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The early 1970s might have been the most appropriate time in America’s history to set up a radio news network for and about Blacks in the United States, more appropriate than any other time in the 20^th century. The riots of the 1960s, which had been installed as a legitimate dynamic of the Civil Rights Movement, were for the most part a thing of the past. The urban pockets of disfranchised citizens were no longer ablaze but the ashes were still smoldering. And everybody from the President to the Pope, and those in between, knew this condition could not be trusted to remain status quo without progressive maintenance.

Answering this call to duty came two young and ambitious black men to New York City, the headquarters location of all the major broadcast networks at that time. Eugene Jackson, an engineer with an MBA, and Sydney Small, a business major, along with Del Raycee, a consummate veteran from the grandfather of all radio networks, Mutual Broadcasting, formed the National Black Network under a parent company called Unity Broadcasting, Inc.

Can’t Get HERE from THERE picks up the story from the initial broadcast, July 1973. This is where the author joined the group and served as chief operator of the broadcast division through its demise nearly 20 years later. The book examines the plan and purpose of NBN through a profiling of its people, assessing their struggles within and outside the corporation. It contains vivid examples of why there was a need for separate newsgathering organizations for people of African descent living in the United States.

You can purchase Can't Get HERE from THERE from Amazon.com. For a media review copy of the book, please contact Vince.