The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters wants more federal dollars to be spent on advertising on African-American-owned stations.
The federal government spent some $750 million in 2011 on advertising, for example, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, so NABOB is targeting federal agencies in charge of allocating those public ad dollars, reports the Philadelphia Sun.
Federal departments for Defense, Health & Human Services, the Treasury, Transportation and Homeland Security are the top spenders of ad dollars, according to the CRS report cited by the Sun. Of these, black-owned stations receive a tiny share, NABOB President/CEO Jim Winston tells the Sun, adding that many minority-owned stations receive no federal ad dollars.
Federal government departments, and their divisions and offices, are not obligated to publicly disclose where or when their advertising budgets will be spent, so minority-owned stations frequently only find out about the ad flights when they actually hear the ads on their competitors, according to Winston.
NABOB is asking its members to contact their congressional representatives about the issue and will focus on the topic in general as part of its Annual Fall Broadcast Management Conference and the 13th Annual Power of Urban Radio Forum Oct. 2–4.
