photo by steed media service

There are few people who understand the African American consumer like Stephanie Willis-Stanley. As the manager of urban sales and marketing partnerships for Premier Radio Networks in the southeast region, Willis-Stanley develops advertising partnerships for hit shows like “The Steve Harvey Morning Show,” “Live in the Den with Big Tigger,” “The Sweat Hotel” with Keith Sweat and “Keep Hope Alive” with Jesse Jackson.

For Willis-Stanley, a Fisk University graduate and 12-year radio veteran, the toughest part of her job is dispelling stereotypical notions about African American consumers. “Even though this is 2008 and supposedly we’ve progressed, there are still many advertisers and companies who shy away from or don’t really value our dollar,” she says. “[Advertisers] feel that because we’ve become so mainstream, if they run a general ad — whether there are white or black people in it — we’ll buy anyway. The biggest challenge is to get them to understand the passion that we have for our own media and that you need to speak to us where we are.”

As the country’s largest broadcaster with over 73 nationally syndicated shows for both the general and African American markets, Premier Radio Networks’ hiring of Willis-Stanley demonstrates its committment to bridging this gap in communication.

As Willis-Stanley says, “Finally the consciousness was raised in [the] company, [revealing] that in order to really be able to ... tell the African American story, we need African American salespeople to go out [there] and represent these shows.” -gavin philip godfrey

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