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Dorothy Brunson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dorothy Edwards Brunson (March 13, 1939 – July 31, 2011) was a notable African-American broadcaster.

Between 1973 and 1979, Brunson was an executive with Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, which owned WLIB and WBLS in New York City.[1]

Career

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After leaving Inner City Broadcasting, Brunson was the first African-American female to own a radio station, WEBB (1360 AM) in Baltimore, Maryland, purchased from entertainer James Brown in 1979. She also later purchased radio stations in Atlanta and Wilmington, North Carolina.[1]

Brunson would sell off her radio stations eleven years later in 1990 to provide funding to establish WGTW-TV (Channel 48), licensed to Burlington, New Jersey, a suburb of Philadelphia, to the east across the Delaware River, becoming the first African-American woman to establish a television station.[2][3][4] She later sold WGTW-TV to the Trinity Broadcasting Network in 2004, as the station was experiencing additional hardships with limited financial resources in acquiring additional quality syndicated programming.

Death

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Brunson died from ovarian cancer at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore on July 31, 2011, at age 72.[3][5]

References

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  1. ^ a b "The thrill of winning - profile of Dorothy Brunson CEO of Brunson Communications Inc - International Business Profile Series". Black Enterprise. Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., Inc. November 1995. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
  2. ^ "Baltimore Sun: "Radio station WEBB is sold owner says format to stay", October 19, 1990". Archived from the original on 2012-09-29. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  3. ^ a b "Baltimore Sun: "Dorothy E. Brunson, radio station owner, dies", August 4, 2011". Archived from the original on 2011-12-01. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  4. ^ Reynolds, Rhonda (August 1994). "25 black women who have made a difference in business - brief profiles - Cover Story". Black Enterprise. Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., Inc. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
  5. ^ "Memorial Obituaries - Brunson, Dorothy". Archived from the original on 2012-03-30. Retrieved 2011-08-11.
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