IOWA’S OLDEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN STATION – KBBG – FIGHTS FOR ITS LIFE AFTER ITS FOUNDER DIES

For over 40 years KBBG [link] has been serving the African American community in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area in north central Iowa. Now, according to a report in the Waterloo Courier [link], KBBG is awash in debt and has laid-off Executive Director Deborah Berry as the station’s Board looks for a way to save the ship.

 

There are several reasons for the debt: KBBG has experienced equipment failures over the past several years. Community support has waned. In 2017, CPB cut off virtually all funding for KBBG. But, the main reason may be the legacy of its founder Jimmie Porter.

According to KBBG’s audited financial statement for fiscal year 2017, the most recent available, the station lost over $127,000. In FY 2017 KBBG’s total revenue - only $97,000 – was half of what it had been in FY 2016. KBBG’s cash reserves were zapped.

The Courier reported that in September 2018, KBBG borrowed $100,000 from the Dupaco Community Credit Union to keep the doors open. 

The station pledged all of its assets to secure the loan.

Since then, KBBG tried new fundraising avenues, such as GoFundMe and other crowd-funding sites. 

The campaigns failed to increase KBBG's revenue.

KBBG Business Manager Candice Lanning told The Courier:

“It’s like we hit a wall.”

A CAUTIONARY TALE

Perhaps the major reason for KBBG’s decline was its too close relationship with its founder, Jimmie Porter and members of Porter’s family.

Jimmie Porter was a charismatic figure. In the 1950s and 1960s he led the effort to integrate the United Packinghouse Workers of America and United Auto Workers, the two unions that dominated Waterloo’s meat packing industry.

Porter used his hometown hero status to help many worthy causes in Waterloo. He was beloved in the city.

In the late 1970s, Porter was the key organizer of KBBG. The station signed on July 26, 1978 at 10-watts, but soon the power was upgraded to 9,500-watts. KBBG was the first African-American owned radio station in Iowa. In the early 1980s it became one of the first African-American stations to receive CPB support.

From 1978 to the early 2000s, Porter and his family operated KBBQ like a family business. After Porter’s death, members of his family continued to control KBBG.

During the last few years of Porter’s life, and during the subsequent years when his family was in charge, squabbles arose between the Porter’s and other members of Waterloo’s black community.  African-Americans comprise around 12% of metro population of 160,000. News travels fast.

Despite his hero status, Jimmie Porter enraged some people who might have once been his supporters. For instance, Porter didn’t like rap music and would not allow it on KBBG. This created a “generation gap” in the community and the station was stuck in a time warp.

Members of Porter’s family were not qualified to operate a radio station. Bridges were burned and they could not be mended, so KBBG slowly sank near oblivion, where it remains today.