According to Jack Myers, who triggered everyone’s radar at the first Social TV Summit in Hollywood, California last week, this could very well be the case and a $12 billion market by 2020 for Social TV is possible. Double that globally, perhaps event triple as the fastest growing TV markets are all outside the USA. How much of that will be new spend and how much will be siphoned off from traditional TV ad spend is up in the air. While America is expected to dominate ad spend in 2013 ($167bn) the five developing markets of China, Russia, Brazil, India and Indonesia will follow, contributing 62% of new ad dollars over the next three years.
It’s hard to put a tangible number on such a fresh market – and it also depends on a number of things… for instance – what exactly is Social TV? And does that include multiplatform casual gaming (social gaming), tCommerce, micropayments etc. Or is it just about advertising or freemium based membership revenue scenarios? Or is it all of the above? Transmedia is also a creative strand that marries very tightly to Social TV but is it Social TV? Is Social TV more about content sharing and content discovery than content revenue?
Predicting a market valuation on Social TV is like trying to pin a medal on a shadow. But kudos for someone having a crack at it – and Myers certainly has the gravitas and personal media brand to resonate the numbers.
We all know Social TV is essentially the intersection of TV and Social Media. But beyond that, there are plenty of forks in media convergence that touch that idea, or use it for dissemination but are not necessarily ‘Social TV’ as one might think.
In the opening remarks at the exclusive event, held at the Belair Country Club in Hollywood (also live streamed for free globally on the Internet), studio heads, writers, producers and a plethora of C-level executives were privy to Myers prediction of where the market is going.
And some believe he’s right. Dave Morgan, over at Mediapost for instance:
While I haven’t fully gotten my head around those numbers yet, Jack is a good friend and has been extraordinarily accurate in his macro market projections over the years, so I’m inclined to believe them, particularly when you consider them within the context of the $40 billion to 50 billion annually which he has previously forecast for all of social media marketing by 2020.
Industry analyst Jack Myers, who publishes the Jack Myers Media Business Report, predicted at the summit that social TV marketing could be a $12 billion market by 2020. While revenue projections are never a safe bet, the dominance of social media in today’s technology world lends some weight to Myers’ forecast. Regardless of the actual number, social TV is something all of us should be watching.
General Assembly resolutionA/RES/64/13 recognizes Nelson Mandela’s values and his dedication to the service of humanity, in the fields of conflict resolution, race relations, the promotion and protection of human rights, reconciliation, gender equality and the rights of children and other vulnerable groups, as well as the upliftment of poor and underdeveloped communities. It acknowledges his contribution to the struggle for democracy internationally and the promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world.
The Africa Heritage Society will recognize the accomplishments four outstanding leaders with the “Champions of Freedom – Justice Democracy Award” on the eve of former President Nelson Mandela’s 93rd Birthday.
WCNTV’s Chairman & CEO Jay O’Conner has just been named as the Social Media Spokesperson for the Africa Heritage Society and you will be able to get updates by subscribing to the WCN Transmedia Blog above and look for my CNN I-Reports for more information about some pretty special events.
The Elders call to Action 67 Minutes of volunteerism called by the Guardian of Freedom and Peace President Nelson Mandela. The Africa Heritage Society is calling all leaders around the world and people of African Descent to prepare for the greatest series of celebrations of our accomplish. Its Heritage Time!!
Dear friends,On 18 July, my dear friend Nelson Mandela – Madiba as we call him in South Africa– will be 93 and I know you will join me in wishing him a very happy day with his family and loved ones.Every day I give thanks to God for Madiba’s courage and commitment to the cause of freedom and justice and am delighted that his birthday is officially celebrated around the world as Nelson Mandela International Day.
Madiba’s birthday wish
So what can we do to celebrate?In his wise way, Madiba asks us not to celebrate him on 18 July. His wish is that we mark the day by doing something for others so I hope you will join us – the Elders – in fulfilling that wish. Let us mark Mandela Day by celebrating our collective power to do good for others and make the world a kinder and fairer place.
As Nelson Mandela gave 67 years of his life in the service of others, to honour him, we ask you to give 67 minutes to make a difference in your community and become a Mandela Day change maker. As he says, it is up to us now.
“It is time for the next generations to continue our struggle against social injustice and for the rights of humanity. It is in your hands.” – Nelson Mandela
How you can make a difference
It can be hard to imagine that our individual actions really make a difference in a world that is so full of suffering, but I want to assure you that they do. As Ela Bhatt writes in her magnificent blog Peace by practice: Mandela Day 2011, what we do each day “is like ripples in water, small circles of change that grow ever wider.”
Many of you write to us asking “What can I do to help?” It can be the smallest gestures, closest to home, that matter most: helping a neighbour in need, organising a street clean up, or volunteering at a local youth group. There are plenty of ways to make a difference, not just on Mandela Day, but every day – here is a list of 67 ideas to get you started.My friends, you have no excuse!
First Crowdfunding is being implemented on the web and various sites are popping up to help Authors and filmmakers raise the small amounts of capital needed to launch their dreams while building an audience at the same time.
Well for the first time in the History of Television WCNTV goes IndieGOGO for its initial project funding. Here is how in less than 30 days you can be part of this history to launch a global IPTV Television using Crowd Funding.
Like Send, Retweet, Repost Email this to everyone you know.
Click Here to go to the WCN Indiegogo Campaign
Also WCNTV will be Exhibiting its new Interactive Ad Template for instant Shopping via Streaming Video at the Atlanta Global Media Conference hosted by I-Strategy.
Register to Be Present in Atlanta
HERE IS A FREE DOWNLOAD UPCODE APP THAT YOU CAN DOWNLOAD FOR FREE AT YOUR APP STORE.
As we rise this morning from the comfort of our homes and neighborhoods around the USA, I cannot help but to think about the soldiers of the United States Military and our Allies around the world who stand on the Wall to defend our Freedoms.
We take so much for granted but they sleep under the sky and in trenches, fox holes and do whatever is necessary so we can be Free.
Today around the table when we pray. Please remember the families of the Troops and reach out to give them a helping hand.
We also take this time to ask President Obama to withdraw all of our Troops from Afghanistan and Iraq immediately. The strategic interest of George Bush and Dick Cheney were not the Strategic interest of the United State. It was personal and literally have driven our country into a ditch. A ditch Mr. President you can pull us out of, if you have the courage as we believe you do.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding lead and guide you and grant you rest. Father today we pray for the hundreds of thousands of warriors and their families. May we not take their sacrifice for granted and begin to lift them up in prayer daily. May they return to their love ones and receive the honour they deserve for their sacrifices. May this Memorial Day bring comfort for those who have lost love ones to war. And may the Holy Spirit visit each one and bring Peace. In the matchless name of Jesus Christ, AMEN.
WCN Transmedia Group nominates Herb Jeffries for the 2011 Presidential Citizen Award. Herb Jeffries was brought to our attention by Eric Galletta of Galletta Guitars. Herb is a great friend of the family and a living legend that we had to write about. I have just pressed the submit button and now I ask all readers and social media gurus to join me in asking the White House to support this nomination. As a matter of fact over the next week lets send this post around the world and enjoy some incredible music brought to you by the good folks of YOUTUBE.
Mr. Flamingo
Hobby
The Sepia Singing Cowboy
Bronze Buckaroo
Height
6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
Mini Biography
This velvet-toned jazz baritone and sometime actor was (and perhaps still is) virtually unknown to white audiences. Yet, back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Herb Jeffries was very big…in black-cast films. Today he is respected and remembered as a pioneer who broke down rusted-shut racial doors in Hollywood and ultimately displayed a positive image as a black actor on celluloid.
The Detroit native was born Herbert Jeffrey on September 24, 1911 (some sources list 1914). His white Irish mother ran a rooming house, and his father, whom he never knew, was of mixed ancestry and bore Sicilian, Ethiopean, French, Italian and Moorish roots. Young Herb grew up in a mixed neighborhood without experiencing severe racism as a child. He showed definitive interest in singing during his formative teenage years and was often found hanging out with the Howard Buntz Orchestra at various Detroit ballrooms.
After moving to Chicago, he performed in various clubs. One of his first gigs was in a club allegedly owned by Al Capone. Erskine Tate signed the 19-year-old Herb to a contract with his Orchestra at the Savoy Dance Hall in Chicago. While there Herb was spotted by ‘Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines‘, who hired him in 1931 for a number of appearances and recordings. It was during the band’s excursions to the South that Jeffries first encountered blatant segregation. He left the Hines band in 1934 and eventually planted roots in Los Angeles after touring with Blanche Calloway’s band. There he found employment as a vocalist and emcee at the popular Club Alabam. And then came Duke Ellington, staying with his outfit for ten years. Herb started his singing career out as a lyrical tenor, but, on the advice of Duke Ellington‘s longtime music arranger, Billy Strayhorn, he lowered his range.
The tall, debonair, mustachioed, blue-eyed, light-complexioned man who had a handsome, matinée-styled Latin look, was a suitable specimen for what was called “sepia movies” — pictures that played only in ghetto and/or segregated theaters and were advertised with an all-black cast. Inspired by the success of Gene Autry, Herb made his debut as a crooning cowboy with Harlem on the Prairie (1937), which was considered the first black western following the inauguration of the talkies. Dark makeup was applied to his light skin and he almost never took off his white stetson which would have revealed naturally brown hair. A popular movie, Herb went on to sing his own songs (to either his prairie flower and/or horse) in both The Bronze Buckaroo (1939) and Harlem Rides the Range (1939). Outside the western venue, he starred in the crimer Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938). As the whip-snapping, pistol-toting, melody-gushing Bronze Buckaroo, Jeffries finally offered a positive alternative to the demeaning stereotypes laid on black actors. Moreover, he refused to appear in “white” films in which he would have been forced to play in servile support.
In the midst of all this, Herb continued to impress as a singer and made hit records of the singles “In My Solitude”, “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good“, “When I Write My Song“, Duke Ellington‘s “Jump for Joy” and his signature song “Flamingo”, which became a huge hit in 1941. Some of the songs he did miss out on which could have furthered his name, were “Love Letters” and “Native Boy”. During the 1950s Herb worked constantly in Europe, especially in France, where he owned his own Parisian nightclub for a time. He also starred in the title film role of Calypso Joe (1957) co-starring Angie Dickinson and later appeared on episodes of “I Dream of Jeannie”, “The Virginian” and “Hawaii Five-0″.
Although he very well could have with his light skin tones, the man dubbed “Mr. Flamingo” never tried to pass himself off as white. He was proud of his heritage and always identified himself as black. In the mid-1990s, westerns returned in vogue and Herb recorded a “comeback album” (“The Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again”) for Warner Western. During this pleasant career renaissance he has also been asked to lecture at colleges, headline concerts and record CDs. In 1999-2000, at age 88, he recorded the CD “The Duke and I”, recreating songs he did with Duke. It also was a tribute honoring the great musician’s 100th birthday.
His four marriages, including one to notorious exotic dancer Tempest Storm, produced five children. At age 90-plus, Herb “Flamingo” Jeffries, who lives in the Palm Springs area with significant other Savannah Shippen, who is 45 years his junior, remains one of the last of the original singing cowboys still alive (along with Monte Hale) from Hollywood’s early western days. In 2003 he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and was invited to sing for President Bush at the White House. He is also the last surviving member of The Great Duke Ellington Orchestra, and certainly deserves proper credit for his historic efforts in films and music.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
He directed and produced Mundo depravados (1967), a cult classic nudie mystery comedy starring his then voluptuous, exotic dancing wife, Tempest Storm. Married in 1959, they divorced not long after the movie was released. They had a daughter Patty. Another of Herb’s ex-wives, Betty Allensworth, was a one-time Rose Bowl princess.
Herb’s cowboy wore all-black duds and white stetson, and rode the handsome steed Stardusk.
Cowboy star Buck Jones, very impressed with Jeffries, once tried to send him to South America and have him learn Spanish. His idea was for Jeffries to acquire a new name and identity while there in order for Jones to produce a series of “white” film westerns for him back in Hollywood. Jeffries refused.
Is a yogi and student of Eastern philosophies. One concert he used to do was called “The Guru” in which he blended classical and jazz with soft rock music.
Personal Quotes
“The word ‘black’ means ‘a void,’ so I have never seen a black man. The word ‘white’ means ‘lack of pigment,’ so I have never seen a white man either. There’s only one race: the human race.”
Most people come to this world by stork. I came by Flamingo, and Duke Ellington delivered me.”
Where Are They Now
(February 2005) Currently living in Idyllwild, California.
(August 2008) Currently living in Idyllwild, California.
Eric Galletta & Herb Jeffries
Thanks Eric for sharing this important information with WCN Transmedia Group and allowing us to lift up this incredible National Treasure. I hope the Presidential Citizen Award Committee Agrees and honors this great man.
Obama A Love Story, Music Clay Aiken Something About Us.
Yes We Can! Support 4 More Years – Jay O’Conner Chairmand & CEO WCNTV.
Moved by his leadership and poise this pictorial instils incredible insights into the true strength of a nation. Our First Lady, Michele Obama, his rock provides the stability and courage that is the measure of the man, President Barack Obama.
African American’s don’t bail out on this Presidency just yet. Go pull out your albums of pictures of your families and see if you see any similarities. As I watched it I could not help but to think about my grandparents and my great grandparents who wish they were here to vote and see this day when the First Family looked like us.
Are we are Perfect Country, No, can we expect a Perfect President in just 2 and half years and has a long list of accomplishments as long as President Theodore Roosevelt. Let’s not forget he inherited a mess from the Bushes which may take years to unravel the truth.
While I may not have gotten all I have wanted from the Administration if the election were held today, I would support the Re-Election of the First Family. I have learned more about being a father, a husband, and someone who is cool calm and collected while at the same time working on the nation’s problems with 30% of the country against anything the President attempts to accomplish.
Yes Tavis is right we have to hold the President responsible for what he does or does not do for black people. But where are the ideas from Black people for Black people?
When the CBC met with President Obama what was asked for? The President showed up to the National Action Network Meeting where Rev Al Sharpton called for an Action Plan. Anyone seen a Action Plan. Now perhaps it’s in formulation and is coming soon. In the meantime, we cannot expect the President to set the Agenda, Catch the bad guys, balance the budget, fix education, immigration, global warming, deal with the Republican opposition and Fox News while being a father, a husband and the leader of the free will.
Bill Maher got it right. See his funny clip about the Presidents Multi-Tasking Ability.
The Startup America Partnership wants to make sure the little guy doesn’t get forgotten. That’s why San Francisco-based IndieGoGo turned up on a new list of companies contributing to the high-profile national job creation initiative last week. One of the first “crowdfunding” platforms, IndieGoGo helps individuals and organizations raise non-equity funding for their projects online. The company said it would contribute to the cause by cutting its fees in half to help these fledgling businesses get off the ground.
It’s an interesting tactic, given that when companies raise money through crowdfunding, they don’t usually think first about hiring people. Most crowdfunded organizations rarely collect more than $30,000 through this method—which makes it hard to hire people for anything other than occasional part-time work. I was curious about the jobs connection—so I contacted IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin and Startup America Partnership CEO Scott Case last week to get their perspective on crowdfunding’s role in creating jobs.
Slava Rubin
“It’s just a matter of time” before the first Facebook-scale company emerges from a crowdfunding platform, Rubin argues. “Three years ago, people used to say ‘No one will ever fund a small, for-profit business this way.’ Now, not only are they raising funding but you’re seeing it across every part of America, in many different industries.”
Building on the buzz over President Obama’s town hall meeting last week at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, the Startup America Partnership held a livestreamed panel at Facebook to announce it has obtained commitments from U.S. companies to provide an additional $400 million in services to American entrepreneurs. That’s on top of the roughly $360 million in commitments announced when the White House, the Kauffman Foundation, and the Case Foundationfirst unveiled the partnership in late January.
Case says the point of assembling these resources—which range from training programs to venture investments—is to increase the number of entrepreneurs who are able to take their businesses from the idea stage to the startup stage to the exponential growth stage, with the ultimate goal of creating more jobs. But when you look at the list of services being offered, most are geared toward established companies. Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU), for example, said it would pitch in $37 million in discounts on its financial software, while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) offered free access to its cloud computing platform, and Silicon Valley Bank said it would hold an “exclusive event” designed to bring the “America’s most promising entrepreneurs” together with venture capitalists and business mentors.
That’s why IndieGoGo stood out on last week’s list. Anybody can join IndieGoGo to raise cash for an idea. It could be an attempt to commercialize an invention (like the AlphaSphere, a futuristic musical instrument with 48 tactile pads) or realize a dream (like a concert tour for the Bucky Walters String Band from rural Humbold County, CA) or sustain a small business (e.g., Atlantis Books, a bibliophile’s haven on the island of Santorini in economically distressed Greece).
Crowdfunding is a model that dozens of organizations, such as new New York-basedKickstarter, are now pursuing. But IndieGoGo, backed by New York-based Penny Black and a number of individual investors, says it is still the world’s largest open funding platform. And the startup says that for the next three years, it will lower the fees it collects on funds raised by qualifying Startup America Partnership members by 50 percent, up to a maximum of $30 million worth of contributed services.
It was important that the Startup America program include components aimed at the earliest of early-stage entrepreneurs, Rubin says. Most of the companies contributing to the partnership “have made massive commitments, whether it’s Microsoft offering BizSpark or Intel offering hundreds of millions in investment capital,” he says. “One of the things they didn’t have, as we were discussing it with them, was any funding platform for companies that aren’t already $10 million companies. Before you can actually grow to 50 employees and $10 million a year, you have to start out with two or three founders and an idea.”
It’s not clear yet how the program will work. Scott Case, who previously co-founded Priceline, says the organization is still putting together a procedure for vetting people who apply for the various services to make sure they’re legitimate entrepreneurs building real companies.
But Case (no relation to Startup America Partnership chairman Steve Case) says that he’s been interested in IndieGoGo’s crowdfunding model ever since meeting Rubin at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, TX, in March. “We recognize that entrepreneurs are all at different stages, and what intrigued me about the crowdsourced funding model was that it really touched on the first two stages—you have an idea and you need to flesh it out, or you’ve started a company and you need to develop a product,” says Case. “What particularly intrigued me was the notion of being able to raise tens of thousands of dollars relatively quickly to get your project off the ground.”
But does online crowdfunding really help to create jobs? There hasn’t been much time for economists to study the question. But if you browse the fundraising campaigns listed on IndieGoGo, Kickstarter, and similar sites, you’ll see a lot of people trying to raise just a few thousand dollars to get a project off the ground, whether it’s vintage-inspired lingerie or a new shrimping device. Obviously, that’s not enough money to fund even one person’s annual salary, let alone a growing company.
At the same time, however IndieGoGo points to examples like Mission Cheese, a San Francisco cheese shop opened by entrepreneur Sarah Dvorak with $12,555 raised on the site; Emmy’s Organics, a vegan bakery in Ithaca, NY, that raised $15,326; and Walk In Love, which raised $30,795 to turn a T-shirt kiosk at a Lancaster, PA, mall into a store. “Projects like Walk In Love started out as one person and now they have several employees,” says Rubin. “Who’s to say they can’t be the next big fashion company? The whole idea is that you want to grow.”
Rubin points out that roughly 600,000 new businesses are started in the U.S. every year, with average of only $7,000 in seed financing. “Imagine if they all got funded on IndieGoGo and they all hired a few people,” Rubin says. “Obviously a high percentage will fail within one year, but a good number of them will become successes.”
Case makes a similar point. Of the 600,000 companies started every year, “The reality is that probably 80 percent of them will never have more than one employee—the founder,” Case says. “The challenge is that neither you nor I can possibly predict which 20 percent are actually going to make it. So we’re trying to make sure we provide resources like IndieGoGo’s at the base level of the primordial soup of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, if you will. How do we make sure there are lots of nutrients in there, to increase the chances that good companies will bubble out?”
There’s another reason crowdfunding platforms are good for jobs, Case says. It’s that companies that are founded with small amounts of capital—often, services companies or those in software or other corners of information technology—tend to have larger employee bases once they succeed. In capital-intensive industries like biotechnology or clean energy, companies tend to spend a lot of money on technology development and intellectual property, but not so much on human resources, he says. “The companies funded by IndieGoGo are likely to be ones where payroll is the heaviest,” says Case.
Finally, running a fundraising campaign on a crowdfunding platform like IndieGoGo can be good practice for entrepreneurs as they prepare for other business challenges, Case argues. “If you can convince people to fund you on IndieGoGo, that’s a good indication that you have something worth investing in.”
Rubin says he expects the Startup America Partnership to issue guidelines for eligibility for the IndieGoGo fundraising discounts and other programs within the next 30 to 60 days.
WCN Transmedia Group in association with the International Goodwill Ambassador Oscar J. Webb, The Africa Heritage Society celebrates THE HARDEST WORKING MAN IN RADIO. Proving daily that Hard Work Determination and Timing Tom Joyner has been there for the Black Community for years. He has made of laugh and thron some of the baddest parties in hstory all while Partying with a Purpose. Tom is a modern day Trasnsmedia Storyteller who has captivated audiences for decades. Its been said that Tom has racked up enough Frequent Flyer Miles during his communte between Chicago and Texas to charter a Jet. But seriously Tom Joyner has created a Enterprise and Foundation to make a difference in the Black Community. Even Corporate America looks to Joyner’s REACH Agency. WCN Transmedia Group has prepared a presentation for the Tom Joyner Foundation, Tom Joyner Morning Show, BlackAmerciaweb.com and the Reach Agency. Our goal is to partner with the Tom Joyner to reach African Amercians with opportunities to create Trasnmedia Revenue Share Communities for purchases they make in a 55 Mile Radius from their homes. Social Media represents the best opportunities to create multiple income streams for families that trust and follow the Fly Jock, Tom Joyner.
Civil Rights to Platinum Rights
Together we can achieve more say’s Ambassador Webb. We celebrate the UN Resolution 64/169 as the greatest achievement for people of African Descent in History. Together with the Africa Heritage Society we are bridging the gap between Africans Globally and the 50 Million Africans who are born in America. WCN Transmedia Group is reaching out to the Tom Joyner Morning Show to support this initiatives to reconnect Africans from around the world to come together under a single cause.
Thomas “Tom” Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American radio host, host of the nationally syndicated The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and also founder of REACH Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com.[1]
He began his broadcasting career in Montgomery, Alabama immediately upon graduation, and worked at a number of radio stations in the American South, before moving to Chicago at WJPC (AM) (now WNTD).
In the mid-1980s, Joyner was simultaneously offered two positions: one for a morning show at KKDA-FM (K104) in Dallas and one for an afternoon show at WGCI-FM in Chicago. Instead of choosing between the two, Joyner chose to take both jobs, and for years he commuted daily by plane between the two cities, earning the nicknames “The Fly Jock” and “The Hardest Working Man in Radio.” He later told Radio Ink magazine that he racked up 7 million frequent flyer miles over the course of his employment at both stations
In 1994, Joyner was signed by ABC Radio Networks to host a nationally-syndicated program, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, featuring Joyner and a team of comedians and commentators reporting and discussing the latest news and sports of the day, and playing popular R&B songs from the 1970s through the 1990s as well as contemporary R&B hits. Also featured are celebrity guests, on-site remotes (called “Sky Shows”), and an on-air soap opera, It’s Your World which is currently not aired. Southwest Airlines is a prominent sponsor of the radio show, especially Joyner’s “Sky Shows,” and free round-trip airfare to any destination that Southwest flies to is a recurring giveaway on his show.
While the program achieved top ratings for a weekly syndicated program themed to African American viewers — even taking the number one show position, although it was in a late night time slot — in such markets as New York and Atlanta, affiliates in other markets were reluctant to upgrade the show to prime time for a targeted audience.[citation needed] Without the opportunity to reach a larger audience in earlier time slots and achieve greater revenues, the show had limited ability to offset the residuals and music clearances required by the many performers appearing on the show. Despite award recognition, in May 2006, Joyner decided not to continue due to production costs related to the music variety show concept.[citation needed] Re-runs are shown on TV One cable channel.[2]
Books and other media
In 2005 Warner Books published “I’m Just a DJ but … It Makes Sense to Me” written with his longtime writer, Mary Flowers Boyce. The book chronicles his childhood and early days in radio as well as offers Joyner’s thoughts on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (“HBCUs”), the power of the black consumer and fatherhood. In February 2009, Amber Books published Tom Joyner Presents How to Prepare for College, a primer for parents and their children offering specific suggests and advice. The book features a foreword written by Joyner with writers Wil and Thomas LaVeist.
He appeared with his father and grandfather in the documentary “Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter” crediting his family with passing down important values which he passed down to his sons as well. His grandfather Oscar “Doc” Joyner was a Pullman porter who became a medical doctor.[3]
Tom Joyner has had cameo roles in two films-The Gospel (2005)[4][5] and Madea Goes to Jail (2009).[6][7] He also had another television show, The Tom Joyner Sky Show (2003),[8] and has appeared on many other television programs.[9]
Personal life
With his first wife Dora, Tom is the father of two sons, Thomas Jr. and Oscar, whom he calls “Killer” and “Thriller”.[10] He is currently married to celebrity aerobics instructor/fitness expert Donna Richardson.[11]
Philanthropy
Joyner has been an advocate for voter registration and throughout the year promotes voter registration over the air, on his website and during his live ‘Sky Shows’ broadcasts. To improve healthy living, Joyner holds a ‘Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day’ every April or September. On that day, he rallies families and friends to go to the doctor to get a check up to prevent any health problems, and particularly treat any existing issues.
Tom Joyner Foundation
Joyner has also founded The Tom Joyner Foundation to provide financial assistance to students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Since 1998, it has raised more than $55 million to help keep students enrolled at HBCUs. The Tom Joyner Foundation also hosts an annual cruise named the Fantasic Voyage which also raises money for HBCU’s.[12]
WCN Transmedia Group in association with The Africa Heritage Society recognize the achievements of THE ONE MILLION SOLES PROJECT to highlight and continue Advocacy for Haiti. We recognize the Executive Committee: Dr. Don-Terry Veal, Rev. Clifford E. Jones, Ambassador Oscar J. Webb and Mayor Maurice Prosper (Haiti) Dr. Keenan D. Grenell, Ms. Ronide Cayo and Dr. Arturo Menefee.
Enter Site
About Us
The Mission
To provide new footwear as disaster relief to communities fighting against foot-borne diseases due to natural and/or social calamities.
Standing On What We Believe
We stand for providing relief to all people in an effort to improve the condition of humanity throughout the world.
We stand for serving the poor as we demonstrate unconditional love and uncompromised relief to all people.
We stand for collaborative efforts that will allow us to help break the cycle of poverty for those in need.
We stand for global social responsibility as we work with communities to help tackle issues stemming from poverty.
We stand for rebuilding communities one step at a time!
WCN Transmedia Group Presents Fran Capo’s Cupa Capo Series, Corporate Sponsor’s desiring access to The Guinness World Record Holder for Interactive Transmedia Brandcasting Campaigns.
According to Jack Myers, who triggered everyone’s radar at the first Social TV Summit in Hollywood, California last week, this could very well be the case and a $12 billion market by 2020 for Social TV is possible. Double that globally, perhaps event triple as the fastest growing TV markets are all outside the USA. How much of that will be new spend and how much will be siphoned off from traditional TV ad spend is up in the air. While America is expected to dominate ad spend in 2013 ($167bn) the five developing markets of China, Russia, Brazil, India and Indonesia will follow, contributing 62% of new ad dollars over the next three years.
Thomas “Tom” Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an 
With his first wife Dora, Tom is the father of two sons, Thomas Jr. and Oscar, whom he calls “Killer” and “Thriller”.
Joyner has also founded The Tom Joyner Foundation to provide financial assistance to students at 
The Mission
