(AURN News) — DuJuan McCoy’s latest business move is about more than adding another television station to his portfolio. It is about ownership, power and who controls the platforms used to tell a community’s stories.
At the end of March, McCoy’s Circle City Broadcasting completed its $83 million acquisition of WRTV, the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis, from the E.W. Scripps Company.
The acquisition places WRTV alongside WISH-TV and WNDY-TV, giving McCoy ownership of three major television stations in his hometown of Indianapolis.
Black Americans have spent generations appearing in front of television cameras as anchors, reporters, entertainers and newsmakers. Far fewer have owned the stations, controlled the companies or made the investments behind those cameras.
McCoy is a trailblazer in the local television world.
The Indianapolis native graduated from Butler University in 1989 and began his television career that same year as an account executive at WTTV. He started by selling television airtime door-to-door and business-to-business.
“I’ve been in TV since graduating from college,” McCoy said during an exclusive interview with AURN News.
“That was in 1989,” he added.
McCoy remained in the industry, moving through sales and management positions while learning how television stations generate revenue, serve advertisers and connect with their communities.
He described that experience as a different form of wealth.
“Equity to me is not necessarily money, okay? Equity is time spent,” McCoy said.
That time eventually positioned him to move from employee to owner.
McCoy entered television station ownership through Bayou City Broadcasting, purchasing stations in West Texas. According to the National Association of Broadcasters, the acquisition made him the first African American to own Fox affiliates in the United States.
He later owned and operated stations in Indiana and Louisiana before selling Bayou City Broadcasting’s stations to Allen Media Group in 2019.
That same year, McCoy founded Circle City Broadcasting and became a television station owner in his hometown through the purchase of WISH-TV and WNDY-TV.
The deal also gives McCoy ownership of an ABC affiliate, adding another major network relationship to a career that has included stations affiliated with Fox, CBS, NBC, The CW and MyNetworkTV.
McCoy said his desire to control his own future was one of the reasons he pursued ownership.
“I wanted to be out front,” McCoy said. “I wanted to be in control of my own destiny. That’s why I went into entrepreneurship.”
McCoy has now owned or operated more than 20 television stations during his career. He also serves as board chair of the NAB Leadership Foundation, the organization whose Broadcast Leadership Training program helped prepare him for station ownership.
His story demonstrates why ownership matters and the impact it can have on a community.
Black history is not only something found in textbooks or remembered through the accomplishments of generations past. It is also being made through the businesses being built and the institutions being acquired today.
DuJuan McCoy is making that history and showing each and every day what Black excellence looks like.
Click play to listen to the AURN News report from Jamie Jackson:
