Where's the Jazz???

I'm listening to some joker from the new TV One talk to KCRW's The Business. The interviewer and the joker are talking about how much BET has relied on the "cross-over" appeal of hip-hop. They clearly don't watch any BET or they'd be like, where the black people?

Last night on BET Jazz I saw some Punjabi pop videos. That ain't jazz and it ain't Black. Then it was more Latino stuff. Stop trying to be all things to all minorities because you are failing miserably. AZN has its hands full trying to blend Anime, South Korean dramas, Indian variety shows and Chinese historical/sci-fi movies into a pan-Asian channel.

The one true thing I heard the joker and Brodesseur (sp?) say that was correct is that BET has not marketed itself well. The first thing it needs is an identity. A Black one. The joker was talking about making TV One more of a Cliff Huxtable (his words) to BET's Martin Lawrence (my analogy). The thing is, all he has to do is show half-decent Black shows and explain to advertisers why they should go after Black viewers.

BET has the infrastructure to be a decent channel, but it is both insanely cheap (the video quality of recently filmed BET Jazz shows is very 80s, apparently the defunct ComicView stopped just getting rid of its human hosts for the world's cheapest computer-generated host and moved on to getting rid of the whole show, there is almost no original programming of any sort and you know music videos are chockablock with payola) and doesn't seem to have a focus. Of course, if they had a focus they couldn't afford to be so cheap; they'd have to scrap the Punjabi pop (and Rasputina cello goth) for entertainment relevant to the African American community.

As it is, BET is an equal opportunity sucky music rump shaking channel. Which is, I'm sure, the noble dream King died to bring forth.