Media Pioneers reunite to honor the first Black-owned and operated television station.

We proudly represent the William V. Banks Museum and WGPR-TV, America's first Black-owned television station.

  • WGPR aired its first live broadcast with an all-Black news team on September 29, 1975, and remained on air for 20 years. 

  • The studio that gave its start to hundreds of Black journalists is now a museum. 

In celebration of Black History Month (2023), we reached out to Good Morning America in October (2022) and began discussions about a potential segment. In January, we began our local outreach and secured coverage every week during February, including national coverage on Good Morning America and Nightline on ABC-TV.

WXYZ-TV (ABC Detroit) hosted a live roundtable discussion from the Museum with two additional news stories about their visit. WJBK FOX 2 News in Detroit spent the morning broadcast live from WGPR’s old studios featuring interviews with WGPR alumni Joe Spencer (Program Manager), Amyre Makupson (anchor), Nat Morris (Host of ‘The Scene’: WDIV (NBC TV Detroit) stopped by WGPR’s studio to broadcast their morning show, Live in the D, from E. Jefferson, and CBS Detroit brought Amyre Makupson into their studio to talk about WGPR TV. There was additional coverage on WJR 760 AM and 910 AM radio.

Daniel Cherrin

DANIEL CHERRIN |served the City of Detroit as its Communications Director and the Press Secretary to Detroit Mayor, Ken Cockrel, Jr. He is a public relations + affairs specialist who just happens to be a lawyer, with 20 years of experience providing senior public relations and government relations’ counsel to organizations on state and federal regulatory and legislative matters, as well as issues affecting corporate and individual reputation, crisis management and the media. Daniel is the founder of NORTH COAST STRATEGIES (Est. 2005) an independent public relations consultancy that combines the best of a big agency with hands-on executive-level experience and support. As a signatory company to the United Nations Global Compact, we are dedicated to addressing issues around human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption. We are also focused on redefining your brand and changing the conversation to create an impact.