In Black America; SRB Communications, with Sheila Brooks; Part 1

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. You know, I didn't get here without being on the shoulders of someone. I mean, there are so many people along the way. My mom certainly, for all of her courage in raising us as young girls and getting us out of that neighborhood, those people along the way like yourself and others who have helped me achieve all of our goals. Because, you know, to whom much is given, much is required. And I am a woman of faith, and you can't take any of this with you. So, I look at this that this is my legacy. I have been able to come from this poor neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri,

become a successful journalist, as well as entrepreneur, and my destiny in life, my goal in life, my crusade in life, is to share my wisdom and knowledge with every woman, African-American woman, woman of color that I know. Sheila Brooks, founder, president, and CEO of SRB Communications LLC located in Washington, D.C. Brooks is an Emmy award-winning journalist, entrepreneur and dedicated advocate of minority and women's issues, and small businesses, prior to starting SRB Communications in 1990. Brooks built a distinguished television career as a news reporter, news director, anchor, and documentary producer, at TV stations across the nation that were owned, operated, or affiliated with CBS, NBC, PBS, and Fox. SRB Communications, a full service communication agency, and post-reduction facilitator to help clients

develop their brand, positioning, and strategies in creative campaigns through integrated media formats, in broadcast, print, and multimedia. Brooks is an expert in entrepreneurial education and minority business issues. Also, she is the founder of the National Association of Black Journalists TV Project. I'm Johnny L. Hanson, Jr., and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, SRB Communications with founder, president, and CEO Sheila Brooks, in Black America. And won that contract for five years, and for five years, I had two producers and myself, who were full-time employees, and America's most wanted, became a Fox, became one of our clients, well, we would produce segments for them, and so did so many other networks, BET, TV1. The first two years of TV1, when they had original programming, we had a multi-year contract to produce at least 10 to 12 one-hour shows a year.

ABC in Baltimore, the affiliate there, Drew Barry, who was a news executive for many years, a very well-respected and admired, hired us to produce two weekly shows. So as a production company, the first 18 years of our business, the networks were our clients, along with, of course, the military and the federal government, because I sit in the seat of that in Washington DC. So that's how I have been able and managed to grow a business over these years. In June 1990, she would work started SRB Productions as a home business with limited resources and staff to produce television programming and video production services for the government, major corporations, and national nonprofit organizations. In 2008, the agency rebranded SRB communications, expanding their services into a one-stop shop for communication solutions. Today, their communication services now include branding, media buying and placement,

public relations, media relations, and marketing. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Brooks is a product of a single parent household. As a young child, she was determined to forge a career as a news reporter. Brooks earned a BA degree in communications with a major in broadcast journalism from the University of Washington, N. Seattle, and a master's in political science from Howard University. Brooks is a sought after national speaker on entrepreneurship and small businesses. I grew up during the height of the civil rights movement. That was during the late 1960s. Well, I should say early to late 1960s. So I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, went to, and you know, had all of my formal education there. And grew up at a time in Kansas City when, of course, you know, the country was experiencing racism and segregation and so many other racial issues and injustices and oppressions, particularly for African Americans.

And so, you know, it was, it was certainly as a young person growing up there, a learning experience for me. But at the same time, you know, it was, it was a tough time because I grew up as a child of a single parent. I divorced mother who raised two little girls from the time that my, I was three, my sister was one. And we grew up in a very impoverished neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. But understand your mind worked two jobs in order for you all to attend a private Catholic school. Oh, you're absolutely right. So that was the time of busing. And because we grew up in that poor neighborhood and while we were not in the projects, we were right next door. And, and we were grew up in that poor neighborhood. And yes, my mother, she was, she was the strong courageous person because for 17 years that I knew of, my mother worked two full time jobs, mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms by day,

and caring for the sick and dying at nursing homes by night. She was what they called then a porter by day. And she worked at the nursing homes as an LPN by night. So she would actually get up and be out for work at 7.30 a.m. in the morning till like 4.30. By the time we got home from school, she was there. And then by 10.30 that night when she put us in the bed, she was off to her next job from 11 to 7. She always had a sitter that would come in overnight with us and get this, get this job. That sitter wrenched a room in our home. So she was collecting an income, big entrepreneur, while she was making sure that her kids were taking care of. And yes, we were, we were blessed enough to be part of the Catholic school system and the busing system during the time of the 60s that we were bust across town to those Catholic schools. She actually was a Baptist and became a Catholic.

So she could put us in the better schools and not the schools in our neighborhood. And then there were the times I remember John when she didn't have anybody to care for us at night. Honey, she would pack that overnight bag and take us to her overnight job. I understand that you are called it from both in from the students at the Catholic school because you are, you are living in the neighborhood. And then from the folks in the neighborhood who thought you are a better than them. No, you're absolutely right. We were teased. We were criticized because you know, she wanted to have the best education for her two young girls. And she made sure that we got into those schools. So I always thought that we had no friends at school. And we were, you know, we were known as the kids from the hood at school. And then back home in the hood, we didn't have any friends either because each afternoon you know what we would do. We would come home wearing our school uniforms because you know, we had those little flat uniforms and different jackets.

And we were really the victims of what they call bullies now. We didn't think of that then. Because these kids in the neighborhood, they accused us of thinking that we were better than the other kids on the bus. So we always spent a lot of years fighting for our place in the community, you know. And you know, you just didn't know how to do it. And we would take those, we would take those skirts, roll them up and put our little pants, have a little change of pants on. So that when we saw kids, kids didn't see us in those school uniforms. Now the good news was, it was hard for me in the earlier days because my sister was two grades behind me. So those first two years when I was young, it was kind of tough. I'd have to walk to the bus stop. And you know, but by the time my sister got to school in kindergarten and I was a second grade and all throughout, she was a lot bigger. She was, she had that serena, you know, body of her life. And, and, and she was the big girl. And honey, boy, they didn't mess with big pants. I understand that you all used to watch the news that eventually became your interest on tray into television journalism.

Yes, you know, it's interesting. You know, you always, I guess with a single parent, a single divorce mother, she had to figure out how to be the mother and the daddy. Okay, and how to entertain us and how to ensure that we had everything that we needed in the form of, you know, not only those essentials, but to make sure that we were being entertained and had fun and had family time. With the 6th and the 10 o'clock news. Now, in the early years, we didn't get to stay up till 10 unless there's special occasions, but I'm going to tell you something. I watched every 6 o'clock newscaster. I can remember from the time I was like four years old. And I remember those days we would sit down and we were watching the news. She would get the newspaper. And when she read the newspaper, there were stories that she would read to us. She would give us the newspapers and, you know, teaching us how to read.

I grew up reading the local black newspaper, which is still in existence today called the Kansas City Call. The call newspaper. That was our weekly black newspaper to find out everything that's going on in the community. And the newscast, we watch every newscast. I mean, weekdays, weekends. And that was kind of like our entertainment and the educational time that she would find to spend with us. And that's really what I believe really peaked my interest in news because the one thing I knew was that I loved reading from those experiences. I began to love writing from those experiences. And I always did like to talk. You're kidding. I always like to talk. And then I would stand up. And when I'd have some kind of little essay to write at school, I'd stand up in front of my mom and my sister. And they'd be the audience. And I'd present. So that whole, you know, back then, we didn't know it was journalism. That was what I was destined to do. But what I knew back then at an early age, at the age of five and six years old, I knew then that I was destined to write.

And to, I love, you know, being in front of people to speak as well as to own something because not only did my mom make that extra income by having those borders in her home will became our sitter. You know, you observe that. But everybody in our neighborhood, because we grew up in this impoverished neighborhood, these folks were owners. They owned the local grocery store. They owned the local corner store. They owned the local auto mechanic store, you know. And if you're just joining us, I'm Johnny, I'm Hanson Jr. And you're listening to In Black America from KUT Radio. And when speaking today with Sheila Brooks, founder, president and CEO of SRB Communications LLC located in Washington, DC. And we broadcast the day from the studios of KERA in Dallas, Texas. How did a young lady from Kansas City get to the University of Washington in Seattle?

That's a good one too. You know, because I had that journalism interest by the time I got to high school, I really knew that and worked on the school newspaper became the little columnist for the paper for about four years, so I graduated from high school. And then got scholarships. And of course, that was back in the days of getting grants to and got the scholarship and grant to attend Columbia College, which was one of three universities and colleges in Columbia, Missouri. So I went to Columbia College and then it was that year that the freshman year that won my English teacher told me, you are destined to be a journalist and I transferred to the University of Missouri. But then as we all do when we're young and stupid, as I like to say, you fall in love, you meet the man, the college sweetheart. And of course, he was older and by my junior year, he was older had already left college and was in the service and got stationed in, well, he got stationed in Whitby Island in Washington state.

And I looked at schools around there because I knew I had to transfer. And that's how I got to Seattle, Washington. I followed the man fell in love, got married young at the age of 19. But we're still destined to know, I'm not having any babies. My life, I was focused on career. And I was focused on life. And I knew I had to finish school. And I went to the University of Washington and said, look, I know it's my senior year, but I need to transfer. And I decided that if I could transfer, I would, but if I couldn't, I was going to stay at Missouri. But because I had gotten my college education at Columbia College in the University of Missouri, which is still the number one journalism school in the country and was then. And all my credits came from there. University of Washington said, oh, yeah, you could come here and transfer your senior year and graduate on time. That summer of 1978. And that's what I did. First job out of college. First job out of college. I was in Seattle, had finishing up that senior year of college and said, oh, my goodness. I'm looking at getting becoming a journalist. And now here I am.

And what was then the like 13th or 14th market in the United States, how am I going to get a job in the top 15 every television station in town told me you have to have three years in television before we will even talk to you or get you any kind of entry level jobs. So I went to the PBS station. And I've gone to all the networks and said, we can't hire you. So I said, let me go to the PBS station because they did a lot of news programming. They were one of the few in the country that was still doing news programming and public affairs shows. I went there. They said they turned me away too. So something hit me as I was walking out the door. I said, look, I've been turned down by the three network stations. I'm at the PBS station. I can't go anywhere because I moved here to get married, graduate from college. And I have a husband who is in the service. So I can't go anywhere. So what am I going to do? I walk right back into that TV station and told the woman that I ended up working for that I would work for free.

Give me an opportunity to intern for free on her public affairs show so I can begin to get some experience. And that was my senior year in April. I worked for three months about the summer when I graduated. They offered me a full time production assistant job for the documentary. We met some years ago. I'm not going to say how many. Oh, you can say how many. We're still young at heart. We'll say 37 years ago. And how did you happen to get to Dallas? Well, what I did is those. I spent three years in Seattle. Because I knew the only way I was going to get the big job is, you know, they had that three years. So I spent. I ended up after the first year being a production assistant. I got into a reporter training position. That's when they were, you know, remember that's the affirmative action years. Okay.

We're talking about the late 70s where there is not too many people that look like you and me. Right. So and certainly not reporting, not on the air, whether it's public affairs, entertainment, shows or news. So I got into a reporter producer to your training position at that TV station and not only did public affairs, but also did entertainment news. And that's when, but, you know, I not only did that full time at night. I went to school to get a master's and then on weekends, I worked at the black radio station as a news anchor because I wasn't, you know, like in a newsroom during the week. I was in a public affairs documentary unit and doing entertainment news. And so I did all of that and even, you know, contributed stories to the black newspaper. So those three years, I had all that going on. So at the end of that time, the NBC station there in Seattle said, okay, look, it's time for you. We really would love to have you come work for us, but we can't give you a reporter job right here right now. Maybe we can give you some more training.

I didn't want to do any more training. I already done that. So they called me back and they said, you know, we have a reporter job and an anchor or reporter anchor position in Spokane, Washington, our sister station, which was 70th market. I went to Spokane, Washington and became the first black reporter and the first black anchor woman. And I stayed there for the next three years. And it was from there that I started. I decided that I really wanted to go into management because there I got to not only as an anchor. I got to produce all my shows. That was, you know, see those were back in the days when you didn't have a producer. You were the producer. And so I had all this great producing experience from all of those jobs reporting, anchoring, and I applied for a job in college station, Texas as a anchor and news director and got it. And that's how I got to college station. I was running a newsroom with 25 reporters, anchors, photographers, anchoring the six o'clock newscast every day and also doing a weekly talk show as well as, you know, I taught a little bit at Texas A&M University because that's where I was.

And that's how I got to Texas. And then after being there a couple of years, knowing my interest was management, I was at an ABJ convention. I always got accredited the National Association of Black Journalists where I had been a member since I was a student member. I was one of the first student members, one of the first 100 of those folks. There was only about 100 people when I joined an ABJ in 1977 as a student member. And you know, you meet folks and I met some folks from below and they were really pleased with the experience I had in news management as well as reporting and anchoring. And they said, you know, we're about to start this program. We have this program. They already had started it, but they had only given it to a family member. But they said, we want to extend our management training program. And we're looking for a person of color that we can train to be in a high management position at the Dallas Morning News in newspaper and or at WFA at the television station.

But in this management training program, it's a three year program. We want you to come and what you do is you will work at the Morning News and learn every department of that Morning News. And I worked in all 33 departments. I was even, you know, in the press room and I was in the circulation. And then we'll send you over to the TV station and do some summer. And all I was going to take three years. Well, what happened was I finished and you do it at your own pace. You move from department to department. And that department had says, oh my goodness, she knows everything. Well, it didn't take me three years to do that at the Morning News in an FAA. It took me 18 months. It took me half the time. So when I finished it half the time, they didn't know what to do with me. Okay, because, you know, though it was priming you to move into either a business side management position at the newspaper or a position news position or business side position at the TV station.

And they looked at where they were looking at retirement and nobody was going to retire for three or four years. You know, so that's, that's what happened. If you're just joining us, you're listening to in black America from K U T radio. I'm Johnny Hansen Jr. And we're speaking with Sheila Brooks founder president and CEO of SRB communications LLC located in Washington DC and we're broadcasting the day from the KERA studios in Dallas, Texas. Sheila, you had mentioned your involvement with the National Association of Black Germans. I want to touch on that for a few moments. You're the creator of NABJ TV. How did you come up with that idea? Well, you know, it's so interesting, John, and thank you so much for mentioning that because, you know, NABJ TV, like it is for me and you and so many others of us who worked on that project back in the day to make it what it is today, we should all be very proud of it. And I could not have done that without you, Alexis Jansi, John McKay, all in Dallas now. And so many others, Janet Johnson, I could go on and on Everett Marshburn.

But what happened was as a student member of NABJ, what I realized is that NABJ, it here it is in the early 1980s and we had all these professional development workshops seminars at the convention throughout the country. For all of us who were professional journalists, but we didn't do a whole lot for students. And I'm like, wait a minute, we have to become the professionals. And I didn't have any of those kinds of mentors coming up. And I'm like, we need to be doing more mentoring and training these young people. And here's what really happened because there are a few, there are a couple people who like today to say that they are the creator and founder because it becomes such a very important project. But what happened was, I was at the morning news and the management program. And I was working with a friend of mine, Maggie Rebus, who was a reporter, Hispanic woman, journalist, who said, Sheila, this is mid 1980s.

You need to come to the Hispanic journalist convention and see this project that I think I'm going to grow and I just have started it. And I walked into, and the Hispanic journalists were having their convention in Dallas, Texas. And I walked over there to the highest. And I walked in this little closet room and there's like six or seven or eight young people on typewriters. Okay, you hear me now, typewriters were a process and they're trying to put out a daily newspaper for the convention. So she started telling me about the concept. And then I gave her some feedback on what I thought she should do with that. And then I said, you know what? I should take this idea to NABJ. And I, when I do that, because I was on the board of the National Association of Black Journalists there. And when I do that, what I'm going to do is also figure out a way that we can do it for TV and do this at our conventions and make it a big deal.

So I took it to the board in 1986. It took me four years and three NABJ board administrations to get approval. By 1990, we started NABJ TV and the NABJ Monitor in 1990 at the Los Angeles Convention if you remember. And that one didn't go well because it was our first. And by the time we got to Kansas City in 1991, we had perfected it. And yes, there was so many of us who worked on that project and so many board members at that time, even our young Roland Martin, who was a student member, who was right there supporting us, you know, at those board meetings to get it passed. But yes, I found it the project created the idea. But you know, no ideas created without somebody else thinking about it first. Believe me, you just do it differently. And it was the Hispanic journalist that already had a newspaper project and it's very infancy that I initially got the idea from.

And that's what's made. And over the years, that project has grown from the Monitor, the newspaper, and the TV project where young people come to the convention and do an entire week at the convention. Under the leadership of professional working journalists, they are producing a daily newspaper for four or five days of the convention, a daily newscast. They are doing radio, television, and multimedia because of all of the convergence that has happened in the country. I know that's right. I skipped a part of your professional life, but I want the audience to know that you were one of the brain thrusts behind America's most wanted when you moved to Washington. I don't know if I would say I was one of the brain thrusts behind it. What I will say is that after I finished up in Dallas at the newspaper and then went over to FAA, I found love many, many, many, many years later and decided that it was time for me to just go back to television. I came to Washington, remarried after all those years, went to Fox to be the executive producer and run the documentary unit. And what we did is we launched the first Fox morning newscast.

Sheila Brooks, founder, president, and CEO, SRB Communications LLC located in Washington, DC. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, email us at jhansson at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez, I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs, KUT radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of KUT radio.