which we went to a
group of companies and said, here's this mission to create
this important service for the black community. But we need
(10:35):
to free them from the need to chase ratings and
we want them to be able to do what they
do best, which is really focused on informing the community
and creating a trusted news source. Very important, and by
the way, let me give them a shout out, because
I think these are incredibly important companies that stepped up
(10:55):
to say, yes, we believe in this mission. We're gonna
be there as a founding partner Bank of the Aurica,
A Rise in CBS, Lows Tree and Me, McDonald's, Geico
and Sony so b I n As in service to
the Black community. What impact are you having and and
can you give us a couple of stories? Absolutely. One
of the things that's really important to us is that
(11:18):
we're not only reporting on the headlines, but we're having
an impact and a positive impact on the black community.
And I think of so many of the stories that
our reporters have brought to us. Vanessa Tyler came to
us with an idea of doing a special that was
completely about the missing black women all across America that
(11:41):
weren't getting attention, and she highlighted those and we've now
incorporated much of that content on an ongoing basis, I
think about what we're doing right now in our effort
to help one hundred thousand black listeners either up skill
into new careers, fine new careers, or completely change their
(12:02):
perspective on work. The partnership that we're doing with career
building right now that's focused on getting Black Americans into
more powerful positions and better opportunities. Those are just two
things that come to mind. But we've done so many
things to have a positive outcome for our community. Tony,
(12:24):
I think all of us who are not part of
the black community would benefit from hearing stories that are
a part of the Black families narratives. You have a
very powerful family narrative going back to your great grandfather.
Would you mind sharing that with us? Sure? I have
to start with the fact that you know, when you
(12:45):
think of some of the things that have happened in
related to social justice over the past few years, there's
this movement, there's this energy around the history of black
people in America, and I think what a law out
of people lose sight of is It wasn't that long
ago that people who are escaping slavery and the long
(13:09):
term impact that slavery has had when I think back
to my own family, and you know, my great grandfather
being one of the last slaves in America, my grandfather
being one of the first people in my family who
was able to read and to to learn to read legally,
(13:30):
and my father being the first person in our family
to actually go to school, and then my sister and
I being the first people in our family to be
able to graduate high school and go to college, just
a few generations from slavery is something that I think
about quite often. Let's stay on your background. You grew
(13:53):
up in a small Ohio town. I think the population
was five people, very small. Your dad was an oil driller,
your mom worked on the family's farm. You were in
four age, you were active on the school newspaper. Paint
a picture for us of growing up in the seventies
and eighties and that really small town, obviously rural environment.
(14:14):
I don't want to make it sound too Norman Rockwell,
but in many ways it really was. It was just
a wonderful experience for me growing up in a small town. Obviously,
we were the only black family in our town, so
that presented some some unique situations. But but more than anything.
It was such a learning experience. You learn the value
(14:37):
of hard work. Your view of the world is different
when you grow up around five hundred people. Every family
knows every other family. There's a genuine concern for your neighbors,
and especially in the farming communities, because anything that impacts
one farm impacts another, and so you have a lot
(14:58):
of shared experience is no matter how different you are.
You know, most people listening probably don't even know what
four H is. I grew up Mississippi. I do tell
us about four h and what impact that had on you.
Four h was absolutely pivotal for me and impactful. Uh
and and if you're not familiar with it, I often
(15:19):
refer to it as the farming version of Boy Scouts
or Girl Scouts. You have youth that come together starting
at the age of eight, and every year you can
pick one project, or you can pick multiple projects, and
it can run anything from you know, for me, it
was raising animals to forestry to public speaking and uh
(15:43):
and throughout the year, you have these projects that you
work on and then at the annual county Fair you
present your final projects uh and and you know, you
compete for awards, and there was always an impact to
your community. That was a focal point of so many
of the projects that we all worked on. So, uh,
it helps you grow and develop and it helps your
(16:05):
community be a better place. At the same time, you
thought you were going to be a park ranger or
a Methodist minister. I read, by the way, my dad
was a Methodist minister. So I'm really interested in why
did you think those were going to be your career opportunities? Well,
because park rangers and ministers are so closely related to
one another. Uh. You know, we were a very religious household.
(16:28):
We were very active in our church. Um, we were
in the church on on an ongoing basis, and you know,
it was something that that really spoke to me. I
enjoyed everything in the church. Uh, And so that was
that was something that intrigued me. And and actually one
of my best friends from childhood today is a Methodist minister.
(16:50):
But at the same time, through four h uh, you know,
I was a summer camp counselor. Before that, I was,
you know, a summer camper. You know, we did a
lot out of work around forestry. One of one of
the summers I planted four hundred trees in in a
vacant lot and uh, and so spending that much time
(17:10):
outdoors in nature and and you know, working in the
parks as a part of four age, it was something
that I enjoyed tremendously and uh. And so those two
fields were highly intriguing to me until the concept of
radio was introduced to my life. So let's let's make
the connection here now with the radio. You have a
(17:32):
great story about how your dad pushed you into your
first job, and I really had a way of thinking
about when you went to work. Can you tell us
that story? Sure? So. So, my father grew up during
the Great Depression as part of a very big family.
His father had a rule in place in their house
that anyone that was in the house by age twelve
(17:56):
needed to be paying rent or or get out. They
just couldn't afford to feed all those mouths. And so
my dad, from my earliest memories, told me that I
was going to get a reprieve until I was sixteen,
but I had to either get a job when I
was sixteen or leave home. And uh, and I, you know,
like most kids, never really thought much about it until
(18:17):
one day I came home from school and there were
boxes in my room, and when I asked my dad
about it, he said, well, you're almost sixteen and I
don't see you looking for work, so I want to
at least help you pack your stuff so you can
get out. Now, to this day, I don't think that
my dad would have kicked me out, but as a
fifteen year old, I wasn't ready to find out. Uh.
(18:40):
And so I very quickly started looking for for work
anywhere I could. And about a week after this, uh,
this moment, the program director for w h I Z
came to speak at our school career day and I
was fascinated by what he did, but I was more
terrified than if I didn't get a job, I was
(19:01):
going to be homeless. So I walked up to him
and said, I need a job. Do you have any jobs?
And Uh, Luckily for me, they had an opening for
a you know I CA I call it a gopher
at the time. We're literally anything that you needed in
the radio station. They needed somebody to help with and
I was that kid. And so I took a job
(19:24):
after school working at the local radio station. And uh.
And had it not been for my dad's strong encouragement
to find a job, I may not have found my
way into that radio station. So looking back, how do
you think your parents shaped who you are today? I
tell people all the time that I owe everything to
(19:46):
both of them. Uh. You know, obviously my my father
for not only the work ethic that I learned from
him by watching him over the years, but by him
pushing me to get a job. You know, I'm very
thankful that the stars aligned for that. And then my mom.
She is the one who recognized how shy I was,
(20:09):
and and I mean painfully shy and uh, and she
is the one who prompted and pushed and prodded me
into learning the importance of public speaking, learning the importance
of of interacting with with other kids, because I was
that kid that you know, if I could have sat
in the woods or read my Bible, That's what I
(20:30):
was going to do. But she's the one that said,
you have to break out of this mold. And so
between the two of them, I owe everything to them.
More on math and magic right after this quick break,
Welcome back to math and Magic. Let's hear more from
my conversation with Tony Coles. Let's go back to your
(20:54):
radio career. Everyone I know on the radio has some
twist of fate that land at them that first on
air job. You've got one to what's your story? So
Pie Patoniac, who was the program director at that radio station,
called my house one one Saturday morning. And this was
(21:14):
back during the days where stations signed off at midnight.
They signed on at six am. And he was in
the hospital with appendicitis attack and was frantically searching for
anyone to go in and sign on the station and
do the morning show, which he normally did. And uh,
I was the last person that he called and the
(21:35):
first person who answered the phone. And you know, I
had no clue what I was doing. I you know,
I was the the errand kid at the time. And
he's like, I just need you to go in, and
I don't care what you do, but play the legal
I d and play the commercials and just cover until
someone can get there. And I went in and proceeded
(21:55):
to have what I am sure to this day is
the worst airshift in the history of radio. But I
was mortified. I assumed that that was the end of
my job and I was going to be homeless at
that point. But what shocked me was the general manager
and owner of the radio station called a few days
later and said, hey, you know, we want to teach
(22:18):
you how to be a DJ. And I said, you
clearly didn't hear what happened, and he said, no, we heard,
and it was bad. But what we could tell was
you were really trying and we think that if you
can try that hard, if we show you what to
actually do, you could be good at this. And um,
you know again, I think back to the mentors in
(22:42):
my life and I look at that moment. There was
absolutely no reason, uh that they needed to take that
leap of faith, But they saw something in me that
I didn't see it myself, uh, and they trained me.
And before you knew it, I was sitting in that
studio and I actually realized that people did that for
(23:03):
a living. And that was the moment where I'm like,
I don't want to do anything else but being a
radio station. You know, you had some really good jobs
on the air. You moved around market to market, grew
in bigger markets. But how did you move from being
on air talent behind the saint in programming a radio station?
(23:24):
So I was on in Columbus, Ohio. I was on
a top forty station that was competing with what is
now one of the I heart stations in w n
c I, the station that I listened to growing up
and idolizing. And I was across the street competing and
new manager came in who hired a new program director
(23:45):
who fired everybody on the air and was going to
bring in their own staff. And I remember so many
things about that moment because it was the biggest market
i'd worked in at the time. I loved the job,
I love the people that I worked with. But what
struck me more than anything was the program director at
(24:05):
w n c I, a guy named Dave Robbins. He
was our mortal enemy. We hated him. He was just
a fierce competitor. But within twenty four hours of our
air staff being fired, Dave had called every single person
at home. We had no idea how he even got
our numbers, but he called every single person and he said, Hey,
(24:26):
I've been in your shoes. Come over to our station.
You know, make your demo tapes. If you need to
make phone calls, you can use our phones. Whatever you
need to find a job, come see us. And so
I took him up on the offer. But the thing
that struck me the most was within the first few minutes.
I saw the way that Dave was interacting with his
(24:48):
air staff, I saw the way that he was interacting
with the people in the building, and more than anything,
I saw the passion that he had for what he did.
And in that moment, I just I walked up to
him and I said, I know I came over here
to make demo tapes, but I actually think I want
to do what you do. And he was so passionate
(25:10):
about being a manager and being a leader that he
sat down with me for two hours and told me
everything about why he loved his job, and from that
moment on, I wanted to do that. You continued to
rise in the programming ranks. You had a lot of successes.
He eventually became one of our company's executive vice presidents
(25:31):
of programming, covering the radio stations the markets in the
west part of the country. And then you had the
opportunity to go to the business side, from what I
think all of us in programming would say is the
creative side, and be a division president overseeing a P
and L of one of the company's divisions about four
million revenue twenty one markets across America. Why was that
(25:52):
of interest to you. One of the things that I
loved the most and enjoyed the most on the programming
side was seeing the impact that the programming leads have
on people and the things that you can accomplish, and
more than anything, the innovation that can happen. But what
(26:14):
I noticed was the division presidents and other positions in
the leadership team had far more impact because you weren't
isolated to just one area of a radio station or
one area of the company. And the more time that
I spent talking to division presidents and other leaders I
(26:37):
noticed that exact same excitement and passion that Dave Robbins had.
And so to me, moving from the creative side to
the business side, obviously there are some differences, but more
than anything, it's an opportunity to have a greater impact,
and I'm so excited that I made the leap. What
(26:59):
surprised most about moving from the creative side to the
business side, I would say that, Uh, one of the
surprises was that so many of the challenges that we
faced on the programming side happened in all other parts
of the company. And while it may be off the air,
(27:20):
you're still dealing with personalities, You're still dealing with the
need to come up with ideas. And as I started
interacting with more clients and meeting with more clients, that
was both the surprising and the refreshing thing that I
realized in that on the air, you're trying to sell
people your radio station. You're trying to sell them on
(27:42):
a new artist or a new song. And for our clients, uh,
they're trying to sell new ideas and new products. But
the thought process that goes into the creative work that
we do on the programming side is exactly what you
need when you're trying to help clients market their businesses.
Let's go back to Black Information Network. Before the pandemic.
(28:06):
We as a company, we're looking for new products. You
took on an additional role of leading the effort with
a with a few of our other really talented senior
executives in the company to develop a new kind of
news service when we were talking about which became Black
Information Network, and we led up to the pandemic with
(28:26):
this on the development cycle. Thanks for looking good. Pandemic hits.
As you remember, everyone remembers revenue advertising revenue goes down.
Every company responds by reducing cost. We put every development
product on the hold, and then we have the George
Floyd murder. You call me and you say, Bob, I
(28:49):
know we don't have any extra money. I know we
put everything on hold. We need to do this and
we need to do it right now. Can you tell
that story and how you got this on the air
in a matter of weeks, not months. We started the
development of this network long before the launch, and I
think had we not had so many creative minds in
(29:11):
place and so many people thinking about this and thinking
about the possibilities, that we would not have been able
to launch as quickly as we did. You know, as
you mentioned, even during the pandemic, the people that we
had already been interviewing and talking to before we had
to pause on the project, we're calling me and saying, hey,
(29:33):
are you seeing the disproportionate impact that COVID is having
on the black community for mortality, to hospitalizations, to the
economic impact. And even though none of them had active
jobs at the moment, they were already thinking about this
network and thinking about the kind of content that we
could provide and the impact that we could have. So
(29:57):
when we when we had that conversation. I will never
forget that Saturday us being on the phone. We knew
that there was a need for this network before. We
have a responsibility to put this network on now and
just calling people all over the country saying we're going
(30:17):
to do this. We're going to do this now. What
have you been working on and how quickly can we
assemble this? And what surprised me as conversation after conversation
they hadn't stopped working on this network. They hadn't stopped
thinking about this network. And that's how we were able
to hit the ground running because so many people were
(30:38):
already emotionally invested in bringing this to life. They just
needed the okay to do it. And you had a
lot of allies internally and a lot of folks helping you.
You know, have to mention Doc Winter and Theamtum we
were actively involved in enormous proponents of this as well,
who on the outside really embraced this right away and
(30:59):
said yeah, there for you. We were blessed with so
many allies outside the company. I mean, first and foremost,
I have to start with our founding partners, but not
just the founding partners, but their entire teams really embraced
our team and embraced the work that we were doing. Then,
(31:20):
I think of all of the organizations and the people.
You know, one thing that a lot of people don't
know is we have a board of advisors that help
us with not only our content but just our our
great sounding boards. And we have everyone from Mayor Control,
the mayor of New Orleans, to artist Stevens, the first
(31:42):
black CEO for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the civic support
that we had, the clients that were involved, and then
just other other journalists, other industry people who saw the
vision that we had and were supportive of that, whether
it was giving their time, giving their insights, or just
(32:03):
giving their support to our team. I also have to
give a shout out to Chris Berry, who oversees the
news operations for iHeart Media in general. He from day
one was not only our biggest fan, but but a
great counselor as well. So today you're running one of
our big divisions, also running the Black Information Network. Let's
(32:26):
tag into your management insights. You've been a big proponent
and you mentioned it already a few times of mentoring
why and what's the power of it? Well, it starts
first and foremost with with the journey that I've been on.
I know for a fact that I would not be
here today if it wasn't for a powerful group of
(32:48):
mentors in my own life. And what I realized very
early on is there is a difference between people who
support you and people who will be not only your
champion but your biggest critic and give you perspective and
give you honest feedback. And I think that that's the
difference between having friends in the industry and having mentors.
(33:12):
But what has struck me throughout the years is every
time I attempt to thank them in any way to
a tie, every mentor has said, I'm not doing this
for thanks. I'm doing this because I believe in you
and I want you to grow and succeed. And the
only way that you could ever repay me is to
(33:35):
do this for someone else. And over time, as I've
started mentoring other people both inside and outside the business,
I now understand what those mentors meant because I realize
that quite often, even though I'm mentoring someone else, I'm
learning in the process and I'm becoming a stronger person
(33:58):
because of that relationship. How does corporate culture and your
corporate values impact your business mission. It's the foundation for
for everything that we do. And I remember when when
you joined I Heart Media and you started talking about
our core values and our corporate values and uh in
(34:20):
the very first meeting that they attended, and you had
them up on these these big boards all over the room. UH,
and it was what you and Rich stand for. It's
what the company was going to stand for. And it
became the north star for the company and for me,
who had worked for a number of great organizations over
(34:43):
the years, it was the first time that I'd ever
seen any organization have that proclamation and make it such
a steady and consistent part of everything that we do.
And it has absolutely been I think one of the
greatest things that you and Rich of have brought to
iHeart Media. Talk about how you and your team think
(35:05):
about the responsibilities of journalists to the communities they serve.
It has been fascinating to watch and to learn from
the team the stories that they cover, but more importantly,
what those stories represent and the people that they represent.
And radio in general has always been the original storyteller.
(35:29):
It's been a fantastic vehicle for sharing the impact that
the world is having on people, and people are having
on the world. But watching the team at the Black
Information Network look at not only what is the story
that they're telling, but what does it represent. It can
be anyone from the young girl who won the national
(35:52):
spelling be to a senior citizen to you know, someone
with the latest invention. It not only represents what they're
bringing to the world, but the hope that they bring
to the Black community, the impact that they have on
others within the community. And I think that's one of
(36:12):
the things that we hear back most often about the
network is we're not just reporting on the latest tragedy,
we're reporting on the latest triumph as well. COVID changed
how we all operate businesses. You launch the Black Information
Network during COVID. How did that affect I mean being
(36:33):
in this virtual world, How did that affect how you
build the operation and the organization? And by the way,
what's a lasting problem with it or what's a lasting
benefit coming from that world. Our vision was to build
out this giant news hub in Atlanta and that would
be the source of all things. B I N and
(36:56):
COVID changed everything. We up until that point never would
have imagined a work from home scenario or work from
anywhere scenario. And while I hate to say anything great
came from COVID, one thing that did change the trajectory
of this network was the sudden realization that we didn't
(37:18):
have to have a group of people all sitting in
the same room in Atlanta to make this network a reality.
And the benefit of that has been we now have
journalists and reporters everywhere from New York City to Huntsville, Alabama.
And it's not just about the range of places where
(37:42):
we have studios and we have reporters, it's the perspectives
that they bring. Um you know, are reporting on black
farmers may not have happened or may not have sounded
the way that it does. If we didn't have black
reporters in rural communities, and had we stuck to that
original vision of a team in Atlanta, the network would
(38:04):
most likely sound very different than it is. And I
don't see us ever going back to one centralized newsroom again.
The advantages that we see now of having correspondence throughout
the country. We just have a much more robust pipeline
(38:25):
of stories and content because they're actually living in all
of the communities that were reporting on. Let's spendish up
on you if you could. What advice would you give
your twenty one year old self. It's an interesting question
and timely for me because you know, I've got a
(38:47):
son that's getting ready to leave the house and UH,
and much to his chagrin, I've been torturing him daily
with all of the things that I want to make
sure he knows before he goes out into the world.
You didn't, and so is in his room. Did you? Oh?
I was tempted to. I was very tempted to, but
I gave him a reprieve. But but during this process,
(39:09):
so much of what I'm telling him, I'm thinking back to,
UH to you know, my own childhood and my own
adventure into the world. And something that I read recently
that has really stood out to me was understand the
importance and the value of compounding. And when I was
(39:31):
reading it, it was talking about obviously compounding interest and
how you can build lifelong wealth if you're diligent early on,
and so I've shared that with him. But what I
think is more important is the compounding of everything in life,
investing not only financially, but investing in people, investing in
(39:55):
yourself investing in relationships early on. For me, I look
back and I didn't do that. I certainly didn't do
that financially, but also I was so focused on hopping
from market to market, UH that while I had friendships
in a lot of these towns, UM, I always viewed
(40:18):
it as well, they're my friend from New York, they're
my friend from Columbus, they're my friend from here, UM
and I and I wish that I would have taken
more of those friendships and relationships over time with me
UH to a much deeper level. So I think that
the the value of compounding everything in your life from
(40:38):
early on UH will give you a much richer life,
both financially and personally. Tony, we always and math and
magic with a shout out to the analytics person we
most admire the math side of things and to the
most creative person the magic side to business. So you
(41:01):
have to pick two people analytics, creative, math and magic.
Who are they so for for the math side, um,
it's it's a recent entrant into my life. UM. There's
a man named Rashad Tobacca Wala that a lot of
people in marketing and advertising, though um, he's an advisor,
(41:22):
works with publicists and a number of Fortune five hundred
companies and and I was fortunate enough to get introduced
to him during the pandemic. And one thing that stood
out to me was his ability to take data, to
take research, to take all of the math side of
business and marketing and advertising and humanize it. And I
(41:47):
think that that's what he does best, is humanized data
and trends. And I think that that in and of
itself is an art form to be able to turn
numbers into stories. On the magic side, something that has
fascinated me is the work that Procter and Gamble does
when it comes to the multicultural space. And even though
(42:12):
that's a CpG company, what has impressed me has been
their ability to lean into powerful creative to tell stories
uh and particularly about women and minorities uh and and
to start conversations. And I think that that is one
of the most creative responsibilities that I've seen any company.
(42:36):
Do you know what, You're the first one to give
the magic shout out to a company and uh and
I agree with you on pent Tony, You've got an
inspiring story filled with useful insights for others. Your commitment
to mentoring and helping others is definitely your hallmark. I
want to give a shout out before we leave, of course,
(42:57):
to Black Information Network. So if you don't have the
I Heart Radio app, get it. If you have the
I Heart Radio app, open it up and find the
Black Information Network. You can listen to the national version
which covers the country, or you can go to individual
versions for specific cities, which will have local news, trafficking
(43:18):
weather for those cities added in as well. I actually
find it's my news source of choice because the news
is so balanced and so comprehensive, a really fantastic product
and obviously one of the reasons I'm so happy to
have you on today. Thanks for your contributions to our
company and UH and thanks for your contributions to our communities,
(43:42):
and congrats and all you've accomplished. Thank you both. I
appreciate it. There are a few things I've picked up
in my conversation with Tony. One, good journalism doesn't hinge
on getting people's blood pressure up, Tony Steam doesn't chase clickbait. Instead,
they focus on the stories that matter to know the
power of compounding. As Tony told his son, if you
(44:05):
start investing early, and that's investing financially and in your
personal relationships. You can enrich your life in every sense
of the word. Three, don't let your vision be siloed.
We didn't plan on launching the Black Information Network during
the pandemic, but Tony kept his eye on current events
to ensure he would launch the network when society needed
(44:25):
it the most. I'm Bob Pittman. Thanks for listening. That's
it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to
Math and Magic, a production of I Heart Radio. The
show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks to Susan
Ward for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent, which is
no small feat Marissa Brown for pulling research, our editors
Derek Clements, Mary Dow and Ryan Murdoch, our producer Morgan Levoy,
(44:47):
our executive producer Nikki Eator, and of course Gayle Rahul,
Eric Angel Noel and everyone who helped bring this show
to your ears. Until next time,
Host
Bob Pittman
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