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Founder, Chairman, & CEO BET |
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Holdings, Inc. |
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“a channel for black people, operated by black
people” |
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Targets African-American Audience |
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Promote black businesses & culture |
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18-34 year old African Americans |
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Reaches 62.4 million households |
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Born April 8, 1946 (Hickory, Mississippi) |
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Honors student throughout high school |
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Studied history at Univ. of Illinois |
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Earned Master’s from Princeton in public
administration |
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Lobbyist for Nat’l Cable Television Assoc. |
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Began building BET |
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Convinced three businessmen to front $515,000
& a cable TV slot to launch BET |
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Aired for first time Jan. 8, 1980 |
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First and largest black owned broadcasting
company |
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Business Philosophy: Build a profitable business & run it at max. velocity by
giving viewers what they want as cheaply as possible |
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Established first cable channel marketed and
programmed toward America’s African-American audience (1980) |
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BET becomes first black owned company to trade
on NYSE (1991) |
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BET converts to private ownership valued at $1.3
billion (1998) |
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Johnson becomes 1st African-American
billionaire ever |
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BET sold to Viacom for $3 billion (2001) |
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Holds 172nd slot on Forbes 400 list |
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Notes