Adjusting the Lens
Black entrepreneur starts media mogul journey with help from an SBA-backed small business loan and makes it his mission to increase multicultural perspectives and storytelling to the newsroom
After graduating from Butler University, SBA Indiana 2024 Small Business Person of the Year and Indianapolis native DuJuan McCoy’s first “real job” was selling fax machines.
“It was not glamorous,” McCoy said. So, he moved on, landing a gig selling air time to companies wanting to advertise on Indianapolis TV stations . This, McCoy said, was his entry into the glamorous inner circle of television news.
McCoy excelled, quickly transitioned into management, and spent the next 30+ years growing other people’s struggling TV news stations into revenue winners with deeply rooted connections in their local communities. McCoy broke barriers as one of the only Black men in the C-suite and knew that television newsroom and overall station staffing did not fall in line with the rising non-white population make-up of the United States.
According to research by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), the total minority TV news workforce, including Blacks, other POCs and women in the 1990s hovered around 18%. That did not sit well with McCoy. He was determined to give voices to multi-cultural populations and knew that the most effective way to do so was to own his own TV stations. In 2007, armed with experience, training and an SBA-backed loan, his media mogul journey began.
McCoy was ready – and entered the nation’s most recognized program for aspiring TV entrepreneurs, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) program, to learn the critical business elements of buying and selling broadcast properties. While still in BLT, McCoy launched Bayou City Broadcasting, and in January 2008 - with the help of a $2 million SBA-backed 7(a) loan - bought seven TV stations. With this purchase, McCoy and Bayou City Broadcasting became the only Black-owned company to own and or operate a Fox affiliate in the United States, and the first Black person to own and operate a major affiliate in the state of Texas.
In 2019, McCoy connected with a station owner looking to sell his holdings in Indianapolis. McCoy jumped at the chance and founded Circle City Broadcasting making his first TV station purchases in his hometown in September of that year. Currently, Circle City Broadcasting includes Indianapolis-based WISH-TV, WISHTV.com, All INdiana Podcast Network, MyWiNDY 23, Circulus Digital Media, and eMedia Augmentation. McCoy is one of two Black men who own and operating local news producing television stations in top 20 markets in the United States.
McCoy is passionate about inclusivity, diversity and giving communities a true voice in the newsroom.
“If you only have one type of perspective in a newsroom,” said McCoy, “guess what kind of stories you get? Stories from only one perspective. I know our (Indiana) communities are diverse and they have a lot of opinions and perspectives and it’s my job as a leader to make sure that their voices are heard.”
Since buying WISH-TV, McCoy has intentionally diversified his on-air talent team to reflect the growing multicultural population of his audience. He said the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusions (DEI) movement has worked.
“Diversity in a newsroom, across America has always been lacking,” McCoy said. “Not until the DEI movement, did we start seeing a transition and more people of color getting on air. And it worked! It worked because I made a conscious effort to tell my leadership team no, I want diversity, you have to hire diversity for the newsroom. I would get responses that they couldn’t find anyone. I said keep looking. Once I pushed back, guess what they found? Diverse individuals.”
McCoy didn’t stop with diversifying his on-air team. Through the DuJuan and Tina McCoy Foundation, he partnered with JP Morgan and Ivy Tech creating the first collegiate training program for the next generation of storytellers and news producing leaders called the Multicultural Media Producing Program which teaches students – who are primarily POCs - the behind the scenes skills they need to find jobs producing local television news shows.
“There is no news producing program in any university in America,” McCoy states. “When they teach journalism, they teach the basics of journalism but not how to physically produce and time a newscast. When I bought this television station (WISH-TV) not only was there no training platform for producers but there were no multi-cultural people in my newsroom producing because they didn’t know that this skill or this position existed within a TV station because its not taught in college.”
“The inspiration behind MMPP was the Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) I took in 2007 that taught high-level broadcasting executives how to buy TV stations. It was primarily designed for people of color and women, but anyone could take the course. BLTP taught me how to buy tv stations. I thought, ‘well, now you own, and there’s no producing program, and people of color, diverse individuals, should have a say in what goes on tv on local news stations.”
Launched in 2023, the program graduated its first cohort in December of that year. Three graduates were hired by WISH TV and the program is receiving support from major broadcasting organizations throughout the nation and CBS TV News.
By the numbers, McCoy’s Circle City Broadcasting employs over 170 people, has increased and diversified the WISH-TV on air talent pool by over 50%, and masterminded an entire television show dedicated to educating and empowering all Indiana entrepreneurs – but especially those in multi-cultural communities - the Business, Equity and Opportunities Show, where the SBA Indiana team and their resource partners are often featured subject matter experts and guests. In honor of his success, McCoy was named SBA Indiana Small Business Person of the Year during National Small Business Week 2024.
For more information on how the SBA can help you start, grow, expand, build or recover you American small business dream check out www.sba.gov/in.