All Articles Tagged "Tom Joyner"
Kirk Franklin Says He’ll “Bust a Holy Cap” on Which Radio Host?
Kirk Franklin had a few jokes for radio show personality Tom Joyner while visiting his show. He said he’d “bust a holy cap” up in that piece. Ha! Check out Elev8 for the audio so you can listen to the full context of the quip.
Are you a Kirk Franklin fan?
The Rise of Prepaid Cards
(Network Journal) — The trend of pre-paid credit cards targeted toward African-American consumers seems to be on the rise and made all the more alluring through alignment with notable personalities to the demographic such as lifestyle mogul Russell Simmons and radio personality Tom Joyner. Financial institutions seem to identify the Black segment as one of large opportunity due to recent statistics released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which states that 25% of all U.S. households are unbanked or underbanked. Of the households surveyed, 7.7 percent were unbanked, which translates nationally to 9 million households – approximately 17 million adults. An additional 17.9 percent – or 21 million households nationally (approximately 43 million adults) – were found to be underbanked.
Uncle Sam Follows the Kardashians into Prepaid Card Market
(Washington Post) — Uncle Sam wants you to have a prepaid card, and he’s not the only one.¶ The Treasury Department is sending letters to 600,000 people this week encouraging them to sign up to receive their tax return on a new government-issued prepaid card as part of a pilot program to help those with limited access to bank accounts. ¶ On the other end of the spectrum, reality TV star Kim Kardashian’s namesake prepaid card failed just weeks after its launch. She and her sisters were shamed into bowing out because the card was riddled with high fees. ¶ Can these really be the same products?
Tom Joyner Ignores Negative Press and Launches Pre-Paid Card
Radio personality Tom Joyner seems unphased by all the negative criticisms of pre-paid debit cards and how they take advantage of lower-income individuals as evinced by the fact that he’s launching his own pre-paid card called the Reach card. According to PreCash, the company issuing the card with Joyner, the Reach Card should cost about $120 a year for most users, implying that it’s far cheaper than the charges levied by other pre-paid cards.
Mia Mends, general manager of prepaid debit for PreCash, told ABC news that the Reach card was developed with Joyner’s audience in mind. “We don’t assume all of them are unbanked or underbanked, but there’s probably some overlap,” she said. Prepaid cards do appeal to those without bank accounts because you don’t need a bank account to maintain the card.
Maybe the Reach Card wants to address unbanked African-Americans but shouldn’t leaders like Joyner consider going into partnership with banks to encourage those individuals to open an account, which would provide more financial protections and better money management? PreCash and the other companies creating these debit cards must have a great business model because it seems that so many celebrities can’t resist the lure of endorsing these less-than-esteemed products. The Kardashian Kard was shut down in November amidst a slew of negative press surrounding the fees.
Maybe Joyner is getting a nice financial cut for his partnership but unfortunately, he’s already compromised his brand with this deal because as it stands today, no one associated with a pre-paid card cannot be deemed as truly committed to African-American prosperity.
We’ll see how this foray from Joyner works out but in the meantime, shouldn’t we think that these Black leaders maybe find a way to endorse banking. Bad credit history doesn’t keep you from obtaining an account.
A Look at Russell Simmons’ Prepaid RushCard
(AP) — Celebrities endorsing financial services can be a touchy subject. But hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons says he introduced his prepaid RushCard in 2003 to serve those locked out of banking services. On Tuesday, syndicated radio host Tom Joyner ventured into the prepaid market as well with his Reach card. Joyner says the card will resonate with his predominantly African American listeners, who are more likely to avoid traditional bank accounts. Prepaid cards in general have been criticized for the fees they charge. The industry is still relatively young and there’s great variance in the fees users will encounter.
7 Black Body Trainers Capitalizing On The $17 Billion Fitness Market
As the obesity rate continues to rise in this country, the market for health and fitness has evolved into an industry estimated to be worth $17.6 billion. African American adults have the highest obesity rates at 37 percent among men and nearly 50 percent among women. With alarming rates such as these, more Black fitness stars are devising innovative ways for people to get off the couch and burn calories while having fun. Here are seven of the best bodies and business models among African American fitness gurus:
Billy Blanks
While working out in his basement in 1976, martial artist Billy Blanks accidentally developed what would later become known to the world as Tae Bo, an aerobic routine that incorporates martial arts, boxing and dance. After opening the Billy Blanks World Training Center in Sherman Oaks in 1989, word traveled about the infectious workout, bringing in celebrity clients such as Paula Abdul. Blanks introduced the first Tae Bo workout video in 1998 and within a year, had sold 1.5 million video sets. Although competition has tempered the popularity of the Tae Bo DVDs now-a-days, it remains one of the top selling workout regiments. Banks now lives in Japan where in 2007, he reportedly sold more than $130 million worth of merchandise, including more than a million copies of his ‘Billy’s BootCamp’ series.
Beyond Barack – Ten Men Who Run Things
On January 20, 2009, black America got what it always wanted—he came 6′ 1″ tall, with a bright smile and fierce wife. And although President Barack Hussein Obama is still the world’s most powerful man (black or white) we figure we’d peruse the many lists out there to compile our 10 other influential men. Because what’s a strong Madame without a good man?
Straight From Hughes’ Mouth: Radio One Founder Kills Financial Rumors Once & For All
by China N. Okasi
Even if you haven’t caught up on TV One shows, or spent hours cruising HelloBeautiful.com, chances are you’ve experienced Tom Joyner’s flagship radio show, or flipped through the pages of GIANT magazine—all because of one powerful businesswoman, Cathy Hughes. Hughes’ Radio One conglomerate comprises print, online, television and radio properties that would impress any aspiring entrepreneur. After all, the self-made mogul came from meager ends.
At 32, she bought a puny AM radio station, WOL, using a loan she received after begging 32 banks (the 33rd lender finally gave in). She then grew her little radio station into Radio One, a communications powerhouse that now controls 53 radio stations (including controlling stake in the Tom Joyner Morning Show) reaching between 18 and 20 million listeners per week. Today, Radio One is one of only three publicly-traded companies in the United States that is owned by an African-American.
Yet, as powerful as Hughes and Radio One appear, they, like any marriage, have faced their share of criticism and struggle. For example, TheRoot.com writer, Natalie Hopkinson, harshly denounced Cathy Hughes as leading a “one-woman boycott” against the ‘Performance Rights Act,’ not because Hughes cared ‘oh-so-much’ about her black listeners, according to Hopkinson, but because the bill would require all radio stations, including Hughes’, to pay royalties to musicians—and Hughes didn’t like that idea. In other words, Hughes had selfish motives, according to Hopkinson. To add insult to injury, when Hughes considered a reverse stock split move in the interest of her company a few months ago, analysts tore into her decision, and The Washington Post described the company’s financial finagling as “puzzling.”
With all the banter centered around the Maryland-headquartered Radio One, The Atlanta Post decided to speak to Hughes herself to tell her side of the story. In her own words, she offered the following.
Hughes on why black radio plays an important role:
“We average between 18 and 20 million listeners a week. Black radio is as critical a communications vehicle now as it has ever been. Katrina hit. Haiti, the earthquake, hit. My phones were so jammed that you couldn’t get a call through. Black radio was there [when all those crises in our community happened]. People may have had CNN on, but the TV volumes were turned down, so they could listen to black radio stations. [Black radio] provides the same type of social relationship with its listening audience that the black church does, only without the religious aspect.”
Hughes on how she started in the radio business:
“I’ve always wanted to be in radio. I created the “quiet storm,” which went on to become the number one format in the history of radio. At one time, there were 489 radio stations airing my radio format—which is why I left Howard University, because I tried to get them to license [quiet storm] and they wouldn’t, so they literally blew billions of dollars because they didn’t license it. Even white stations were doing a form of the quiet storm.
My first acquisition [as a radio businessperson] was a radio station called WOL in Washington D.C. It’s our flagship station, and it had a price tag of $1 million…I had one little obstacle to overcome before I could buy it, and that was that I was about $999,000 dollars short. So, I put together a business plan and pitched 32 banks, all of whom said no. But, my 33rd lender was a woman from Chemical Bank of NY, first week on the job and she said yes!”
