{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/2v2c825x74/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Carl Booker Interview"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/571/original/full-color_2x.png?1735841768","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["The African American Network TV (TAAN TV)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCarl Booker, an advertising entrepreneur in San Antonio, Texas, provides connectivity within the Black community through events, publications, online presence, and broadcasts. In this interview with Tyrone Darden of TAAAN TV, Booker discusses how Black media has evolved and offers insights on how to succeed. He shares an example of how he learned to pitch his ideas to potential funders by observing, researching, and listening to his audiences.\u003c/p\u003e (summary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll materials are for noncommercial educational or research uses only. Please contact SAAACAM for any questions regarding usage rights.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2017-07-13 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Interview"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["300 Voices in 300 Days"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Black-owned Business (topical term)","Media (topical term)","Avista Products (corporate name)","Radio (topical term)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Ss"]},"value":{"en":["access_public"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCarl Booker, an advertising entrepreneur in San Antonio, Texas, provides connectivity within the Black community through events, publications, online presence, and broadcasts. In this interview with Tyrone Darden of TAAAN TV, Booker discusses how Black media has evolved and offers insights on how to succeed. 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This is Tyrone Darden, your host for our special presentation of 300 Voices in 300 Days. Our voice of the day is Carl Booker of Avista Products, Black Video News, and a host of other things that we're hopefully going to hear about during this interview. Carl, go ahead and let the TAAN audience know about yourself.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  0:28  \r\nI have a company called Avista Products, and we produce presentations. And that's print, web, video, sometimes events. So it's all about presentation.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  0:40  \r\nExcellent. So obviously, media is a very, very big thing in African American culture. Carl is– and I– I don't want to make a mistake and say that he was born here, but I know he has very, very deep roots in San Antonio, in the Black culture of San Antonio. Carl if– if you wouldn't mind sharing the– just from a media standpoint, kind of the timeline, I guess, that you’ve given over the last couple decades that you've been here. \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  1:07\r\nMan. Y– you gotta go– [laughs]\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  1:09\r\nI gotta go there.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  1:10\r\nYou gotta go that far back?\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  1:11\r\nCome on, gotta– gotta hear about The Juice [a culture magazine published by Carl Booker]. Gotta hear about The Juice.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  1:14  \r\nAh man. That was– that was a– maybe a decade ago?\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  1:21  \r\nAlmost fifteen years ago.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  1:22  \r\nIt was– geez, little b– little more than fifteen. 2000– 2000, 2001–\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  1:31\r\nThat’s when you started? \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  1:32\r\n–that's when the industry started to change. We didn't realize at the time it was, you know, Napster and–\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  1:39\r\nMhm. Napster.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  1:40\r\n–you know, stuff like that was going on. We didn't realize the impact. We– the musicians, they got it, like, “You're stealing our music,” and, you know, “Put ‘em in jail.” And we didn't really get it, we just– we– we come from an era of– of dubbing music off the radio, and if you had a decent radio you had two tape decks. So we were doing Napster before Napster was doing their thing. It was, if you got a tape, let me borrow it, dub it, give it back to you. That– that's how it's supposed to be. You didn’t always get your tape back, but the theory was, we gon’ copy it and give it back to you. But Napster took it a whole different level by saying “Okay, well, we're gonna have all these different servers and put the music out there.” So you don't know whose– who has it. \r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  2:34\r\nMhm. But it’s out there. \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  2:35\r\nIt’s out there, it’s your music. So, come full circle, or I should say 180, now you have Tidal, you have, you know, iStore– I mean the Dialpad and– like, I listen to Sirius XM, like, constantly. And of course, I was baptized because I got a new car, so it was in there. Kinda like the microwave back in the ‘70s, when– you know, we were fine without the microwave. All of a sudden, we get a microwave and–\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  3:09\r\nForget that oven. \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  3:10\r\nYeah.\r\n\r\n\r\n[mutual laughter]\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  3:13\r\nThe oven don’t work no more. So we started putting food in the microwave. So, you know, for me, to– to hear music that I wanted to listen to, I just kept listening to XM. So I– just recently, I pulled into a gas station, and I’m– I'm hearing the same music on two different stalls, and I'm like, “Wait a minute, so everybody's listening to XM?” So now the dynamics have changed to we have choices of local AM/FM [radio stations], you got the different internet radio stations, you got Pandora, and you have– I forget, there was, like, one other one. But man, we got so many choices. I mean, it's– it's unfortunate and it's fortunate.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  4:01  \r\nSo– so speaking of– speaking of choices and– and just kind of getting back into the history of things–we go– we gon’ get back to your history–but back to the history of Black San Antonio and Black media. Coming up, what–you know, whether it's print, whether it's radio, whether it's personalities on the radio, or even on TV–who– what were those– those magazines, what were those newspapers, what were the radio stations that African Americans dominated? Here in San Antonio, locally?\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  4:35  \r\nThere was no domination because our voice was limited. I mean, whether it be the [San Antonio] Observer or the [San Antonio] Register, that was really the vehicle. But right after 9/11– or I– I take that back. ‘99, 2000, the internet went boom or– or busted because you had all these people, but– I wasn't in that field, but they were getting all this venture capital money, but none was going towards Black media or Black, you know, related. It had to be– I’ll never forget, when F– was it Flowers? 1-800-Flowers or something like that. I think they got like two or three million, and I'm like, “Wait a minute, they got that kind of money for a flower shop?” Now– now granted, it's a whole different ball game now, but I remember when my peers in Austin were getting million-dollar venture– venture capital and throwing parties. I'm like, “Man it’s one of these days, somebody’s gonna see what I'm doing and I'm gonna get a venture capital.” It’s never happened. But I'll never forget, I saw one of the guys a year later. I said, “Man, how's the company doing?” He goes, “Man, we threw too many parties. It never launched.” I'm like, “What? How– how did that happen?” And the thing that– that I'll never forget back then was non-Blacks get the benefit of the doubt. [imitating an investor] “Oh, you think you can do something? Here's a million, give it a shot.”\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  6:09  \r\nGive it a shot.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  6:10  \r\nFor us [Black people], “Prove that it works–” \r\n\r\n\r\n[Both speakers]  6:12\r\nAnd then–\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  6:13\r\n–we might. Yeah.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  6:13\r\n–we’ll give you. Yeah. Then we’ll give you some money.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  6:15  \r\nSo– so you mentioned the Observer and– and the Register. I– I can remember those, ‘cause those are still around, the SNAP [newspaper], even a KAPE radio station–which is now, I believe, KCHL. I remember KSJL, 98.1, maybe? I don't rem– recall the numbers on it. And then even just different personalities. What impact do you think– at least having access, and maybe we didn't dominate anything outside of our community, but what impact do you believe those SNAPs and Observers and Registers and– and KAPEs–as far as the medium–had in our community, in regards to economic development or economic sustainability, workforce development, just information, you know, the growth or sustainability of our churches, and– and information getting passed? What impact do you think they had then, and– and coming back to today, with Black Video News and The African American Network and Tha1Radio– You know, how can we duplicate or replicate, or even if we should, that– I guess those avenues that they– they had during that time?\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  7:39  \r\nI– I think what's– what's cool about a– all those entities is– is know that they existed. And at any given time, you– you knew you had the print media. I’m– I'm a big believer in y– in having a niche. They had their own niche, just like, you know– corporate America, if they wanted to recruit African Americans, they didn’t go to UT Austin [University of Texas at Austin] to get African Americans, they went to Prairie View [A\u0026M University].\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  8:11  \r\nPrairie View, TSU [Texas Southern University], yeah.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  8:12  \r\nSo, you know, like, for us, one of the things that– that I feel most comfortable with is– is knowing that I have access. But I paid for it. You know what I mean? O– our maintenance of our database, it costs a lot of money. Just– it's one thing for me to get your email address, but I gotta host it somewhere. So I'm paying for it every month. And you might get something in your email, and– and now, you know, we have a mature list, but I'll never forget, when we first started out I used to– it used to hurt my feelings that we would lose somebody. Like, if someone got an email and they unsubscribe, I'm like, “Man, what did we do wrong?” You know, “Did we say something wrong, did we offend somebody?” To where now, some– and an old friend of mine, she had told me about getting an email, she had unsubscribed and I said– I said, “I noticed you unsubscribed.” She goes, “It’s nothing against you.” She goes, “But I'm tired of hearing from you.” And I'm like, “Really?” I'm like, “What is that about?” She goes, “Every week, I'm getting something from you, and I just had enough. I c– you know, just didn’t–.” And I’m like– I said, “Really, I did it because there's too many of us saying there's nothing to do, that I want you to know if I knew, you know.”\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  9:23  \r\nAnd– and so it's– it’s funny that you– that you said that. You know, we were speaking– one of our– one of our many voices was Judge Linda Harrison. And– and one of the things she spoke of in regards to Black businesses, she felt like we were– the trust level wasn't there to support each other. And– and I’m– me thinking, what you're saying, that same person may have gotten ten emails that week from HEB, or Walmart, or 98.5 The Beat, or someone and been fine with it. But from an African American medium, once a week is too much. I'm tired of hearing from you. An– and so what do you think? And, again, nothing against that specific person, but that idea that we don't want to hear from each other and we can’t support each other in that capacity, whether it’s trust, whether it’s loyalty, or lack thereof. Wh– what is that? And that– and, you know, you've been in this game at least two decades, I know for sure. W– what are your thoughts on that?\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  10:27  \r\nShe insulted me and complimented me at the same time ‘cause she had said, “I’ve– I’m tired of hearing from you;” but she says, “Without fail, I can count on you.” And I'm like, “What? Did you–,” I’m like, “Did you just give me a compliment?” [laughs]\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  10:42\r\nBut you deleted me. [laughs]\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  10:43\r\nYeah. Yeah. And, again– again I’m– I’m–\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  10:45\r\nYou unfriended me. [laughs]\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  10:46\r\nSo it was kind of interesting because I'm like– I said, “I've known you, like– like, all my adult life and you feel that way?” You know, just– and– and it was– it was interesting, when she said that, she goes, “You're still doing it.” And I'm like– like, “What does that mean?” Does– I mean, does that mean I'm successful, I'm barely hanging on, I mean what– and what part of that that you don't like to where, you know, like, “I don’t want to hear from this guy. What do– what do you know?” You know, so I– I was a little concerned if we're– if we were doing the right thing. But then you get, you know, a group of people are saying, “Hey, man, I count on it. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have known,” or, you know, just– and just when you think it doesn't matter, you'll– I'll get a phone call or an email, and they'll– they’ll thank me. And I'm like, “Okay, so I need to keep doing this.” ‘Cause at times, you know– and especially when we do our book– like this time of year, man this– the city make you want to stop what you’re doing. And– but when you get that one, that one call, that someone’s excited, man, it makes my day. It gives me strength. You know, because at times, man, I just like, “Man, I don’t want to do this anymore.”\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  12:00  \r\nSo– so going back– going back to the past, and– and obviously we're celebrating the– the Tricentennial of the city of San Antonio, and, you know, we– we talk a lot over here at TAAN on, you know– we try to predict what people think or what people may say. So– so one of the questions that– that I had–and-- and, you know, I go out on the street and talk to people and ask them, “Hey, what do you think about this, what do you think about that?”--is when you– when you think about the city of San Antonio, what's the first three things that come to mind? And– and so based on a straw poll or unoffi– unofficial poll or informal poll: the Riverwalk, the Alamo, and the third one varies, whether it might be Fiesta, it might be something else. And then you gets more specific, “Well, what about the East Side of San Antonio?” Alamodome, AT\u0026T Center, and the Martin Luther King March. But you don't hear G.J. Sutton, you don't hear Reverend Claude Black, you don't hear Joe Webb, you don't hear Joe Scott, you don't hear Dr. Hilliard or Dr. Burns, you don't hear Dr. Leo Edwards, you don't hear those– those influential people on so many different levels. You don't hear Reverend Rector or– or Reverend whoever, you hear about the Riverwalk. For you, in media and in marketing and advertising as a– as an African American: If I asked you, just in that lane, in that space of media, past, not present or future–cause we gon’ get to that–but past. If I asked you to give me three things, three people, three places in media for Black San Antonio–\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  13:50\r\n–Blacks in media? \r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  13:52\r\nIt could be– and we've already covered several of ‘em, but if you was that person, that random person I came across on the street, and I said, “Hey, Black man.” If I said, “Black San Antonio, Media, what's the first three thing– the first three things that come to mind? What would come to your mind?\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  14:10  \r\nWe don’t have that many options media-wise. \r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  14:12  \r\nWell, what options do we have, though? “That many” means we have at least one. “Not that many” means–\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  14:17  \r\nYeah. I mean, it would have to be the Observer, K-chill [KCHL]--\r\n\r\n\r\n[transition]\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  14:21  \r\n–and just the fact that you can name those two, I think that's a beautiful thing, because the average person even that’s trying to do media, wouldn't say KCHL or KAPE, wouldn't say the Observer or the Register, wouldn't say the SNAP, wouldn't say any of those people associated with those– those areas. And so, you know, Tommy Moore did the SNAP and– and, you know, Waseem Ali does the– the Register and Observer now– \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  14:45\r\nTommy did the [San Antonio] Informer.\r\n \r\nTyrone Darden  14:47\r\nInformer, I’m sorry. And they were all, I guess, in that same family, but he did the Informer. And Mr.-- Mr. [Eugene] Coleman did the SNAP.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  14:55\r\nRight. \r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  14:55\r\nAnd so for me, because I'm en– entrenched in the community and I– you know, I’m from here and– and I– I still get involved and I– I care about it, those things mean something to me. But a lot of people, they don’t. So to the present and the future, legacy-wise– like I said, you’ve been in this game for a long time. I remember when I first met you–you probably don’t remember this–with Levi Reed, you were over at the Convent, and we came over– and it may have been the end of The Juice, I'm not sure, but The Juice was still there [laughs] and that's how I got exposed to it. But you've been doing your thing, you know. I’ve seen you at three different locations: the Convent, over off [Interstate] 410, and now over there at Echo– Echo East. Eco– whatever it's called. E-Co lot– Lofts. With that being said, what's your legacy? What’s– what’s the legacy that you want to leave behind–you know, that twenty, thirty years, forty years, maybe, of work that you're going to leave behind–so when people say Black media, or media in general, in San Antonio, in Bexar County, in Texas, or wherever, your name comes up?\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  16:01  \r\nWell, the– the– it's not so much about my name coming up, it’s– it's about the mission.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  16:05\r\nUnderstood.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  16:06\r\nThe mission is very important. We– we've learned in the process of The Juice. Corporately, they didn't want to get involved in something that was so liquid. Hip hop, the music, R\u0026B was very liquid. And I felt comfortable in saying that it's not a Black thing. It was, you know, white, Black, Hispanic. One of the things I'll never forget, I went to a fundraiser at Rodeo Dancehall, years ago–\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  16:34  \r\n–Midnight Rodeo or the big rodeo? \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  16:36  \r\nThe big– off of 410. Never forget it, man, ‘cause I– I just knew everybody in there was going to have on cowboy hats and, you know, kicker boots, and I was gonna be in and out. I get in there, man, they're playing Tupac, Biggie, I mean, you name it. And I'm like, “Man, they just must be doing this for tonight.” The guy was like, “No, we do this all the time.” I'm like, “What?” So what I learned was, they like our music, but on their terms. Ther– at the time, there was a club called the Studio. They weren't gonna go up in the Studio. But they were going to go to Rodeo Dancehall and listen to some– some Puff Daddy's, some– some Biggies, some Tupac. And I’m like, “Man, this is amazing.” It w– it was in my own city. A place I drive by on a regular basis, playing my music. Had no idea. So that– that taught me– even though corporate said, “We don't like the liquidity of– of your movement. We're not interested.” I then figured out what they want was, “Can you reach African Americans, can you reach Hispanics, can you reach gay and lesbian, can you reach military, can you reach senior citizens, can you reach the disabled?” And I'm like, “I can do one of those. I can reach I can– African Americans.” But in that, you have senior citizens, gay and lesbian, you had disabled vet–, you had all these inside of that demo. So I'm like, “Okay, let's– let me figure out this demo.” So in my– in my research, I found– I found out there's about 200,000 African Americans in that– in the area, which was around six [one-sixth of the population]. And then remember helping out Victor Wright with his Black directory. And I’ll just never forget how h– how hard of a– hard of a time he had in raising the funds. I'm like, “Man,” I said, “this isn't attractive. You know, you're actually paying me to do this for you, but I don't even want to pick it up. Unless I'm looking for something sp– specific, and it's not in here.” So what– what I thought was, “Okay, well, let me put something together that's more inclusive, that talks to the leadership of our community.” ‘Cause at that– at that time, there was a– this was before they had the arts and cultural department for the city. They had brought a couple of us, you know, Laura [Thompson] was one of them– it’s like– like, ten of our peers. And one of the things that– a– another one of those things that I’ll never forget was the guy was like, “We're gonna start this cultural arts department, but we don't want to leave African Americans out. Who are the leaders in your community?” And we all looked at each other, and we're like– [Carl Booker gestures as an answer by raising his finger, and then laughs] –We all thought we were leaders. But we really were in our own, you know, our own right, but no one stood above, like, “Okay, well, that person is doing, or that person is doing–.” So i– it was important that if it ever happened again, if– if we said, “Well, who's your leader in f– in finances? Who's your Leader in medical? Who's your leader in education? Who's your– you know, just down the line?” We– we now identify those people. And the chamber was a prime example of that frustration because, you know, we had talked about– or I talked with them, initially, about how do we– how do you recommend a CPA? How do you recommend a graphic artist? How do you recommend the right bank? You know, ‘cause if– I wanted to know if they're friendly towards Blacks. So if I went to Frost Bank or to Bank of America, “Well– well I got a loan from Bank of America, or I got a loan from Frost Bank.” They weren't saying that. So now we have a vehicle, where if you want to find someone in finances, you pick up our book and their phone number and email’s right there, you can make contact with them. Whereas before, good luck finding a bank or good luck finding a plumber, good luck finding, you know, a graphic designer. You know, all these things that– that we are in our community, you just weren’t finding them. So now I go from, okay, we have about 200,000. So, we– we started to claim, because the Census Bureau claims ‘em, mixed race. So now we're at about 300,000 African Americans in– in Bexar County. So we go a step further, and we include the military. So now we're at 400,000 African Americans in San Antonio. In some cases, that's about the size of Del Rio. But when people say, “Well, they're only about 6%.” No, we're about 10.8[%]. Because there's a level of people that don't claim mixed race, and they don't claim the military. I'm claiming ‘em, ‘cause they’re here. And if you look at just African Americans in general, they're– they're limited to how they classify themselves, you know, whether they're, you know, Mexican, Black, African. There– there's a level– I had a client that– we were trying to get, you know, as many Black doctors, and she had made reference to one of the doctors doesn't know if she wants to be classified as Black. And I said, “Where is she from?” And she said, “She's from Nigeria.” I said, “Tell her to drive down the highway and get pulled over to see if they ask, ‘Are you from Nigeria?’” They're not gonna ask her that.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  22:14  \r\nSo– so it sounds like your legacy is gonna be connectivity, and– and bringing people together and– and using your tool that you've built over all these years, and something that people can say, “I can find that resource, because Carl Booker and his staff and his group and his organization did the legwork to put everybody together.” And– and to me, I think that's a very phenomenal legacy to leave behind because that’s– for what I– for what I see, in my short thirty-seven years, the biggest disconnect in our community and for our culture is a lack of connectivity and a lack of communication. And so to have a tool, a resource, literally at your fingertips, that you can thumb through and– like you said, a graphic designer, a mechanic, whatever the situation is, and they’re right there in the community, and they're friendly to you because they are– they are you. I think that's a beautiful, and I think that's a powerful thing. So– so that's– that’s some– something great to be pursuing. \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  23:12  \r\nYeah, it's there for the taking. So it's not like– now, don't get me wrong, we would like to sell it. But if you decided you want to go through every single page, you can take it. It’s yours, you know. So it's not a matter of– of “well, it’s protected.” No, you can– if you got the time, you can get it. And as we update the book, we receive certain things. There's a group out of New York that took all of our data.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  23:42\r\nReally? \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  23:43\r\nTook all of our data, down to the mistakes. That's how [inaudible] they took it. But now they have the largest African American directory in the country. But they– they came and got all of our content. So understand, you know, f– for us, i– it's understandably, someone has more money and more resources than we do. So do we stop and not, you know, progress, or– or do we just, “Hey this was our role?” Was– was this our role in making sure San Antonio was on the map? These people found us and the– and the way they found us was through our SEO [Search Engine Optimization]. Our SEO is– is unmatched, man. We– we are in the top twenty-one, 25,000 websites in the country. We’re in the top 150 [thousand] in the world. Now understand, it’s not so much that we're doing a great job, but our SEO is off the charts. So if you're gonna find TAAN TV, you're gonna find Ray Ray's Barbecue, you're going to find it through our portal. You're not looking for us, you're looking for that individual, but because our SEO is better than– than your SEO, like Ray Ray’s Smoke Shack. You didn't do your SEO, but I did. So they're gonna find me first, and then I'm gonna refer ‘em to your site. So by default– that's what Google does. So if you type in “barbecue” on Google. Google's gonna say, “Well, let me look at my database and see if I can find it.” They find– sh– shoot you to it. Same thing here. You're gonna put in “Black hair care products in San Antonio,” you're gonna find us. You’re gonna find us hair care products, churches– and I– and I'm not sure how we– we fell into this, but Black love, and– what was the other one? Small business. So you type in “Black” in those categories, you'll find us. \r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  25:34  \r\nSo– so it's interesting that we're talking about Google and typing and things like that. So we know, for the most part, what media was. So media was the newspapers and media was radio and– you know, we really haven't got into the– the digital media on a– on a major level. We did have BET [Black Entertainment Television] and-- and TV One, I believe is another station, and– whoever– these other people. But now we kind of moving towards, you know, the Internet-based deal, XM Radio, and realizing that, whether it’s Tha1Radio, or even your livestream– I know the guy from the One– Radio One– I can't think of his name right now…Roland Martin.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  26:20\r\nYeah, Roland Martin.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  26:21\r\nSo Roland Martin– I don't know if he still does it, but when– when Live first came to Facebook, he was one of the first people I saw on Live. And he would have, you know, 2,000, 3,000 people tuned in. And it wasn't a– an elaborate situation. Like, he would be sitting up at his desk, with the thing looking up, you know, to him. No commercial breaks, you know, you see him eating grapes in a bowl, whatever. It wasn't anything elaborate. And so now, even technology has took us to the place to where the common person can go live and get a million views or whatever. But that being said, what do you see the future– what– what do you see as the future of media? And how do Black people– how– how are we going to be involved in that?\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  27:07  \r\nIn all facets, and the willingness to try. One of the things that– Production is major. Something as simple as lighting, audio, wardrobe. So as an example, we– we did a green screen the other day and this lady had on a green stripe. She didn't know. But I'm like, you know, “You can't wear that.” She was like, “This is my fav–” I get that, but we can't use it. So something– something as simple as what you wear, how do you sound, do you need makeup, you know, is your hair done, you know, is anybody there to– to move the camera? You know, these are all the things that– that need to be done. But the other side of it is, “Okay, well how do we generate income from it?” Y– you have to think a– think about the tools. The tools are YouTube, Vimeo, and livestream; real tools that I've seen. There's a lot of– a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Especially if you go to, like, NAB [National Association of Broadcasters forum and trade show] in Las Vegas, you'll find all the– you know, all the people, all the players: Canon, Sony, Samsung. I love Samsung. I mean, you’d think I got stock in Samsung, I got so much Samsung product [laughs]. But these are the kinds of things that you need in your production. You know, we're– we’re steadily building on our set, we're learning what works and what doesn't work, but we got to go through it. And that– you get that through trial and error. And for those that are willing to do it, you know, you'll be– you'll be real good. You know, prime example, you think about Progress, you think about, like, what he's done. I– I didn't want us to go on Facebook Live unless we had a set or we had a strategy, an outline, the lighting was on point, you know, audio was on point, furniture was on point, backdrop was on point, because there's a level of, “Are you going to be like everybody else?” [transition] So you got to be willing to– to take that step, learn and reinvent, you know. And when you can be around your peers, by all means, you know, definitely talk about, “Okay,” you know, just like you were talking about the E-Co, “How do we fix it?”\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  29:31  \r\n[transition] Everybody should know, you know, talk to your peers, you know, try new things, don't be afraid to, you know, get into the producing aspect or the clothing aspect or the makeup aspect or the lighting aspect. And it's really just venture out and– and do different things. You know, there's not too much more we can get from this phenomenal man. He's gon’ be in the game, he’s in the game, like I said, for–as far as I know–at least two decades. He's a young man, so he might be in there for two more decades. But– but at the end of the day, I think– I think we need BVN [Black Video News] and Avista Products and– and Carl Booker–\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  30:10\r\nWe need others.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  30:11\r\nAnd yeah, we need TAAN TV. So with that being said, you got any last words of wisdom as our 300th Voice? \r\n\r\n\r\n[mutual laughter]\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  30:20\r\nThe last one?\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  30:21\r\nThe first one. Count that.\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  30:25  \r\nReally just, you know, just nonstop, be passionate. I don't care what it is. I– if it's about digging ditches, be the best, you know, [laughs] digger you can. \r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  30:37\r\n[laughs] Best digger you can. \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  30:38\r\nYeah. Don't– don't stop. I mean, like, for us, you know, we– really, out of stubbornness, you know, we’re still here. That's the only reason why we're here.\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  30:49  \r\nSo stick– so stick to it. But again, this has been another phenomenal voice. One of our 300 Voices for our 300 Voices in 300 Days series. This is Tyrone Darden for TAAN TV. We've been with Carl Booker of Avista Products, Black Video News, amongst a– a plethora of other ventures, the Blackbook–one of the largest Black directories, I know, at least in the region, if not close to the nation. But he's still building, he's still working. So you stay tuned because we're gonna have 299 more voices, just like Carl Booker, to give you that great, great information on the many contributions that African Americans have made right here in San Antonio. So once again, TAAN TV, The African American Network. We’ll see you soon. \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  31:37\r\n[transition] [inaudible] Tyrone Darden. \r\n\r\n\r\n[mutual laughter]\r\n\r\n\r\nTyrone Darden  31:39\r\nYou always l– you live in San Antonio.\r\n\r\n\r\n[mutual laughter]\r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  31:44  \r\nWhatever I’ve– when I– whenever I'm in San Antonio, I listen to TAAN TV and Tyrone Darden, on the real. [laughs] Wh– what all do you need me to say? \r\n\r\n\r\nUnknown Speaker  31:57\r\nMy name is Carl Booker. You’re watching TAAN TV. \r\n\r\n\r\nCarl Booker  31:59\r\nMy name is Carl Booker and you're watching TAAN TV.\r\n\r\n\r\nTranscribed by https://otter.ai\r\n\r\n\r\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://saaacam.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2808/collection_resources/130968/file/245230#t=2.49822,1928.4265"}]}]}]}