Inner City Broadcasting Corporation

Inner City Broadcasting Corporation

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Located in New York City, Inner City Broadcasting Corporation ("Inner City") was founded in 1971 by Percy E. Sutton, former Borough President of Manhattan, and a group of over fifty African-American shareholders (including former New York City mayor David Dinkins) seeking to impact media in African-American communities. Through its subsidiary, ICBC Broadcast Holdings, Inc. ("ICBC"), the company is the second largest radio broadcasting company targeting African-Americans. Inner City has also owned a variety of other media assets over the years. These investments included two cable television joint ventures with Time Warner (Queens Inner City Cable System in New York City and Urban Cable Works of Philadelphia d/b/a Wade Cable), the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and the famous live televised It's Showtime at the Apollo.

Related Topics:
Inner City Broadcasting Corporation - David Dinkins - Apollo Theater - It's Showtime at the Apollo

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Primarily targeting the urban segment, ICBC's radio stations include eighteen urban-formatted stations in seven markets - New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Fort Lauderdale; Columbia, SC; and Jackson, MS. ICBC's flagship station is WBLS, located in New York City. In August 2004, ICBC redeemed nearly $140 million http://www.quetzaljpmorganpartners.com/portfolio.html accreted value of redeemable preferred stock in a recapitalization led by GE Capital and Alta Communications, a Boston-based private equity firm http://www.quetzaljpmorganpartners.com/news08_13_04.html.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By 2005 Inner City had sold or otherwise disposed of the majority of its investments outside of its core radio stations. Inner City's one remaining non-radio investment is Urban Cable Works of Philadelphia, a 48,000 subscriber cable TV system in Philadelphia held by joint venture with Time Warner. This investment is also in the process of being sold to Time Warner. However, as of March of 2005, while an agreement had been reached with Time Warner, The Philadelphia City Council has withheld its approval of the transaction. For the six months ended June 30, 2005, Urban Cable?s revenues and Operating Income were $23 million and $2 million, respectively.http://www.shareholder.com/Common/Edgar/1105705/950144-05-8095/05-00.pdf

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~