Historic FCC session on No Urban/No Hispanic dictates.

Interep’s Sherman Kizart, Senior Vice President/Director of Urban Marketing, played an integral role in arranging an unprecedented meeting recently held between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and members of key ad groups. The historic session focused on the issue of No Urban/No Hispanic Dictates, the first time the FCC has held such a meeting. Kizart arranged the meeting at the behest of FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Robert McDowell.

The result of the session was the securing of FCC support for the development of an educational program – targeted to advertisers and agencies – by the organizations attending the meeting in Washington: the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the National Association of Broadcasters Educational Foundation (NAB-EF), the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters (NABOB), the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council(MMTC), Radio One and Interep.

The education platform that will be created by this group will be shared at association meetings as a means of educating the advertising community to end discrimination in advertising practices.

“Over the years, we have made great progress in the fight against No Urban/No Hispanic Dictates,” Kizart said, “and now – with the FCC behind us – I feel that we can finally wipe out the last vestiges of this discriminatory practice.”

David Honig, Executive Director of MMTC, added, “Sherman’s leadership has been extraordinarily effective. Persuading these stakeholders to work together required considerable backbone and quiet diplomacy. We’ve estimated that advertising discrimination costs Black and Spanish radio about $200 million every year. Further, it’s wrong on so many levels.”

In addition to Kizart and Honig, attending the meeting were Adonis Hoffman, SVP/Counsel, AAAA; Connie Frazier, EVP/Diversity Initiatives, AAF; Clark Rector, Sr. VP/Government Relations, AAF; Marcellus Alexander, President, NAB-EF; Zemira Jones, VP Operations, Radio One; and, from the FCC, Cristina Pauze, Media Advisor; Robert McDowell, Commissioner; Rudy Briochet, Legal Advisor; and Jonathon Adelstein, Commissioner.