Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Bobby Cartwright Jr.
Executive producer and Founder of Gospel Superfest. Here's a quick summary of the key themes and highlights:
🔑 Key Topics Discussed 1. Origins of Gospel Superfest
- Inspired by a vision in 1998.
- First event held in 2000 in Louisville, KY.
- Modeled after Soul Train with themed editions (e.g., Holiday, Easter Jam, Black History Month).
2. Unity Media
- Founded by Bobby and his wife Renita.
- Started as a radio station opportunity that evolved into a consulting and production company.
- Transitioned from radio to television through low-power TV station management.
3. Syndication & Reach
- Gospel Superfest has aired on major Black networks (BET, TV One, Aspire, TheGrio).
- Also syndicated on ABC, NBC, and FOX affiliates.
- Reached 80% of the U.S. with five one-hour specials annually.
4. Challenges & Faith
- Faced financial hurdles, including taking a second mortgage to fund early shows.
- Emphasized faith, integrity, and consistency as keys to long-term success.
5. Sponsorship & Business Strategy
- Long-term sponsors include Procter & Gamble and Allstate.
- Emphasized the importance of understanding demographics and maintaining integrity in business dealings.
- Advocated for the value of the Black consumer market.
6. Personal Journey
- Bobby’s early career included touring with R&B groups like the Ohio Players.
- Attributes much of his success to his wife’s support and spiritual grounding.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
I want to hear from you today like I want
to hear from you every day, because I recognize that
we all have different definitions of success. For you, it
may be the side of your paycheck. Mine is inspiring
you to accomplish your goals and live your very best life.
It's time to start reading other people's success stories and
start living your own. People always talk about what you
(00:21):
cannot do and what you should do, and don't let
your friends, family, or co worker stop you from planning
or living your dreams. This show is for you, so
welcome to Money Making Conversation masteric Class. If you want
to be a guest on my show, please visit our website,
Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click to be a guest.
Button press submit and information will come directly to me.
(00:43):
Now let's get this show started. My guests on the
show is Bobby Cartwright Jr. The executive producer of Gospel
Superfess Live in Columbus, Ohio, Gospel Superfest, Holiday, Gospel Superfest,
Easter Jam. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I'll
be caught right, Junior, how doing Bobby.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hey Rashwan, thanks for having me, Thanks for being patient
with my technical savy to get on your clue today.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I will use branding the word of the Lord. I
got to be a singing the word of the Lord,
a praise to.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
The Word of the Lord.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I have to be patient. I apologize. Talk about the
history of of these superfest events that you've been putting
together for years.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, in nineteen ninety eight, I got a vision from
the Lord in my sleep and the Lord showed me
Gospel superfessed in a vision and I was like, oh Lord,
this is too much to work. And I could not
sleep for days. I kept telling my wife the Lord
has giving me something big. He's giving me something big.
(01:44):
And she said, okay, it's big. Just let me go
to sleep, please, you know. I said, you don't understand, honey,
this is going to be big. And she said okay.
And so I couldn't sleep until I start planning the
first one. It was like a burning and so the
Lord gave me the day June ninth, tenth and eleventh,
the year two thousand. That was the year when the
(02:06):
computers were going to crash. The Chinese were going to
attack y two K. We didn't know what was going on.
We had never seen to zero zero anything. It was
nineteen always nineteen something, and so I decided this was
going to be the granddaddy of them all. Three day
festival in Louisville, Kentucky, and we invited thirty something acts
(02:27):
to come, and to my surprise, they all came. And
I mean, we had the Who's Who's the Gospel back
there twenty three years ago, and we did the first
one and we almost lost our shirt since you hit
the first one. And then we did the second, and
then we did the third, and then we did the
fourth one and it kept going and now we just
(02:48):
finished the twentieth Gospel Superfest. And through that time period,
we've been syndicated for twenty three consecutive years on domestic syndication,
reaching eighty percent of the country with five one hour
specials a quarter, actually five one hour specials a year.
And on top of that, I was telling a gentleman
(03:08):
the other day. Gospel Superfest has played on every major
black cable network in the United States, from B E
T to TV one to Bounce to Aspire to Byron
Allen's Grilloh in some form of fashion. We've delivered content
to all of those black networks while simultaneously being in
(03:29):
domestic syndication on ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates around the country.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But all of.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
That comes as we were novice and just obeying, you know,
the word of the Lord of Baning what he told
us to do, and we just, you know, year after
year after year, compiled knowledge and year after year after
year created relationships and now this particular year we've been
picked up by BEET.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So it's just a miracle.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Really well, you know, it is a consistency because alan
that ride how we met was when Steve Harvey and
I were doing the BT Celebration of Gospel, because that
came right after you started in two thousand and we
did it for thirteen straight years and guess what, you're
still doing it. So I commend you because the journey
is about effort, A journey is about consistency. Now, unity media,
(04:20):
which came first? Did the did the Gospel Superfest come first?
Or did your production company started by you and your
wife come first?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, the production company come first. I'm glad that you
asked that, because that's an interesting story. I was a
station manager of a an AM radio station in Cincinnati.
I was the morning morning drive host, the janitor of
the PD whatever. When you got a little small daytimes
(04:49):
day what you call it daytime or where you can
hear it in the day, you better can hear it
in the night.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
When the signal goes down.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I was running a radio station in Cincinnati in the
late nineties, and so the manager or the owner, he
wanted to get out of it. He wanted to sell
an He offered it to me, and I was like, oh,
this is too much work. I said the same thing again.
Got the AM station. I knew every passage cars, Marcedes,
(05:14):
I got my business cards. When I'm trying to get
him fifteen minutes of airtime selling you know, AM Christian radio,
and I said, oh, you know, I want to get
out of this.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So I went home and.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I told my wife that John had offered me the
station and I told him no, And she said, why
did you tell him no?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Go back and tell him we wanted. Well, she don't
do no work at the stage.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'm doing all the work. And so I went back
to John and I told him. I said, okay, you know,
I talked to my wife. We want to try to
give it a shot. Well, we formed the company Unity Media.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
We got an.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Investor, gave us a few things, you know, a few
thousand dollars whatever, and we got to the point where
we were getting ready to get the radio station and
we got out bid. So somebody that was you know,
I wasn't want to get two in the weis with
someone who was under me at the station that I
was their manager, ended up putting the group together and
they outbit me.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
They got the station. Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
So I went back to my investors and I said, well,
I got to give you guys your money back because
we did we lost the station. They said, no, no, no,
we weren't investing in the station. We were investing in you.
So you figure it out, but we don't want our
money back. And so then so we started consulting. So
(06:28):
at that point we started, you know, picking up clients
is just telling them how to run their stations.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You know what consultants do. We s would supposedly know
it all.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And so I changed it into a consulting firm and
started consulting low power TV stations. And I ran across
the station that was a black owned WB affiliate.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You remember the double W, the.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Frog and all of that, and these business guys bought
this station but didn't know how to run it. So
I basically talked my way into a job. I said, look,
I've been doing radio. I said, it's really no difference.
One spot's got pictures and one spot doesn't have pictures.
I believe I can handle this for you. So I
came in as a consultant slash general manager of a
(07:12):
low power TV station that had cable carriage, and that
was my first step into television.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So as I was.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The general manager and all of that people were the
syndicators like Don Cornelius and Byron Allen and all of
those folks were trying to get our markets. So they
would come to me to get Dayton, Ohio, which is
market fifty three at the time, and I would have
to sign off on their contracts. So I was like, Okay,
I tell my secretary, I'll sign that contract, but make
(07:43):
another copy of it and put it on my desk
and I'll look at it later. So I started studying
all of the syndicators and what they were doing and
how they were syndicating their shows, and basically, to be
completely honest with you.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I duplicated that.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And then I took a Gospel super fast and modeled
it after Soul Train. So if you remember, Soul Train
was Soul Trained Awards, sol Trained Weekly, Soul Trained Quick,
Christmas Starfest, Soul Trained, Lady of Soul. You had Soul
Trained as the umbrella title. Then you had all of
these subtitled shows that Don Corneus and his genius had put,
(08:20):
you know, put out in the marketplace.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
And so I said, this is a great idea.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So we did Gospel Superfess, Holiday Gospel Superfess, Easter Jam,
Gospel Superfess, Black History, Moment Gospel. So it was really
basically the second the Soul Train model flipped for Jesus.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
So that's our and that's ow I syndicated.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
A lot of people compared me with other gospel shows,
but to be completely transparent, I just really co teil
Don Corneus and changed Gospel Change, Soul Train, the Gospel
Superfessor and put the subtitles under it. And that's how
we syndicated the Gospel Superfessor.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Congratulations and the congratulations from having a wife who every
time you said something, gether went back to sleep or
tell you to go go do it, and both of
y'all because we were syndicated over twenty HBCU stations and
both of you guys are HBCU grads.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
We went to HBC's I got my I dropped out
after two years. She got her degree from Howard. But
we met at Kentucky State and so and that's another thread.
But I left Kentucky State after my sophomore year. My
schoolmates and classmates were all of the members of Midnight Star.
(09:35):
Remember Midnight Star was formed on the campus of Kentucky
State University. We're all friends to this day. We were
all studying together. My wife was in biology, so she
wanted to move on, so she moved over to Howard
her junior year and finished at Howard.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I didn't finish.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Then I went on the road with the Ohio Players
and M two May and Heat waving a whole bunch
of R and B groups because all I really wanted
before I was saying.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Barb barbar barbar barbar barbara A Players. You used to
have to semi new women on the album cover too.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Nne come on Night. When I was twenty one years old,
I joined the Ohio Players as a stage technician. So
a friend of mine was getting a job. The High
Players had lost most of their road crew. I don't
know why they did. People said, well, they weren't getting paid.
They was upset. So all of their really strong tech
(10:28):
people went with the Commodores and hire Players didn't have
any road crew. So a friend of mine named Kenny Thomas,
who's deceased now.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
He kept coming over my house said hey, man, we're
going out in two weeks. You ought to come with us. Man,
we're going out. You're gonna go on tour.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And I was like, oh, man, I'm trying to start
my own group.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So he come around the next week, Man, we down
to three people. We need three more people, and I said,
my band started not making rehearsals. The singers was like,
can't find babysitters and stuff like this. Like, oh, this
band ain't going nowhere, you know. So he came around again.
He said, like, I got a one position left. It's
the violate position. You'll handle all of the clothes and wardrobe.
(11:05):
You need to come on and go out with us.
So I looked at what the band was doing. The
band was doing nothing, and so I disbanded the band
and jumped on the High.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Player's crew and when.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I was twenty one years old, congratulation and went out
went out with them for three years.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
What a great story. We're talking to Bobby Cartwright Jr.
He's the executive producer and the founder of the Gospel Superfest.
As he said, he just used his brain. He looked
at what Don Cornegius was doing and just did his
own version instead of the R and B spind It
was a gospel spin.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I'm your host, Rashaan McDonald. I'm speaking to Bobby Cartwright Jr.
As he said earlier prior to our break, Unity Media,
a Christian based firm owned by husband and wife Bobby
and Reneeda Cartwright, everything starts with a dream. Everything starts
with the idea we all have these opportunities. What do
we do with these opportunities.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
He saw an.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Opportunity presented to him to do a radio station. He
didn't think he was capable of doing that. He didn't
think he wanted to do the work.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
His wife looked at him.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
She knew who she married to, she knew what he
could do. Push them right back out that door. And
when she pushed them right back out that door, he
realized the dream was superseded by somebody else. And then
he found out it wasn't about the station. It was
about him. And there's so many of us out there
in the streets today don't understand our own personal value.
And if you don't understand your personal value, then you
(12:46):
will never have significant growth. That's what Money Making Conversations
master Class is all about, bringing people like Bobby Cartwright
Junior on the show to let you know, if you
see it, you can do it. But you better be consistent.
You better realize the amount of effort you got to
put into it. And more importantly, you got to surround
yourself by someone of some people who believe in you.
(13:07):
In your case, Bobby, it got to be your wife, Rinita,
talk of talk to us about it.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
It is it definitely is her.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I mean, she is the perfect temperament for this because
there's a lot of things that you know. I went
very very fast with this interview, but around the second
Gospel super Fast, actually the first Gospel super Fast.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
The people kept telling.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Me because the tickets were so slow, and you know
how black concerts are, wait, wait till the last minute,
and so this three day event and tickets were slow,
and the people kept coming up to me, aren't you
going to counsel?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Aren't you going to cancel?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'm like, no, no, the Lord told me not to
do that, and the Lord told me to do this.
I'm not canceling Rashan Monday morning. Those folks were wrapped
around that at lunchtime when we were wrapped around that
colicy and buying these last minute tickets on Monday morning.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
The week of the show, the show was in June.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I had been up on the air since February trying
to push this concert and they didn't respond until a
week before. And that week I said, Lord, I don't
know if I have promoted stomach or not, because this
is just ridiculous. But there was the last minute, and
I helped Faith and we had a sponsor that year
and well, I can just say it.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It was Kmart.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
You know, cam I was in for a nice bundle
and the week of the show, Camar got in some
bankruptcy trouble or something was going on, and they pulled out. Yes,
So on Monday morning, I did have no sponsor, no
major sponsor. The tickets looked funny, but the lord said,
this is what I want you to do. So you know,
(14:45):
we kept. We kept what we were supposed to do.
We did it, and we were about eight grand short.
And so I went to my banker and I took
a second mortgage out of my house. Because I'm a
man of integrity. If I tell you I'm want to
pay you, I'm going to pay you. I don't you
hook a crook or I shouldn't say it like that,
but I'm gonna pay you. So I went and got
I took a second mortgage out of my house, and
(15:07):
I brung the papers on to my wife and I said, honey,
I need you to sign right here and see what
the yellow sticker is. And he just sound right here
and he just said right here. She said, what is it?
Don't worry about it neither. She said, well, what I said,
it's a second mortgage. I need to pay the lighting apartment.
Just sign right here. She's like, oh boy. So every
time I made my house payment, I was like I'm
paying for Gospel Superfast And this was twenty something years ago.
(15:28):
But that's the kind of wife I have. It's like
she is in all in, you know. And so we
second mortgaged our house, paid the lighting department off, kept
our integrity, went on to the next year, and then
we started making money, probably out year three or four.
We didn't make any money in the first two or
three years. It was you know, that's just the way
some of these projects go. You have to invest, and
(15:50):
you have to believe in what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Well, you know, the inconsistency. I'm speaking to Bobby cart Right.
Gospel super Fast is is his dream, is his brand.
He's developed over the years, Like I said, over twenty years.
He's been doing over twenty three years. Now, let me
talk to you about you know you have you know,
you have pop, you have pop music, you have rap music,
you have R and B music, you have gospel. Now,
(16:13):
there are different age groups that are attracted to those
basic basic music genres. I'm just talking about black because
I could mention rock, I can mention a gospel I
mean our country, but I'm not gonna talk about it.
I'm just talking about black people and these ranges of
music they do. Now, does it frustrate you when you
know that a rap autist will sell tickets like that,
or or a hot r and b artists will sell
(16:34):
tickets like that, or or crossover act like Weekend will
sell tickets like that. When you see how even today
the hottest gospel acts really don't move tickets as fast
as the hottest rap act.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Correct, that is true, That's definitely true.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It's definitely an economic golf gap between the fact I
used the word psychond definitely economic dynamic to that. And
I don't know a lot of times they expect gospel
people to travel and pay, you know, and play for free,
(17:13):
or preachers to come, but they have expenses, the two
they've got over and things and families defeeding the whole nine,
just like anybody else does. So I don't know why
there's such a gap there. The attractions might not be there,
but some artists have garnered larger audiences than others down
through the years.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Absolutely, Bobby, let's talk about sponsors. What do you know,
because what you're talking business it might have made conversations
master class. What does a sponsor who sponsors your events?
What do they look for because people are always talking
to me, I can need a sponsor for this, I
need a sponsor for this. You've seen what you had
to build, Like you said, your first concert, you had
k Mark and the filed bankruptcy. They went away, but
(17:54):
you still had smaller sponsors that what do you think
has been the magical hook for you to get sponsors
and build your dollar on each sponsor over the years.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well, you know, it's been, you know, to be what
I feel personally, it's been an anointing that God has
given me an ability to just create something that would
appeal to corporate America because we have been We've been
sponsored by Procter and Gamble since two thousand and two
and we've been sponsored. What we did an eight year
(18:23):
it was either eight years or nine year run and
we I don't know if you remember Rashan, but we
were the All State Gospel superfestor right from two thousand
and nine to twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So we did eight years six years. What is it?
I got my math, I'll mess up.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But at least eight years eight years were and I
know exactly it was eight years because it was the
length and breadth of the Obama presidency that we were
the All State Gospel Superfast. So All State was our
title sponsor procerand Gamble has been our presenting sponsor or
in some form or fashion. And you know, African American
eyeballs are African America and eyeballs. And what you have
(19:01):
to do if you're selling a gospel show or something
like that, you have to make your case, and you
have to make your case based on the reach that
you're able to provide to your client, you know, to
your potential client. It's all about numbers. It's all about
reaching demographics. Are you reaching women? Are you reaching men?
Is it eighteen to forty nine, twenty five to fifty four,
(19:21):
whatever that you know, that demographic that you're pitching, you
have to bring the numbers. And one of the things
that I did because there were other gospel shows that
preceded me in the business, and I knew I was
going into territory that the folks were already buying those shows,
and so I never sold against another show. It was always,
(19:44):
you know, if you can find a little piece of
the pie for us, or if I use a biblical phrase,
it was crumbs from the master's table. I was like
but I would never go in there and sell against
doctor Bobby Jones or anybody like that.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
I was always saying, I know you've already been in
these shows.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
We just asked and you if you could find a
little place for us in your budget. And I always
kept my integrity when I would get in front of
corporate American fron of clients. I can sleep at night
because I never had to cut somebody's throat. I never
had to go in all underhandedly and all that kind
of stuff. How people say all these you know how
people are.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Let me just ask you this because I got to
say this, and that's what because I respect that. The
integrity part. Where it disappoints me is the fact that
you know, they got a big budget for pop, they
got a big budget for country, they got a big
budget for rock, And you don't have to go in
there in the crab and a barrel type thing when
you into black entertainment, black events, you know, because that's
(20:42):
because they just section off and say, well, we just
going to reach that audience. When we know the power
of the black dollar, we know the power of the
black consumer. Because we also know that women are probably
about seventy five of the gospel audience. And we also
know that black women are the decision maker and not
buying household And so when I look at that, you
(21:04):
know me, man, I get annoyed because I've had the
battle the same conversation you have try to get sponsors,
trying to convince them that these same black people who
they know by cars, by computers, you know, by homes,
by groceries, they have to say. They questioned that when
you when you walk in the room, go, I can
put you in front of five thousand people, I can
(21:26):
put you front the ten thousand people, I can put
you on the network. Themes like that. That frustration is,
do I understand you go through? And that's why I
wanted to bring you on my show. Just let people
hear your story because to get to where you've gotten
with the Gospel Superfest is a testament now who you are,
but also who your wife is as well.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, she's definitely a woman of integerty. She's the prayer
warrior of the household, that's for sure. People ask me,
you know, how did this the holiness woman marry this
cardinal brother?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You know, well, you know mtm MA. Now you're out
there with a Midnight Star. You're out there with a
higher player. I can only imagine the higher player tour.
That's I'll just stopped right there because I ain't gonna
mess up you. I ain't gonna mess up your history.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I've been I've been born again drug free since but
before eighty seven, you know it was on the pop.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love it. This has been another edition of Money
Making Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rushawn McDonald. Thank you
to our guests on the show today and thank you
listening to audience now. If you want to listen to
any episode I want to be a guest on the show,
visit Moneymaking Conversations dot com. Our social media handle is
money Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to
(22:44):
always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
I want to hear from you today like I want
to hear from you every day, because I recognize that
we all have different definitions of success. For you, it
may be the side of your paycheck. Mine is inspiring
you to accomplish your goals and live your very best life.
It's time to start reading other people's success stories and
start living your own. People always talk about what you
(00:21):
cannot do and what you should do, and don't let
your friends, family, or co worker stop you from planning
or living your dreams. This show is for you, so
welcome to Money Making Conversation masteric Class. If you want
to be a guest on my show, please visit our website,
Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click to be a guest.
Button press submit and information will come directly to me.
(00:43):
Now let's get this show started. My guests on the
show is Bobby Cartwright Jr. The executive producer of Gospel
Superfess Live in Columbus, Ohio, Gospel Superfest, Holiday, Gospel Superfest,
Easter Jam. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I'll
be caught right, Junior, how doing Bobby.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hey Rashwan, thanks for having me, Thanks for being patient
with my technical savy to get on your clue today.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I will use branding the word of the Lord. I
got to be a singing the word of the Lord,
a praise to.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
The Word of the Lord.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I have to be patient. I apologize. Talk about the
history of of these superfest events that you've been putting
together for years.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, in nineteen ninety eight, I got a vision from
the Lord in my sleep and the Lord showed me
Gospel superfessed in a vision and I was like, oh Lord,
this is too much to work. And I could not
sleep for days. I kept telling my wife the Lord
has giving me something big. He's giving me something big.
(01:44):
And she said, okay, it's big. Just let me go
to sleep, please, you know. I said, you don't understand, honey,
this is going to be big. And she said okay.
And so I couldn't sleep until I start planning the
first one. It was like a burning and so the
Lord gave me the day June ninth, tenth and eleventh,
the year two thousand. That was the year when the
(02:06):
computers were going to crash. The Chinese were going to
attack y two K. We didn't know what was going on.
We had never seen to zero zero anything. It was
nineteen always nineteen something, and so I decided this was
going to be the granddaddy of them all. Three day
festival in Louisville, Kentucky, and we invited thirty something acts
(02:27):
to come, and to my surprise, they all came. And
I mean, we had the Who's Who's the Gospel back
there twenty three years ago, and we did the first
one and we almost lost our shirt since you hit
the first one. And then we did the second, and
then we did the third, and then we did the
fourth one and it kept going and now we just
(02:48):
finished the twentieth Gospel Superfest. And through that time period,
we've been syndicated for twenty three consecutive years on domestic syndication,
reaching eighty percent of the country with five one hour
specials a quarter, actually five one hour specials a year.
And on top of that, I was telling a gentleman
(03:08):
the other day. Gospel Superfest has played on every major
black cable network in the United States, from B E
T to TV one to Bounce to Aspire to Byron
Allen's Grilloh in some form of fashion. We've delivered content
to all of those black networks while simultaneously being in
(03:29):
domestic syndication on ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates around the country.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But all of.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
That comes as we were novice and just obeying, you know,
the word of the Lord of Baning what he told
us to do, and we just, you know, year after
year after year, compiled knowledge and year after year after
year created relationships and now this particular year we've been
picked up by BEET.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So it's just a miracle.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Really well, you know, it is a consistency because alan
that ride how we met was when Steve Harvey and
I were doing the BT Celebration of Gospel, because that
came right after you started in two thousand and we
did it for thirteen straight years and guess what, you're
still doing it. So I commend you because the journey
is about effort, A journey is about consistency. Now, unity media,
(04:20):
which came first? Did the did the Gospel Superfest come first?
Or did your production company started by you and your
wife come first?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, the production company come first. I'm glad that you
asked that, because that's an interesting story. I was a
station manager of a an AM radio station in Cincinnati.
I was the morning morning drive host, the janitor of
the PD whatever. When you got a little small daytimes
(04:49):
day what you call it daytime or where you can
hear it in the day, you better can hear it
in the night.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
When the signal goes down.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I was running a radio station in Cincinnati in the
late nineties, and so the manager or the owner, he
wanted to get out of it. He wanted to sell
an He offered it to me, and I was like, oh,
this is too much work. I said the same thing again.
Got the AM station. I knew every passage cars, Marcedes,
(05:14):
I got my business cards. When I'm trying to get
him fifteen minutes of airtime selling you know, AM Christian radio,
and I said, oh, you know, I want to get
out of this.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So I went home and.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I told my wife that John had offered me the
station and I told him no, And she said, why
did you tell him no?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Go back and tell him we wanted. Well, she don't
do no work at the stage.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'm doing all the work. And so I went back
to John and I told him. I said, okay, you know,
I talked to my wife. We want to try to
give it a shot. Well, we formed the company Unity Media.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
We got an.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Investor, gave us a few things, you know, a few
thousand dollars whatever, and we got to the point where
we were getting ready to get the radio station and
we got out bid. So somebody that was you know,
I wasn't want to get two in the weis with
someone who was under me at the station that I
was their manager, ended up putting the group together and
they outbit me.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
They got the station. Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
So I went back to my investors and I said, well,
I got to give you guys your money back because
we did we lost the station. They said, no, no, no,
we weren't investing in the station. We were investing in you.
So you figure it out, but we don't want our
money back. And so then so we started consulting. So
(06:28):
at that point we started, you know, picking up clients
is just telling them how to run their stations.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You know what consultants do. We s would supposedly know
it all.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And so I changed it into a consulting firm and
started consulting low power TV stations. And I ran across
the station that was a black owned WB affiliate.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You remember the double W, the.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Frog and all of that, and these business guys bought
this station but didn't know how to run it. So
I basically talked my way into a job. I said, look,
I've been doing radio. I said, it's really no difference.
One spot's got pictures and one spot doesn't have pictures.
I believe I can handle this for you. So I
came in as a consultant slash general manager of a
(07:12):
low power TV station that had cable carriage, and that
was my first step into television.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So as I was.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The general manager and all of that people were the
syndicators like Don Cornelius and Byron Allen and all of
those folks were trying to get our markets. So they
would come to me to get Dayton, Ohio, which is
market fifty three at the time, and I would have
to sign off on their contracts. So I was like, Okay,
I tell my secretary, I'll sign that contract, but make
(07:43):
another copy of it and put it on my desk
and I'll look at it later. So I started studying
all of the syndicators and what they were doing and
how they were syndicating their shows, and basically, to be
completely honest with you.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I duplicated that.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And then I took a Gospel super fast and modeled
it after Soul Train. So if you remember, Soul Train
was Soul Trained Awards, sol Trained Weekly, Soul Trained Quick,
Christmas Starfest, Soul Trained, Lady of Soul. You had Soul
Trained as the umbrella title. Then you had all of
these subtitled shows that Don Corneus and his genius had put,
(08:20):
you know, put out in the marketplace.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
And so I said, this is a great idea.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So we did Gospel Superfess, Holiday Gospel Superfess, Easter Jam,
Gospel Superfess, Black History, Moment Gospel. So it was really
basically the second the Soul Train model flipped for Jesus.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
So that's our and that's ow I syndicated.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
A lot of people compared me with other gospel shows,
but to be completely transparent, I just really co teil
Don Corneus and changed Gospel Change, Soul Train, the Gospel
Superfessor and put the subtitles under it. And that's how
we syndicated the Gospel Superfessor.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Congratulations and the congratulations from having a wife who every
time you said something, gether went back to sleep or
tell you to go go do it, and both of
y'all because we were syndicated over twenty HBCU stations and
both of you guys are HBCU grads.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
We went to HBC's I got my I dropped out
after two years. She got her degree from Howard. But
we met at Kentucky State and so and that's another thread.
But I left Kentucky State after my sophomore year. My
schoolmates and classmates were all of the members of Midnight Star.
(09:35):
Remember Midnight Star was formed on the campus of Kentucky
State University. We're all friends to this day. We were
all studying together. My wife was in biology, so she
wanted to move on, so she moved over to Howard
her junior year and finished at Howard.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I didn't finish.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Then I went on the road with the Ohio Players
and M two May and Heat waving a whole bunch
of R and B groups because all I really wanted
before I was saying.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Barb barbar barbar barbar barbara A Players. You used to
have to semi new women on the album cover too.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Nne come on Night. When I was twenty one years old,
I joined the Ohio Players as a stage technician. So
a friend of mine was getting a job. The High
Players had lost most of their road crew. I don't
know why they did. People said, well, they weren't getting paid.
They was upset. So all of their really strong tech
(10:28):
people went with the Commodores and hire Players didn't have
any road crew. So a friend of mine named Kenny Thomas,
who's deceased now.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
He kept coming over my house said hey, man, we're
going out in two weeks. You ought to come with us. Man,
we're going out. You're gonna go on tour.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And I was like, oh, man, I'm trying to start
my own group.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So he come around the next week, Man, we down
to three people. We need three more people, and I said,
my band started not making rehearsals. The singers was like,
can't find babysitters and stuff like this. Like, oh, this
band ain't going nowhere, you know. So he came around again.
He said, like, I got a one position left. It's
the violate position. You'll handle all of the clothes and wardrobe.
(11:05):
You need to come on and go out with us.
So I looked at what the band was doing. The
band was doing nothing, and so I disbanded the band
and jumped on the High.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Player's crew and when.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I was twenty one years old, congratulation and went out
went out with them for three years.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
What a great story. We're talking to Bobby Cartwright Jr.
He's the executive producer and the founder of the Gospel Superfest.
As he said, he just used his brain. He looked
at what Don Cornegius was doing and just did his
own version instead of the R and B spind It
was a gospel spin.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I'm your host, Rashaan McDonald. I'm speaking to Bobby Cartwright Jr.
As he said earlier prior to our break, Unity Media,
a Christian based firm owned by husband and wife Bobby
and Reneeda Cartwright, everything starts with a dream. Everything starts
with the idea we all have these opportunities. What do
we do with these opportunities.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
He saw an.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Opportunity presented to him to do a radio station. He
didn't think he was capable of doing that. He didn't
think he wanted to do the work.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
His wife looked at him.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
She knew who she married to, she knew what he
could do. Push them right back out that door. And
when she pushed them right back out that door, he
realized the dream was superseded by somebody else. And then
he found out it wasn't about the station. It was
about him. And there's so many of us out there
in the streets today don't understand our own personal value.
And if you don't understand your personal value, then you
(12:46):
will never have significant growth. That's what Money Making Conversations
master Class is all about, bringing people like Bobby Cartwright
Junior on the show to let you know, if you
see it, you can do it. But you better be consistent.
You better realize the amount of effort you got to
put into it. And more importantly, you got to surround
yourself by someone of some people who believe in you.
(13:07):
In your case, Bobby, it got to be your wife, Rinita,
talk of talk to us about it.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
It is it definitely is her.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I mean, she is the perfect temperament for this because
there's a lot of things that you know. I went
very very fast with this interview, but around the second
Gospel super Fast, actually the first Gospel super Fast.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
The people kept telling.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Me because the tickets were so slow, and you know
how black concerts are, wait, wait till the last minute,
and so this three day event and tickets were slow,
and the people kept coming up to me, aren't you
going to counsel?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Aren't you going to cancel?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'm like, no, no, the Lord told me not to
do that, and the Lord told me to do this.
I'm not canceling Rashan Monday morning. Those folks were wrapped
around that at lunchtime when we were wrapped around that
colicy and buying these last minute tickets on Monday morning.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
The week of the show, the show was in June.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I had been up on the air since February trying
to push this concert and they didn't respond until a
week before. And that week I said, Lord, I don't
know if I have promoted stomach or not, because this
is just ridiculous. But there was the last minute, and
I helped Faith and we had a sponsor that year
and well, I can just say it.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It was Kmart.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
You know, cam I was in for a nice bundle
and the week of the show, Camar got in some
bankruptcy trouble or something was going on, and they pulled out. Yes,
So on Monday morning, I did have no sponsor, no
major sponsor. The tickets looked funny, but the lord said,
this is what I want you to do. So you know,
(14:45):
we kept. We kept what we were supposed to do.
We did it, and we were about eight grand short.
And so I went to my banker and I took
a second mortgage out of my house. Because I'm a
man of integrity. If I tell you I'm want to
pay you, I'm going to pay you. I don't you
hook a crook or I shouldn't say it like that,
but I'm gonna pay you. So I went and got
I took a second mortgage out of my house, and
(15:07):
I brung the papers on to my wife and I said, honey,
I need you to sign right here and see what
the yellow sticker is. And he just sound right here
and he just said right here. She said, what is it?
Don't worry about it neither. She said, well, what I said,
it's a second mortgage. I need to pay the lighting apartment.
Just sign right here. She's like, oh boy. So every
time I made my house payment, I was like I'm
paying for Gospel Superfast And this was twenty something years ago.
(15:28):
But that's the kind of wife I have. It's like
she is in all in, you know. And so we
second mortgaged our house, paid the lighting department off, kept
our integrity, went on to the next year, and then
we started making money, probably out year three or four.
We didn't make any money in the first two or
three years. It was you know, that's just the way
some of these projects go. You have to invest, and
(15:50):
you have to believe in what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Well, you know, the inconsistency. I'm speaking to Bobby cart Right.
Gospel super Fast is is his dream, is his brand.
He's developed over the years, Like I said, over twenty years.
He's been doing over twenty three years. Now, let me
talk to you about you know you have you know,
you have pop, you have pop music, you have rap music,
you have R and B music, you have gospel. Now,
(16:13):
there are different age groups that are attracted to those
basic basic music genres. I'm just talking about black because
I could mention rock, I can mention a gospel I
mean our country, but I'm not gonna talk about it.
I'm just talking about black people and these ranges of
music they do. Now, does it frustrate you when you
know that a rap autist will sell tickets like that,
or or a hot r and b artists will sell
(16:34):
tickets like that, or or crossover act like Weekend will
sell tickets like that. When you see how even today
the hottest gospel acts really don't move tickets as fast
as the hottest rap act.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Correct, that is true, That's definitely true.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It's definitely an economic golf gap between the fact I
used the word psychond definitely economic dynamic to that. And
I don't know a lot of times they expect gospel
people to travel and pay, you know, and play for free,
(17:13):
or preachers to come, but they have expenses, the two
they've got over and things and families defeeding the whole nine,
just like anybody else does. So I don't know why
there's such a gap there. The attractions might not be there,
but some artists have garnered larger audiences than others down
through the years.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Absolutely, Bobby, let's talk about sponsors. What do you know,
because what you're talking business it might have made conversations
master class. What does a sponsor who sponsors your events?
What do they look for because people are always talking
to me, I can need a sponsor for this, I
need a sponsor for this. You've seen what you had
to build, Like you said, your first concert, you had
k Mark and the filed bankruptcy. They went away, but
(17:54):
you still had smaller sponsors that what do you think
has been the magical hook for you to get sponsors
and build your dollar on each sponsor over the years.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well, you know, it's been, you know, to be what
I feel personally, it's been an anointing that God has
given me an ability to just create something that would
appeal to corporate America because we have been We've been
sponsored by Procter and Gamble since two thousand and two
and we've been sponsored. What we did an eight year
(18:23):
it was either eight years or nine year run and
we I don't know if you remember Rashan, but we
were the All State Gospel superfestor right from two thousand
and nine to twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So we did eight years six years. What is it?
I got my math, I'll mess up.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But at least eight years eight years were and I
know exactly it was eight years because it was the
length and breadth of the Obama presidency that we were
the All State Gospel Superfast. So All State was our
title sponsor procerand Gamble has been our presenting sponsor or
in some form or fashion. And you know, African American
eyeballs are African America and eyeballs. And what you have
(19:01):
to do if you're selling a gospel show or something
like that, you have to make your case, and you
have to make your case based on the reach that
you're able to provide to your client, you know, to
your potential client. It's all about numbers. It's all about
reaching demographics. Are you reaching women? Are you reaching men?
Is it eighteen to forty nine, twenty five to fifty four,
(19:21):
whatever that you know, that demographic that you're pitching, you
have to bring the numbers. And one of the things
that I did because there were other gospel shows that
preceded me in the business, and I knew I was
going into territory that the folks were already buying those shows,
and so I never sold against another show. It was always,
(19:44):
you know, if you can find a little piece of
the pie for us, or if I use a biblical phrase,
it was crumbs from the master's table. I was like
but I would never go in there and sell against
doctor Bobby Jones or anybody like that.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
I was always saying, I know you've already been in
these shows.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
We just asked and you if you could find a
little place for us in your budget. And I always
kept my integrity when I would get in front of
corporate American fron of clients. I can sleep at night
because I never had to cut somebody's throat. I never
had to go in all underhandedly and all that kind
of stuff. How people say all these you know how
people are.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Let me just ask you this because I got to
say this, and that's what because I respect that. The
integrity part. Where it disappoints me is the fact that
you know, they got a big budget for pop, they
got a big budget for country, they got a big
budget for rock, And you don't have to go in
there in the crab and a barrel type thing when
you into black entertainment, black events, you know, because that's
(20:42):
because they just section off and say, well, we just
going to reach that audience. When we know the power
of the black dollar, we know the power of the
black consumer. Because we also know that women are probably
about seventy five of the gospel audience. And we also
know that black women are the decision maker and not
buying household And so when I look at that, you
(21:04):
know me, man, I get annoyed because I've had the
battle the same conversation you have try to get sponsors,
trying to convince them that these same black people who
they know by cars, by computers, you know, by homes,
by groceries, they have to say. They questioned that when
you when you walk in the room, go, I can
put you in front of five thousand people, I can
(21:26):
put you front the ten thousand people, I can put
you on the network. Themes like that. That frustration is,
do I understand you go through? And that's why I
wanted to bring you on my show. Just let people
hear your story because to get to where you've gotten
with the Gospel Superfest is a testament now who you are,
but also who your wife is as well.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, she's definitely a woman of integerty. She's the prayer
warrior of the household, that's for sure. People ask me,
you know, how did this the holiness woman marry this
cardinal brother?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You know, well, you know mtm MA. Now you're out
there with a Midnight Star. You're out there with a
higher player. I can only imagine the higher player tour.
That's I'll just stopped right there because I ain't gonna
mess up you. I ain't gonna mess up your history.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I've been I've been born again drug free since but
before eighty seven, you know it was on the pop.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love it. This has been another edition of Money
Making Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rushawn McDonald. Thank you
to our guests on the show today and thank you
listening to audience now. If you want to listen to
any episode I want to be a guest on the show,
visit Moneymaking Conversations dot com. Our social media handle is
money Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to
(22:44):
always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
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