Prior to the 1980s, African American music artists did not receive equal recognition and acclaim on television channels as their other counterparts in the industry. However, on January 25, 1980, Robert L. Johnson launched Black Entertainment Television (BET) and revolutionized society’s exposure to African-American artists and talent.
Johnson was born in Hickory, Mississippi, on April 8, 1946. He majored in history at the University of Illinois and after studying public affairs at Princeton University, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Urban League. While working as a lobbyist for the cable industry from 1976 to 1979, he noticed that there was a large African American TV audience going untapped and unrecognized. Johnson and his wife, Sheila, decided to start their own cable television network for African American audiences in 1979 and by 1980, BET began broadcasting two hours of programming weekly.
The initial programming consisted of a lineup of music videos as well as reruns of popular sitcoms. By the end of the first year, it extended its viewership throughout North America and the Caribbean and would go on to expand to 24 hours of news and entertainment format targeted toward African Americans. BET began airing original content by the end of the 1980s and the first shows were “BET News” and “Rap City,” among others.
BET flourished during the 1990s and expanded its reach by incorporating new film and publishing divisions, music channels and a website. The network also made history in 1991 when it became the first Black-controlled company on the New York Stock Exchange and remained until 1998 when Johnson made the network private again. Shortly after, in 2000, Viacom started making plans to purchase BET from Johnson. In 2001, the sale was finalized and Johnson’s majority stake earned him more than $1 billion. This buyout made him the richest African American in the United States as well as the first African American billionaire. Johnson continued to serve as the chairman and CEO of BET for several years before leaving to start a new business venture, the RLJ Companies.
Black Entertainment Television expanded far beyond the two hours of programming in its opening year to a 24-hour network that reaches millions of African American homes on a daily basis.
