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The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: Byron Allen Talks Ownership, Building Black Wealth, Economic Inclusion + More
01:38:47
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- [00:00]
Byron Allen
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Hey, guys, it's us, the Jonas brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it.
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Charlamagne tha God
We.
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Byron Allen
We just contributed to it. First people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions. Cause we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Tired of overpaying with DirecTV. Dish offers a reliable low price every month without surprises. Get the TV you love and start watching live sports news and the latest movies, plus your favorite streaming apps all in one place. Switch to Dish today and lock in the lowest price in satellite TV starting at $89.99 a month with our two year price guarantee. Call 888, add dish or or visit dish.com today. Protein packed meals in 10 minutes. TikTok's got millions of them. Could you whip one up in under eight? Probably. But hey, it's not a race. Grab the recipes on TikTok and start cooking. Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Charlemagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Lauren Rose is here as well. We got a special guest in the bell.
- [02:04]
Charlamagne tha God
One of my favorite people to talk to, man.
- [02:05]
Byron Allen
Byron Allen, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back. How you feeling? Oh, my God, I feel great. And this is one of my favorite places to be. So thank you for having me back. I really appreciate you and congratulations on all of your success. Did I hear something about the number one show on Netflix?
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Charlamagne tha God
We are, well, podcasting, because Netflix got into the podcasting game. So we make up 44% of all podcast viewing on Netflix.
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Byron Allen
Yes, there it is. Because you bring the truth, real authentic. You're bringing it. All right. Do our best. No, you're doing it.
- [02:35]
Charlamagne tha God
I love talking to you, man. On and off air. I like getting you on air, though, because I get longer time. I feel like I'm bothering you.
- [02:41]
Byron Allen
No, you never bothered me. You never bother me. I. I never say no to you. And remember that.
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Charlamagne tha God
Absolutely.
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Byron Allen
You know, because I really love and appreciate you. I. I really love and appreciate you.
- [02:52]
Charlamagne tha God
A billion.
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Byron Allen
A billion?
- [02:53]
Charlamagne tha God
Yeah.
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Byron Allen
All right. What's your Venmo? You try to say that to a Venmo. Even Venmo be like you've had some
- [03:03]
Charlamagne tha God
very, very impressive announcements lately. Like you're buying everything. Well, you know, Stars bought BuzzFeed or 10% of stars.
- [03:15]
Byron Allen
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We bought just under 11. 10.7%. I like stars. You know, Stars says that they're going after the underserved. That's cold for black. Don't tell anybody. So. So if you gonna go after us, maybe we should own it, right? So if you chasing us, we should own it, right? So Steve Minutian used to be my banker before he got into politics. He was the treasury secretary. And I saw that he owned 11%, just under 11%. And I called him up and I said, hey, do you want to own this stake in Stars? It's publicly traded. And he said, you know, because I said, are you willing to sell it? He said, not at these prices. And I said, well, I didn't give you a price. I just asked you a question. Are you willing to sell it? He said, let me think about it. He called me back. He said, I'll sell it for 25 million. I said, no problem. Let's do it. We'll close tomorrow. So I bought it, and it was a key move because it's hard to buy close to 11% of a company without driving up the price because you're buying so many shares. So I was able to get it done quietly and under the radar. It was a really good move for us because we ended up being the second largest stockholder instantly. And now we have a seat at the table. And so I've made it very clear I plan to buy the whole company. I want to control that company. My first preference would be to keep it public and to take 52% of it and just control it. But there they immediately adapted a poison pill. And they said, hold up. I saw that we do not want you to own this company or control this company. So they took a poison pill to stop me. And I said, that's okay. You know, that won't stop me. You'll just delay us. But we will eventually get what we want. My preference is for it to stay public and for me to control it 51% or greater. But if I have to, I'll buy the whole company, fire everybody. Fire the board, not the people working there. Get rid of the board for resisting me and then take it back public.
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Charlamagne tha God
Have you reached out to somebody like 50 Cent? I mean, to me, 50 Cent is the person who put stars on the map.
- [05:25]
Byron Allen
Yes. I have not.
- [05:27]
Charlamagne tha God
Okay.
- [05:27]
Byron Allen
I didn't want to put him in a bad place and, you know, have him to, you know, figure out what side, you know, he, you know, just let him stay neutral, which I think is a smart place to stay. Let us duke it out in terms of who's gonna own it, who's gonna control it. But I'm highly confident eventually I will control stars. Can we, can we go back to the beginning? For people that don't know, you started off as a standup comic. Yes. And you've created such an amazing fortune. Can you start how you started? What gave you the mind frame and what made you think? You know, I love comedy, but I want to go this route as well. So start, start from there. You know what? You know, thank you for asking that question. Early on, I figured out it's not show business, it's business show. And I started approaching it as a business, and that's important to me that we approach things as a business. And so that's how I started. Started from my dining room table. You know, first I was a comedian. Started at 14 years old. You know, as you know my story, my mom got pregnant with me when she was 16. Had me 17 days after her 17th birthday. So born to a teenage mom in Detroit, Michigan, April of 61. Born with no civil rights and they murdered Martin Luther King in April of 68. And we went, you know, Detroit got lit up like a Christmas tree. And we ended up going to LA for a two week vacation and ended up staying there. And, you know, my mom was like, okay, we're here, we're gonna, you know, we stayed on a lot of sofas, slept in a lot of sofas and spare bedrooms because she was a single mom with a kid that she had when she was 17. And I'm really blessed. My mom is not only, you know, she's brilliant and she's beautiful. And she ended up going to UCLA and getting her master's degree in cinema TV production. And because she got her master's degree in cinema, TV production from one of the best film schools in the world, ucla, she was able to go ask for jobs. And she went all over the country asking for jobs, all over town asking for jobs. And it was a lot of no's. And she got to NBC and she said, you know, you have a job here? And they said, no. And she said, do you have an intern program where I can work here for free and show you my passion for the business? And they said, no, we do not have an intern program where you can work here for free. And then she asked a question that changed our lives forever. She said, will you please start one with me? Wow. And they said, yes. And that changed everything. So my mom couldn't afford childcare, so she took her son to work with her. And so I would go to the studio and wait for my mom to get off from work in the summer and after school. And I was standing there just like a little kid, wallpaper up against the wall. And I'm watching this guy named Johnny Carson do the Tonight Show. And then I would walk across the hall and I watch Red Fox tape Sanford and Son. This is summer of 75. Wow. And then I watch across walk across the hall and watch Freddie Prince and Jack Albertson do Cheek on the Man. And then I would watch Bob Hope do his specials, and I would watch George Burns and all of these great comedians. Richard Pryor do the Flip Wilson Show. I would watch Flip Wilson tape his show. And I thought, what a wonderful way to go through life, making people laugh. So Gladys Knight and the Pips had a summer show, summer of 75, and they had a comedian on. And I knocked on his door and I said, sir, how do you become. I'm 14 at the time. And I said, how do you become a comedian? And he said, go to the Comedy Store. And I said, okay, thank you, sir. And I go, what's the name of that show that you said is going to be on in the fall? And he said, welcome back, Cotter. And it was Gabe Kaplan. And it's, you know, he was. That's when they introduced John Travolta. And I went to the Comedy Store, called the Comedy Store. And they said, we have Monday night tryout nights. Get here early because people, they get here, you know, we open the doors at 7 o'. Clock. I said, no problem. So I took the bus. I got there at nine in the morning. And the doors weren't open, of course. All right. And I sat there on the curb on Sunset and I just wrote jokes and I just sat with my pad and I wrote and all these thoughts in my head, and I'm just writing. And I went on stage. Well, first of all, I remember Mitzi Shore was signing us up. God bless her soul. She was signing us up at the door. And she was barely even. She didn't even barely look up. And she goes, what's your name? What's your name? I said, byron. And she looked up. She goes, how old are you? And I said, 14, ma'. Am. She goes, you can't be in here. I'll lose my liquor license. You have to leave immediately. And so I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. And I start to leave, and then I hear her say, wait a second. Come back. She goes, here's what you do. You stay out in the back. Do not come in the club, because I can lose my liquor license. And she said, I'll send somebody to get you. And here's a drink ticket. Don't you dare get any alcohol. I said, no problem, ma'. Am. I'll just. I just drink water. No problem. To this day, I still don't drink alcohol. I'm 65 years old, right? So finally, I'm standing in the back, right? And all of a sudden, they go, mitzi's ready for you. I say, okay. And I walked in, There were literally four people in the club, right? Two couples, four people, 200 chairs. And I thought to myself, I have to figure out how to make chairs laugh right now. I need to figure out how to get these chairs rolling. So I go up there and I give everything I got. Boom, boom, boom, boom. I come off stage and this guy says to me, hey, and who wrote those jokes? I said, I did. He goes, they were funny. I said, well, those chairs, didn't think they were funny. He goes, no, no, they were funny. He goes, can I get your phone number? He says, you know, I know somebody may want to, you know, really be interested in knowing you. I said, no problem. I gave him my phone number. And like a week or two later, I get this phone call and I go, guy goes, can I speak to Byron? I go, this is Byron. He goes, this is Jimmy at JJ Walker. Wow. So this is Summer of 75. He's the biggest comedian. Television star, Planet Earth. Wow. Good times. Number one show. Dynamite, right? Dynamite. So I said, this is Byron. He goes, my man Wayne Klein saw you at the Comedy Store. And he says, you're funny. And if my man Wayne says you're funny, then you must be funny. I said, I'll tell Wayne I said, hello. Thank you. He goes, I'm. I'm in a writer's meeting right now. Me and my writers. We're in a writers meeting, and we're sitting here, and we're wondering if you want to come over here and write with me and my boys. And I said, well, let me ask my mom. And so he goes. He goes, oh, man. He has to ask his mom. You know, this is back when you had the heart. You have to put your hands over the phone. And then I heard this good dude in the background. I'll tell his mom not to worry. We'll have cookies and milk for him. And he's like, be nice, Dave. You're gonna scare this kid. And so my mom said, okay, you can go. You can go over. So she takes me over there. I'm 14. Wow. So I walk into Jimmy's, and we got to get you the photo of me, 14 years old, I'm sitting in Jimmy Walker's living room, and summer of 75. And I walk in there, right? It's Jimmy Walker, David Letterman. That was the day. Cookies and milk. He had just driven out from Indianapolis in a red or orange pickup truck because he didn't think he was going to make it. And he wanted to be able to get in his car and drive home or his truck and drive home. Jay Leno, who was sleeping in his car. Wow. Right. Marty Nadler, who went on to write and produce. Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days. Jay and Dave were getting paid $200 a week. Okay. I had a paper route that I just quit. I was delivering the Los Angeles Herald examiner, and I had to throw. When I. I would throw a newspaper, I got half a penny. If I threw two newspapers, I got a full penny. I had to throw 200 newspapers to get a dollar. Wow. So I was on my bike, and I was pumping, man. I was throwing. I had one lady who got upset with me for not getting it on her porch and on instead on her steps. I had to get off my bike and put it right on her porch, right? So that was my paper route. So when I sold this joke to Jimmy Walker for $25, I was like, man, that's 5,000 newspapers. Whoa, baby. I have hit the lottery, Right? Yes. We are rolling now. I am in the game. This is it. We gonna be running things here from here on out. I got this $25. We are rolling, baby. That's it. So I'm like, I'm out of here. No more delivering newspapers. I have Made it right? So I get this 25 bucks, and then so Jimmy hands me a check, and I'm like, I've never seen a check before. I didn't know what that was. I'm like, where's the cash? Where is. I need a. I need five fives. I need a 20 and a five even 25 ones. What are we doing here? And so I take. I take it to my mom. I go, what is this? And my mom's like, it's a check. I go, what is a check? She goes, you're gonna take it to the bank. The bank? She goes, yeah. And you're gonna hand it to him. Oh. And I go, what's gonna happen when I hand it to him, mom? They're gonna give you the cash. That's all right. Forget about it. Don't worry about it. And she's like, what do you mean? I said, I don't want to cash it. I don't want to cash it. She goes, are you crazy? I go, well, this check says to me, I can make it in this business. I want to look at this check every day. Every day. Mom, forget it. I'll keep my tape, my paper out. It doesn't matter. She goes, no, no, no, no. You need that money. You are going to cash that check, and you're going to go to Jimmy, and you're going to say, jimmy, you got back that check that I cash, because he's going to get it, and then he can give it to you. So after a writer's meeting, I said, jimmy, can I get that check back that I. That I. That you gave me? And he said, no problem. Right? Kind of casual. I didn't really think he heard me. And then, like, a month later, he had me. He handed me the check, and I framed it. And to this day, 51 years later. Wow. It hangs in my office. So I had Jimmy on my show, and I said, jimmy, does this look familiar? He looked at. I go, this is the moment I knew I could make it in this business. Thank you. Wow. Wow. Okay. So he gave me that check, and then. And then that was for writing. And I was 14, and I never stopped performing. And I did the. I did the. I ended up doing. And Bud Freeman was the first one to give me. He owned the improv, God bless his soul. And one night, he said, what are you doing New Year's Eve? I'm like, I'm 17. I don't have a date, you know? He said, I want you to perform New Year's Eve. I go, okay, no problem. I'll be there. I don't have any plans. So I performed. I was 17. I did the New Year's Eve show. And then like a month or two later, he walked up and handed me a check for 25. I go, what is this for? He said, well, you perform New Year's Eve, and I pay comedians on New Year's Eve. At this point, we didn't get paid to perform at the comedy clubs. And so I was like, really? You paying me to be a comedian? Because in my mind, I'm willing to do this for free for 10 lifetimes. That's how much I love it. He said, no, no, you got it. Those two checks are framed and hanging in my office. The 25 for writing a joke and the 25 for performing. Wow. And I never stopped performing when I started writing for Jimmy. And I ended up doing the Tonight show with Johnny Carson. Ended up being the youngest comedian to do it with Johnny. I was 18 years old. I got a lot of offers, thank God. And one of the offers, Joan Rivers wanted to do a sitcom with me. Wow. And I love Joan. I just loved her. And one of the offers was this reality show. And I said, and I'm very numerical. I love numbers. I've always loved numbers. Right. And I've always said, approach it with, you know, through the lens of numbers, mathematically. So one of the offers was a reality show. And I said, I want to go with this. And my mom said, why do you want to go with that? And I said, well, you know, mom, there are three networks. ABC, NBC, CBS, and that's it. Three networks. No, Fox at this point, 1979. And I sit there, each network has 22 hours of prime time, 66 hours in total. This is the only hour that's different from the other 65 hours. And I think the mere fact that this hour is different from the other 65 hours, this show could make it, and make it long enough to put me through USC film school. So, mom, you don't have to pay for it. I think it's strong enough to do that. Because it's different, right? Little did I know, real people, the show I picked went on Wednesday nights at 8 o'. Clock, and it changed the face of television and gave birth to what we now know, reality television shows. It was the first reality show. And for me, I was able to travel the country and see everything in between LA and New York, because that's truly America. I'm in these little towns. Co shocked in Ohio, Waterloo. I'M in these spots, man. One stoplight. I'm the first black person they've ever seen. I was like, E.T. in some of these towns, they were like, E.T. phone home. I'm like, yeah. They had never seen anybody black in person. And it was like, wow, this is America. And you get to see America, and you really get to see it right down to the smallest town and the people. And you're like, you're on their porches, you're in their homes, they're talking to you, they're relating to you. And you get to know that's invaluable, that input. So when I was on real people, you know, there was a contract dispute. And in that contract dispute, they said, this is what you're worth. And I thought my worth was far greater. And it hurt me as to, hey, this is what you're worth. And I said, you know what? I'm never going to let anybody determine what my worth is again. I will work for myself from this point on. So I went to my first television convention when I was about 19 years old. January of. January of 2020. I'm sorry, what was it? January of 80. So sorry. Losing my years. January of 81. January of 81. That's when it was. And it was in here in New York. Natby, national association of Television Programming Executives. It was at the New York Hilton.
- [21:00]
Charlamagne tha God
How did you know to go to that?
- [21:01]
Byron Allen
Somebody had told me about it, you know, my agent and said, hey, there's this convention, blah, blah, blah. So I walked into the hotel and I said, who's the smartest? Who's the best in the business? And they said, al Masini. Said Al Masini. Okay, where can I find him? They said, he's up on the 44th floor. And the hotel was packed because of the convention. And it took me a half hour to get up the elevator, right? So I get up there, he's up on the floor. He's up and he's in the suite, and he's pitching to all these guys in suits. And his back was to the door. And I walked in, and I'm watching him sell. I'm watching him sell this idea to these executives, these. All these guys in suits. And he says, I have this idea, and I'm going to spend $30 million. This is January of 81. He says, I'm going to spend $30 million producing this idea, and I'm using this technology, and I'm going to use satellite. And it's a. It's a show where I'm going to tape it at 12:30 in the afternoon. I'm going to put it on the satellite. And this guy goes, what's a satellite? It's new technology and it's a bird. And I'm gonna buy you a dish. And when you get back to your town, Cleveland, wherever you from, there's gonna be a satellite dish and you're gonna pull it down off of the bird, off of the satellite. You're gonna run it at 7 o'.
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Charlamagne tha God
Clock.
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Byron Allen
And it's a unique show. And they said, okay, Al, what's the name of the show? He said, I'm calling the show Entertainment Tonight. And I watched him sell Entertainment Tonight in January of 81 for September or launch September of 81. And then I walked up to him, I introduced myself, said, Mr. Mercini, Mr. Messini, I understand you're the best. Just want to get to know you and learn from you. And I said, where are we having dinner tonight? He kind of laughed. He says, I'm taking my clients to dinner. I said, well, can I come? He goes, you like Italian food? I said, I love Italian food. Where are we going? And so I watched him, and I'm watching him sell and he, he became like a second father to me, you know, he, you know, he never had kids, got married four times. I was at three of his four weddings. They were all nice ladies. And so, you know, he just really helped me learn the business, you know, And I watched him sell Entertainment Tonight, Star Search, Lifestyles, Rich and Famous, Solid Gold, blah, blah, blah.
- [23:28]
Charlamagne tha God
Never heard any of those shows.
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Byron Allen
Yeah, you too. You are too young for these shows. I've never heard of them.
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Charlamagne tha God
When you say E.T.
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Byron Allen
i didn't know if they knew about E.T. e.T. But continue. Yeah, of course, we know. 18. Yeah, these shows, These shows are way before your time. Way before your time.
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Charlamagne tha God
I'm being sarcastic.
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Byron Allen
No, no, no. But, but I would get it, like, if you didn't see these, actually.
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Charlamagne tha God
Oh, right.
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Byron Allen
Oh, yeah.
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Charlamagne tha God
Okay.
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Byron Allen
These are classic. Okay. So he created these shows and he taught me. He said, byron, these were. He said, I. These were shows I listened to on the radio. Wow. He said, these were radio shows. He goes, when I was a kid, I loved Heidi Hopper. She told you the entertainment News. He said, I loved Hit Parade. Right. Solid Gold. I love Ted Mack's amateur hour, Star Search. So he took what he heard as a kid on the radio and made television shows. And I said, got it. And then there was guys like Roger King and Michael King. They gave you Will of Fort. They gave you Will of fortune and Jeopardy. And Jeopardy. And Oprah and. And they were just great guys and they helped me and they embraced me and they were like, we see your hustle. We like your hustle. We see what's going on with you in the industry.
- [24:42]
Charlamagne tha God
Can I ask a question? At what point, at what point in any of those moments did you realize, I don't want to just be talent, I got to own the machine?
- [24:49]
Byron Allen
That's it. You know, at that point when someone said, hey, this is what I'm going to pay you to host real people. And it was like, no, that's not. I'm worth more than that.
- [24:58]
Charlamagne tha God
Yeah.
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Byron Allen
You know, and I don't want to work for anybody. Right. As a kid in Detroit, I think coming from Detroit really helped me a lot too. You know, there was two sides of my family, you know, on my father's side, my grandfather and my grandmother opened a skating rink 75 years ago that's still open. Wow. The Rollercade Roller Rink. It's more than 75 years. And it was a place where the community would go roller skating. So now remember, I'm born in 61, right? I was roller skating before I was walking. My very first job. Five years old, whatever it is, four, six, I don't even know. I was a kid. There's a photo of me standing in skates in the middle of the roller skating rink. My first job, I'm the floor guard. My job is to have a whistle. And when a kid fell, all of a sudden all the kids would stack up and start going up to the ceiling. My job was to blow the whistle. So my cousin would take the needle off of the record, stop playing the song, so the kids would stop skating and piling up to the city, to the ceiling. So I watched my grandfather and my grandmother own and operate this business. And I watched them, you know, put the money in the cash register. And we owned this business. So that right there was that side of me, right. Seeing that from my. My gr. My father's side, my grandfather Leroy watching Leroy and Johnny May, okay, Johnny May and Leroy built this business. Then on my mom's side and also my dad, My dad worked at Ford Motor Company for 30 plus years. And my granddaddy worked at Great Lake Steel for 30 something years. And I watched these guys go to work and get to work an hour early every day, never late and never called in a day sick. That blue collar mentality where it was just the work ethic was just like a force of nature. Show up every day and give 110%. So you see that both sides, that blue collar and that, you know, that business side. Entrepreneurship. Yeah, right. That entrepreneurship. So I was at that perfect blend of seeing it from both sides. And I remember my mother and my grandmother would put me in the car with my. My uncle, who's really like my brother. He's only four years older than me. Me, Terence. And they would take us to see where all the rich white people lived. And they were like. And that's where the Ford family lives. And you just look at this big mansion. Like, wow, look at that. That place is bigger than my school. And they were like, that's where the Dodge family lives and the Chrysler family and the Goodyear family, these industrial families. And they said, and that's where Barry Gordy lives. I went, what? Barry Gordy, a black man, lives over here with this big, old, nice house? Oh, yeah, he has a swimming pool in his house. Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me I'm walking 30 minutes to get into the community swimming pool, or I'm waiting around for the fire department to open up a fire hydrant, and this dude has a pool in his house? Oh, yeah, he's got a bowling alley in his house. What? A bowling alley?
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Charlamagne tha God
Oh, my inspiration.
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Byron Allen
Tell me more about this guy. Yeah, his name is Barry Gordy. Motown Records. Blah, blah, blah. I said, okay, there it is right there. I'm chasing him. I'm chasing him. And I'll never forget when he sold Motown, and he had every right to do it. I cried. I was in the room when they announced it. He was on stage, and MCA Records bought it. I was back there, and they had it up at Universal Studios.
- [28:38]
Charlamagne tha God
How much was it for back then?
- [28:39]
Byron Allen
I think it was 60 million. Wow. And I was like, money in that time. A lot of money. And he's. And he sold it, and he had it, but he kept the publishing. Being the brilliant Barry Gordy that he is. And I thought, my God, we have to own something as black people. We don't own anything. America can't be this wealthy without us. You can't. Anybody can be very wealthy with hundreds of years of free labor. Anybody can be a gazillionaire, but we don't own it. And I said, we have to own something. And I decided, I'm gonna build something that we will own. It has to be owned by us. We have to control the narrative. We have to control how we're produced. We have to control how we're depicted and how we're seen around the world. We can't let others do that. And the key to that is, is to understand it and approach it as business show, not show business. So what does that mean? I have to get to know everybody who owns and operates a television station. No problem. I traveled the country as a comedian, and what I would do is invite all the people who owned and operated television stations come to my show. And if they couldn't come to my show, I go to their station. Can I take you to breakfast? Can I take you to lunch? Can I take you to dinner? Let's go to the movies. Let's get to know each other, hang out. So I got to know all the people who owned and operated television stations. I'm not in their country club. And if I'm not in your country club, I got to create my own country club. Pull up at Denny's. This is my country club. What, you want some pancakes? I got you. So I get to know everybody. I get to know the TV stations. Now I have to get to know all the advertisers. So wherever I go, I go sit down with the advertisers, the clients. Hey, what are you doing over here? Talk to the clients. Coca Cola. Go see them, right? Got to know them. Now I can put the two together. And I started the company from my dining room table and I put on my first show, Entertainers with Byron Allen, fall of 93.
- [30:45]
Charlamagne tha God
This under the Allen Media Group?
- [30:46]
Byron Allen
Yeah, this is under Allen Media Group. So I called all I had a guy, I called all I said, this is a once a week show where I interview movie stars talking about their movies, right? I went to the Junkets. It's a one hour show. There's 14 minutes of commercial time, right? I'll keep seven minutes. You TV station, you keep seven minutes. I will sell my seven minutes to national advertisers. You sell your seven minutes to local advertisers, right? I had a guy say to me, hey, if you was an ad sales guy, he goes, if you clear 75% of the country, I will give you an advance of 400 grand so you can go into production. I said, no problem. Sat at my dining room table from sunup to sundown for a year, wore holes in my dining room chairs. And I called all 1200 television stations from sunup to sundown, asked them to pick up this once a week show for free where I would keep half of the commercial time inside the show. And literally I got 50 to 100 no's from each of them. And after working through 50,000 plus no's. I was able to squeeze out 150 yeses. And that was a TV station in every market from New York to Waterloo, Iowa. And I was able to then say to advertisers, look, I can give you XYZ percent of the country. So I went to the guy and said, you know what you told me If I cleared 75% of the country, you would give me 400 grand. I've cleared 95% of the country. Some far greater than 75, whatever it was. And he said, I changed my mind. I'm not going to give you the 400 grand. And I thought, my God, I just spent a year of my life building out this lineup. And what really, the defining moment for me was back then was my mom was doing my paperwork. And I remember. And she would, you know, whenever I got a station cleared, she would put it onto the clearance list. And I noticed, I said, mom, you didn't put down that. I cleared the CBS affiliate in Wilkes Barre, Scranton. And she's shuffling all these papers around. She's shuffling. And I'm like, mom, you got to be more organized. Like. Like this is really hard to get. She goes, byron, they didn't. It didn't send it back. So I called the guy up and I said, bob, it appears as if my executive assistant has misplaced your paperwork. And he said, no, she didn't misplace it. He goes, I know I told you I would do the deal, but I changed my mind. I'm not doing the deal. Not putting you on Saturday night at 11:30. And I said, you're good, man. I said. I said. I said, are you serious, Bob? He said, yeah. He said. He said, I'm not doing the deal. I go, why? And this is a big deal because people who run TV stations, they're usually, Their word is gold. They do not go back on their word, right? He said. He said, I had some sales guys in here, three of them from Paramount Studios, and they came in to sell me a show, and they told me I should give them your time period, the 11:30. He said, they told me you were calling me from your dining room table in your underwear, your pajamas, whatever you're wearing, and that the show is never going to be there. And if it is there, you're going to put it on for two or three weeks, and then you're going to cancel the show. So I gave him your time period, and that is what it is, and goodbye. And he hung up the phone, right? He hung, like, call him Back, right? So I call. I said, bob, wait one second. I said, listen, buddy. I said, listen, okay? I said, listen. How many guys did they send in from Paramount? He goes, three. Okay? I said, did they have on nice suits? He goes, yeah. I go, yeah, they get paid a lot of money now. At this point, I couldn't afford to go see people at TV stations. I said, the boys from Paramount are right. I am calling you from my dining room table. You know what, Bob? I'm not gonna lie. I'm in my underwear, too, okay? I said, but here's the deal. I said, the show's gonna be there. The show is gonna be on the air. And tell the boys from Paramount, I'm never gonna cancel the show because of what they did. I'm gonna leave the show on until the end of time because I'm never gonna let the boys from Paramount come into a TV station and cast doubt on me and my abilities. And I never want them to convince anybody in this world that I'm not going to do what I say I'm going to do. And, Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual, even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone, check out this guy in his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.
- [35:52]
Charlamagne tha God
What's the news?
- [35:52]
Byron Allen
Huge news. We created our own podcast called hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We. We just contributed to First People to do podcasts. Pretty. Yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how did we. How do we actually come up with the name hey Jonas? Guys, I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking. I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing a bit for the podcast. People could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, hey, Jonas. And offered it up as a potential title for the Podcast, but thanks for remembering that. Guys, listen to hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite on Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier this week. My guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Who's the worst singer in the group? The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard you only got in because your parents made a huge donation to the group? To the group? The Yardbirds. Right? That's the name. The Harvard Yard. They're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle aged one erection, listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. With Verbocare, help is always ready before, during and after your stay. We've planned for the plot twists, so support is always available because a great trip starts with peace of mind. So let the boys from Paramount know you got this clearance, but you'll never get another one from me based on you telling people, I'm not going to come through. I'm going to leave it on until the end of time. I'm never canceling the show. Just tell them that. So fast forward two weeks later, the guy says, I'm not sending you to 400 grand. And I thought, damn those boys from Paramount. I said, I am not calling this dude back and telling him the boys from Paramount were right. The show's not gonna be there. I'll be damned. I'm going forward. I'm gonna figure it out. I didn't know how to sell advertising time, okay? So my home went in and out of foreclosure 14 times. There are days I'm not eating right, I'm skipping meals, I'm. They turn my phone off. I'm calling TV stations and advertisers from a pay phone, right? And I'm just going, I'm smiling and dialing, dialing and smiling. And finally I started getting 1-800-love songs of the 80s and disco songs of the 70s. And the lady said, well, I'll give you your own phone number. So when people call and order up a disc, a cd, you'll get credit for it. And every Monday I say, how many CDs did I sell? How many love songs did I sell? She said, you sold $800 worth. You sold a thousand dollars. And she would FedEx me the check for Tuesday delivery. And that's how I would pay my bills. I had to get that FedEx every Tuesday, right. And so then after I got one 800 Love Songs of the 80s, I said, okay, movie studios. I'm having your movie stars on. You're spending a billion a year advertising. Spend money with me so I can be there to support you. Solidified the movie industry. Then I went and solidified car companies, soft drinks, packaged goods, pharmaceuticals. I just went industry by industry, looked up, bam. I'm in business now with, you know, 700 advertisers. Kept smiling and dialing, dialing and smiling. Put on another show, another show, another show. Next thing you know, we're sitting there with 70 something television shows. 75 plus TV shows in business with every television station in the country. And pretty much 700 plus advertisers ended up with the largest privately held television library. And then I realized, hey, I want to go into the linear space. So then I started launching cable networks so we could be 24,7. And then the opportunity for the Weather Channel came along. Guy came to me, he said, hey, can I have dinner with you? I said, sure. I said, let's have dinner. He says, you know, before I became the CEO of, of, you know, this company had a company called Encompass where they satellite 24 hour networks. He said, I used to be the CEO of a chief operating officer of the Weather Channel. He says, you don't think about the Weather Channel because you live in LA and it's always 80 degrees and sunny. He goes, but it's a great business and you should buy it. He said, it's owned by two private equity firms that manage like a trillion dollars and NBC Universal. And they're not getting along and they want to sell it and you should get in there and go get it. I got into the process and I bought it. And after that we just started buying other assets. Invested about $1 billion buying ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates. I bought those affiliates so that I could protect my cable networks. Right. So we can grow that. And then we started investing now in digital platforms.
- [41:26]
Charlamagne tha God
Fast forward now. You've just purchased the 11:30 time slot on CBS.
- [41:31]
Byron Allen
Yes.
- [41:32]
Charlamagne tha God
With Paramount.
- [41:36]
Byron Allen
Different management, different ownership, but came all around. Yes. Yeah, it came around. Yeah. The boys from Paramount, that moment, if they hadn't said that to him, it was like, did you just tell that dude, I'm not gonna do what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do it, damn it.
- [41:54]
Charlamagne tha God
Were you thinking about that for years? Like one day I'm gonna buy that time slot.
- [41:58]
Byron Allen
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. I mean, listen, since the moment I was a kid, since I was 14 years old and I first laid eyes on Johnny Carson, I said, that's what I'm doing. I'm gonna do that show. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do a late night show. And that relationship with Johnny for me started real early, right? So Johnny Carson, king of television, right? He would pull into his parking space at NBC at 2 o', clock, like clockwork. Right? Now it's summertime. I don't have anything to do. I'm waiting for my mom to get off work. And I would start these little conversations with him because I knew he would pull in And I'd say, Mr. Carson, I saw your monologue last night. I really like this joke, blah, blah, blah. And then over time he's like, hey, you like that one? I go, yeah, that was a good joke, Mr. Carson. And over time, I just kept. Right. Over time I would just say, Mr. Carson, I like this Mr. Carson. And he got to know my name. So thank you, Byron. Thank you, Byron. Right, so then when I do the tonight show, I'm 18 years old and I'm standing behind the curtain and I'm talking to the crew. I don't know if you ever saw the Gong Show. There was a guy called Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine. Remember Gene? Gene the Dancing Machine. There was a guy, he would come out, he would dance with Chuck Bears. He was one of the crew guys. And he was the one who would open the curtain and I'm joking with him and another guy. And we're standing there and I'm waiting to walk on. And all of a sudden they stop. They got real serious. All of a sudden they stopped, like joking with me because I had my back to the curtain and they went like that. They cleared their throats, right? So I was, I'm like, why are these two brothers all serious? All of a sudden, like, like that, and then I turn around, it's Johnny Carson. And he said, don't worry, kid. He said, don't worry, kid, you're going to be great like that. And they said to me, in all the years we've worked with him, 20, 30 years, all these years we've opened the curtain for the guest, he has never gotten up from behind his desk and said anything to anybody. They said, whoa. That's all they said, whoa. Yeah, right. So I said, I stood behind that curtain, I said, okay, in the next five minutes, I'm gonna change my life and my mother's life for the better. Next five minutes, open the curtain, let's do this. Bam. Curtain, open up. Did the, you know, did my set got all these offers. So I got to know Johnny. He basically Every comedian has two birthdays. Their real birthday, April 22, 1961 and the day they do the Tonight show with Johnny, May 17, 1979, right? So I do the show and it got me real people so forth and so on. So I ended up doing the Byron Allen show as a once a week, one hour show. And I had on Whitney Houston, which is one of my favorite interviews. And it's all over TikTok now and all that stuff. And, and because I, I went on tour with Whitney and a few other folks. So they said, where do you want to tape the show? I said, I like to tape it at NBC, where I grew up on the lot, going to work with my mom. They said, okay. So they show me all the studios that are available, right? They say, this studio, that's you. I said, you know, you showed me every studio except one. They go, which one? I said, you didn't show me Johnny Carson studio. They looked at me and they started. These guys who run the, you know, the studio, they started looking around. That was funny. It's good. You should put that on the show, right? I said, no, no, no, no. I said, no, you didn't show me Johnny's studio. They go, what are you thinking? I said, well, let me tell you what I'm thinking. I said, he shows up at 2 o', clock like clockwork. He walks in, goes up to his office, he works on his monologue. He comes down at 5:27 and he gets right behind the curtain. And at 5:30 exactly, they start the theme song. He hits his mark. He does a 7 to 10 minute monologue, goes on, he does his show. Show ends at 6:30 like clockwork. He goes upstairs, he changes his clothes, he takes his makeup off, he's back downstairs by about 6:45. His two producers, Peter La Salle and Fred Decordova, walk him to his car between 6:45 and 7:00 clock, and he tells them what he liked about the show and what he didn't like about the show, who he wants back on and who he doesn't want. Want back on. And then he's off the lot no later than 7 o', clock, and he's driving back to his home in Malibu on the beach. That's his schedule, Tuesday through Friday. So here's my thinking. We strike his set the moment he drives off the lot. You start, you let my crew come in at 7:02, strike his set, his set comes out. You put my set in on Saturday, I tape two shows on Sunday. And then we put his set back in on Monday. He drives in from Malibu on Tuesday and it's like it's never been moved. That's my thinking. Why is the studio so important to you, Byron? Why do you want this studio? I said, because this studio was built by a comedian for a comedian. It was built by Bob Hope. He's the one who designed the studio. Most television studios, the audience sits in a pit. And when you're a comedian, you walk out and you tend to play the audience. So you're looking down at the audience, so your eyes are closed and the camera's right there. And you're not looking at the camera because the audience is below the camera. I said, but Bob Hope designed this studio where he put in stadium seating. Seating. And it rakes up and it rakes up, so it forces you to open up and your eyes open up and you look up and the cameras right there. You are able to connect with the audience and be more intimate as you do your comedy, you're more open as opposed to closed and looking down. Bob Hope designed it. That's why Johnny Carson loves his studio. That's why Bob Hope does his monologues still for his special in this studio. This is the studio for a comedian. They said, okay. They said, we will ask him. He's gonna say no. I said, yes. But after he says no, after he says no, just tell him the request came from Byron Allen. Just say that. So they go, Mr. Carson, may we strike your studio, your set, and put in another show? Hell, no. Why are you coming to me and asking me that? Sorry to bother you, sir. Sorry to bother you. By the way, just so you know, the request came from Byron Allen. He goes, oh, came from Byron Allen. Came from Byron, huh? He goes, yeah, the kid can strike my set. Wow. Wow. They call me back, they go, wow. He said, you can strike his set. I said, thank you. They say to me, okay, you're in. They said, we're giving you part. Johnny was parking space number one. They said, we're giving you parking space number two. I said, I don't want parking space number two. They said, don't you dare ask for number one. I said, I'm not that crazy. I said, johnny Carson has a white Corvette. I have a black car. I don't want to nick his car. Can I have parking space number three? Put somebody in between us. Let them nick Johnny Carson's car. Right. They said, okay, no problem. So they gave me parking space number three. Right. So they give me parking space number three. Why was that key? It's because I wanted to have these conversations with Johnny in the parking lot, and I wanted to learn from him. So I said, Mr. Carson, did you see my show was on Saturday nights at 11:30 on ABC KBC? Yeah, I did. Watch it. What you think, sir? He goes, okay, I think you should pull back. He says, let your guest shine. You step. He goes, you can always be funny. You always can be the funniest one there. Don't ever worry about that. He goes, you're very funny, very talented. He goes, just pull back. You're just there to make sure they don't fall. He goes, you step in when they're kind of stumbling. And he goes. And then he said something to me I never forgot. He said, byron, remember this? I'm not doing a talk show. The first half hour of my show is a comedy show. He said, kid, make him laugh. Make them laugh. And I said, got it. And that's how I created comics. Unleash. And I said, ah, I'm not gonna do a talk show. I did a talk show, the Byron Allen show, where I had on the biggest stars in the world. And it failed. It failed. Who cares? They didn't need me going, blah, blah, blah. And I said, no, I'm gonna do a comedy show. I'm not gonna have celebrities on talking about anything, plugging anything. I'm just gonna have comedians on being funny and making people laugh. And it's not about us. It's about you. It's about making sure you laugh. It's a. It's about making sure we give you a great return of your investment of time that you gave to us. So that's how I gave birth to comics unleashed 20 years ago, because of those conversations with Johnny Carson in the parking lot. And I paid a fortune to strike his set and put my set in. But. But I was able to go to Johnny Carson University and have those conversations, a minute, two minutes, three minutes in the parking lot and get that point of view. And he would just. This is the man who created late night television at the next Level. He didn't start it. Steve Allen did, and those guys did it. But he's the one who really made it a science. And he said that first half hour is just comedy. Then I have a couple of celebrities on to talk about this and that. Right. And so exactly what you're going to be doing, that's exactly on cbs. It's exactly a comedy show. It's nothing but comedians. Right. I launched this show 20 years ago, and this is our 20th anniversary. We've had on about a thousand comedians. A little over a thousand comedians as on. Most of them unknown. Most of them unknown. An unknown. Kevin Hart. An unknown. Sebastian Maniscalsco. Oh, wow. Nate Bergotsky. Right. Nate Burgosky, Theo Vaughn, Cheryl Underwood, Tiffany Haddish, some of them. They're. They, you know, Leslie Jones, some of them. This is their first television appearance. Dean Edwards, you know, like, on and on. Godfrey. Some of the greats.
- [52:55]
Charlamagne tha God
Are you keeping that same formula for when it.
- [52:56]
Byron Allen
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Same thing. There's nothing about the show is changing other than, you know, we just. We're on CBS and syndication. We're still keeping it in syndication. So the idea, and it's for me, it's full circle because this is something I've always wanted, obviously, for myself and for the community. Right. Television's almost 100 years old. 100 years old. ABC, NBC, CBS. We've never had a black person in that 11:30 time period on a regular basis. Right. So we've never had that network television. We had our first black president before we had our first network late night host on a network.
- [53:39]
Charlamagne tha God
Because Arsenio wasn't network.
- [53:41]
Byron Allen
Yeah. Arsenio is great. Arsenio is amazing. He was syndicated, and I think if he had been on the network, his show would have run a lot longer. Right. That distribution gets challenging. As the local TV stations say, I want to do this, I want to do that. Arsenio is amazing. And I love Arsenio. Yeah. The network never opened up the door to him the way I think they should have opened the door to him. They should have given it should have been network. Right. In my humble opinion, he deserved that.
- [54:10]
Charlamagne tha God
Absolutely.
- [54:11]
Byron Allen
So I said, okay, I'm gonna. I'm not gonna wait for them to open up the door. I'm just gonna buy it.
- [54:18]
Charlamagne tha God
Why is it worth it for you to do that? Like that model like. I know you lease the air time. Well, CBS leases the airtime to your company, Allen Media Group. And they call it, what, a time buy?
- [54:27]
Byron Allen
They call it a time buy. And it's a great question. So that's the business show, right? Now, if we go back and we approach it as business show, what do we know? What we know is all of television is a time buy. All of it, right? Colgate Comedy Hour. Okay? Texaco presents GE Theater with Ronald Reagan. Soap operas. Soap operas. Procter and Gamble created soap operas to sell soap. All of television is a time buy. It's just everybody's used to a big corporation buying the time and not an individual. Whoa, what's going on here? This isn't Procter and Gamble. This is Byron Allen buying the time. So now remember, I have these assets. I have close to 2,000 employees. Several hundred of them sell advertising time. So I have relationships with 700 plus advertisers. So it's easy for me to buy the time and then go sell the advertising. And what I said to cbs from a business point of view, and that's business show. I said, okay, let's look at this. I said, you have this 12:30 show. It was Cordon. And then after that was a show called After Midnight. And I said, you guys are spending 30 to 40 million a year on this show, right? I happen to own abc, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates. I said, you're wasting time. After that show ends at 1:30 in the morning, you're handing me an audience that I then go and run an infomercial and it's 1-800- spray on hair. You're giving me this huge audience of to. She uses it a lot. I need to use it, right? 1-800- spray on hair. Like. Like you're spending 40 million bucks to hand me a bunch of people to say here, 1-800-abs in 15 minutes. I said, don't waste that money. Stop spending 30, 40 million on production and promotion and marketing. And I will save that money and I will buy the time period from you put on Comics Unleashed. So they put the show on in September and then they're like, oh, my God, the show's working. The show's winning the time period. I go, well, why are you surprised, right? Why are you surprised? It's winning the time. I'm bringing you the entire depth and breadth of comedy. Comedy has never lost. Everlasting comedy has never lost, and comedy never will. And comedy has built everything that's great in media. Who built the movie industry? Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd. Who built radio? Bob Hope, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Milton Burrow. Who built television? Who built those? Who built tv? Those same radio stars who built cable. Oh, wow. Cable was built by, you know, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, who built streaming. Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler. Everything that's great is built by comedy. So we do a comedy. We do a talk show that's only comedians and they're coming in here. And I said, the other thing is, you don't understand the power of the people. You're living in a bubble. In a bubble. And you don't. Because when I first did the show and I shot like four or six episodes of Comics Unleashed, I went to the head of Comedy Central and I said, look at this show. I think you should put it on Comedy Central. He looked at it, he said, it's funny, but it's not our kind of comedy. I go, well, there's only one kind of comedy. I said, funny. He said, no. He said, our audience, young white boys with a bong on their coffee table. That's what he said. That's our audience. Young white boys want a bong on their coffee table. And I said, listen. I said, comedy is far greater than that, has far more depth than that. And I said, there's so many unique points of views. And so that's why I'm proud of the fact when you look at Comics Unleashed, I've had everybody on the show, young, old, black, white, Jewish, Muslim, Asian, Hispanic, gay, disabled. Everybody has come through and done that show. And I love it because comedy is the great unifier. I love the way Norman Learn used television and comedy. He introduced each of these families to one of what? To each other. He introduced the black family to America. He introduced. He introduced us to the single mom in America. And I believe it's tough. I believe without. Without good times and without the success of Good times and the success of the Jeffersons. You don't get the Cosbys. Yeah. And I don't think if you don't get Good Times, the Jeffersons and the Cosby's, it's a stronger, it's a tougher leap to the Obamas in the White House. You have to introduce the black family to white America to say, we're just like each other. We're the same. He used the power of television to say, what's the problem here? This is we're the same. And I said, okay, I want to use the power tv, introduce these comedians, listen to their point of view. Listen to these people talk about their lives and who they are, how, you know, they're gay and what it was like for them to come out or what it's like for them to deal with their weight? Or what is it like to be a Muslim? To try and travel through the airport? Or what is it like to be Jewish and dealing with this or that, whatever it is, this unique point of view, to be black and you're inner. Like, I love it. You've got the best minds, and you're making us laugh and you're making us connect. Which is why I said, look, guys, 20 years ago, when we started doing the show, I said, no politics, Nothing racist or sexist or anti semitic. Just be. You know, be funny and talk about your life and bring us together. And I've always made it a point. I said, you know, right when I started the show 20 years ago, Vanity Fair had an article and it was why women aren't funny. I said, okay, we will always have women on this show. Always. There has to be a female comedian right next to me. Right next to me. And then you look at it and you go, okay, women are the funniest in the game. Now you watch Nikki Glazier stole the Tom Brady Roast. Then you watch Cheryl Underwood, Sheryl Underwood steal the Kevin Hart Roast. It was never about are women funny or not. It's will women be given an opportunity to shine and show their talent? And that's what I love about the show. It's not really my show. It's our show. It's not my show. My name's on it. I'm helping to organize it. But it's our show. It's our show where we come together as comedians to make people laugh who love to laugh and want to see unity. That's why I'm like, no politics. I don't care who you vote for. I don't care. That's not what we're going to do tonight. Because this world is hard. This world is harsh. This world is far more difficult than it should be. We position people to fail not to succeed. We position people to be crushed and just swept aside. I want a world where you're positioned to succeed. I want a world where you. Where you have joy, where you have laughter, where you don't go to sleep with anxiety. I want a world where you wake up and every day is joyful for you and you can't wait to get out there. That's the world that I'm trying to help create. And the best way to do it is with laughter and with comedy. It's not my show. It's your show. When do you have the time for all of this? With all the Businesses that you run, everything that you're doing. When do you have the time to do.
- [62:45]
Charlamagne tha God
See all these suits he got in here?
- [62:46]
Byron Allen
He got three suits. He gotta be there. Time. And you're still so connected to people. Like, a lot of people get to the point where you are. They. If they. They get in that bubble, but you're still a business for the people. Yeah, I'm. Look, I am for the people. I mean, I've always been. That's how I. You know, that's my whole life since. Well, I'm 65, 51 years of standing on a stage, connecting with people. I still do stand up, right? I still go to the Comedy Store in the improv and. And hang. I was a Dion. I went to go see Dion and Cole. He brought me up on stage, and we had a black. We have fun. I love Dion. He's one of my fav. Favorite human beings on the planet, you know? And it's just. I love being connected. And for me, the other thing is, I feel is so, like, okay, so look, I get into a position to put on television whatever I want to put on tv. Why is it important that we have a seat at the table? What did I. What do I put on television? What did I put on TV? I have on 13 hours a day of television. 13 hours a day. No human being has ever accomplished that. But nine of those hours are court shows. Ebony K. Williams, nine of those hours. Nine different judges, okay? As legal scholars, okay, as legal great minds. I have on two African American men, Judge Ross, Judge Mathis, two Latinas, and five African American women, including Ebony K. Williams, who just got nominated for a Critics Choice Award.
- [64:24]
Charlamagne tha God
Equal justice.
- [64:24]
Byron Allen
Equal justice. Okay? So I have on nine hours a day of black and brown excellence. Nobody else has put that on. When these other media outlets had an opportunity to put on shows, they put shows on with white male hosts and young black men showing their butts, dancing and screaming, I'm not the baby daddy. The test came back. I'm not the baby daddy. I'm not. It's like, is that how you're going to depict me? As a black man? That's not the. Those aren't the black men I grew up with. That wasn't my granddaddy, Leroy. That wasn't my granddaddy Charles. That wasn't my daddy Alvin. Those men, they were all over me. They were chasing me. Keep my. My granddaddy used to sit up on the porch, and when I went out to play in Detroit, he watched me like a hawk because he knew I could get in trouble because a lot of the kids in my neighborhood ended up dead or in prison. So he was straight up. Boom. You can go outside. I'm gonna sit right here. I'm gonna drink this beer, and I'm gonna watch you. When those street lights start to flicker, I want your black butt up on this porch. Those aren't the men I grew up with, so I'm not gonna let you depict them like that. I'm gonna let you depict them as to who they were. Hardworking, brave, kind, generous, loving, protective. So I'm gonna show images of who we really are. That's the power of tv. That's the power of podcasting, radio. You're sharing these stories that nobody else is sharing. Nobody's opening up the mic and saying, here's who we are. I'm just gonna paint you as the drug dealer. I'm just gonna paint you as the one robbing people. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's so much excellence in our community, and I'm gonna make sure it shines. That's the power of having that seat at the table.
- [66:16]
Charlamagne tha God
You just bought a Buzzfeed as well.
- [66:18]
Byron Allen
Yeah, I bought Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed and HuffPost and Tasty. You know, I felt it was very important.
- [66:24]
Charlamagne tha God
We bought all of those.
- [66:25]
Byron Allen
Yeah, I bought them all. It's gonna all go into one, right? No, they're. They're already there. They're up and running. So, yeah, I bought them on. So, you know, listen, I think it's important as black people that we are in the publicly traded market, you know, market. You know, publicly traded companies. That's where you can create great wealth. Great wealth. Enormous wealth. You're talking about $100 trillion out there in the public trade, publicly traded markets. So BuzzFeed is publicly traded, and they got into some financial trouble, and they announced that they were about to go bankrupt. And I just said, okay. I called him up quickly. I said, here's the deal I would like to do. And I said, I want to control 52% of the company. I want to control the board. And I said, Here's $120 million, and here's how I want to structure it. I'll give you 20 million now, cash, and a promissory note of $100 million at 5% interest due and payable in five years. And I'm buying 40 million shares. I bought 40 million shares at $3 a share. That's the 120 million. Now, when I went to buy the 40 million shares. The stock was only trading at like 60 to 70 cents a share. So when it got announced it jumped up to like a buck 30 or whatever. Buck 40 or whatever it is. So me putting 120 million on the table and saying, I believe in my ability and I believe in myself and my management team. I believe in the brands Buzzfeed and HuffPost and Tasty. I believe that we will get this $3, we'll get past this $3 a share well within the five year period. But I'm investing in these brands and I see the opportunity is to use AI to enable us to do more streaming, not AI generated content. But I also invested about 150 million to to do something called Local now, which uses artificial intelligence and proprietary software to curate, stream and you know, and aggregate super hyperlocal news, weather, sports and traffic geofence to the user zip code. And there's nothing like it. And I've won best streamer twice against Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Disney Plus. And I said, look, I want to take the BuzzFeed brand and the HuffPost brand and put them in the streaming business. And now with, you know, the power of Local now married with Buzzfeed and HuffPost, they will have over 30,000 movies, TV shows, documentaries, they'll have almost a thousand fast channels, including Kevin Hart, Johnny Carson, People magazine, Architectural Digest. I've put about 3, 400 television stations there with their local news. We're going to invest heavily in podcasting. So we will aggregate all, everything we can. And I said to the team, first order business, we have to be number one in podcasting and we have to invest heavily there and aggregate everything podcasting. BuzzFeed is one of the great brands that's 20 years old. And I'm really excited that Jonah Peretti, who started Buzzfeed 20 years ago and some of the very first viral videos to ever occur, he is staying on board to be president of buzzfeed AI. So he is going to be leading our team on AI and innovation. And I couldn't be happier because we as black folks, we have to have a seat at the table as it relates to technology, content and the intersection of technology and content and artificial intelligence.
- [69:58]
Charlamagne tha God
Do you see AI as the next Industrial revolution or the next wealth gap?
- [70:03]
Byron Allen
I think it's going to close the wealth gap. Okay. I mean, it's closing the wealth gap now. I mean, look at your success and how you're able to use the Internet now. See, we as black folks, we've always been cut off because we couldn't get to the audience. Now with the Internet, we have a global platform to get to the audience. And that's why I said from this moment on, once I invested in BuzzFeed, I said from this moment on, we are now chasing YouTube. Now YouTube is amazing. YouTube is phenomenal. But you have Coke and you have Pepsi and they're both, in my opinion, they're both good. I said if you look at most of the content on YouTube, 99.9 of it is non exclusive. And what I would say to the YouTube creators, put it at YouTube, collect that check and we're going to create, we're going to have a platform. You could put it up a BuzzFeed and collect a check there. I think two checks are better than one. And so, you know, we will also offer you that same opportunity to take user generated content and build on what's already there at BuzzFeed and HuffPost. We're not looking to change it. We're looking whatever they have, you love the puzzles and you have, you love the quizzes and you love this and you the games, we love that too. We're going to keep that, but we're also going to include you so you can provide your content. User generated content. We're also going to provide you, you know, movies and TV shows and documentaries. Now if you look at it, the Internet is the great and technology is a great way for everyone to get very wealthy. Because if you are talented, if you have a great idea, if you have something good, you have global distribution and you are going to have people. You have over 8 billion people on the planet. You're chasing over 4 and a half billion connected devices. Your chances of success are far greater than they've ever been. And your chances for wealth, it's enormous. So look at your success. I mean the doors that have opened because of the Internet and streaming and Netflix and for you to be the number one podcaster on Netflix, well, guess What? Netflix spends $20 billion a year. Okay. They're gonna have to keep you happy. Okay, that's great. That's huge opportunity. That's great wealth, great multi generational wealth
- [72:19]
Charlamagne tha God
all rooted in what we do here on the radio.
- [72:21]
Byron Allen
All rooted the whole foundation and the whole thing is like, you know, we as, as black folks now what we're gonna, we have to go to ownership and ownership of a publicly traded companies, that's a huge pathway. You know, so I have the ability at BuzzFeed to issue another 650 million shares. It's a publicly traded company, It's a great way for the community to invest in businesses in publicly traded companies. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google. You know, we don't get access to deal flow. We're not in the country clubs. We don't know the next big deal. But we can get in there through our investments in Netflix and Google and Microsoft or whatever it may be. Right. Publicly traded companies. But I also think it's important that we own and control our own publicly traded companies. And then that way folks can have access to deal flow. That's not coming across their desk. That's how we built. Look at this company, iHeartradio. IHeartradio is the largest radio station group in America, the largest podcast publisher in America. 52 weeks ago, the market cap was 200 million, $200 million. You could buy all the outstanding shares for $200 million. Today, it's 800 million, four times your money in a year. You just tell me 10,000 becomes 40,000 in a year. I'm not saying buy a hard stock. I'm just saying that's. If you look at the Forbes 400 list, a lot of that wealth, they're publicly traded. If you look at it, that's where a lot of their wealth comes from. And just this company alone, I'm sitting here and in four, in one year, I'm watching it go up from 200 in market cap to 800 in market cap, four times your money. People are doing that all day long. Just not enough of us are doing it right. You know, this is how white America has enormous wealth. White America is investing, investing, not spending. And as you invest, your money compounds and grows. And we have to think business, business show. We have to think publicly traded. We have to access those markets. We have to invest in companies that are growing. We know it's growing. You know, black folks know what's going to be hot before anybody. Because we're making it hot. We're making it hot. We know people are like, whoa, man, they're selling a lot of these. Yeah, because I'm wearing it. So, you know, how do I invest in this? We know it's going to be strong long before most people do. You think, like with all of the show cancellations and what you're saying, right, do you think that people are going to start feeling like local news or in local news, affiliates are more important than, you know, sometimes they devalue local news. But yes, what I'm hearing you saying is like that not only was that your foundation, but keeping that the main thing and getting right to the people like local news does is what helps you grow your business. Like, will that change how we think about local news? No, I think. Well, I love that question. I think, look, at the end of the day, that's the business that we're in. I'm in the local news business based on my billion dollar investment in abc, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates around the country. I just sold all my Fox affiliates. I'm in the weather news business and I'm in the sports business. When you own ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates, you get NFL football because 99.9% of the football games, NFL games are on those, those on the big networks, 97 of the top 100 television shows, NFL football. So it's local news, weather news and sports. That's the business I'm in. Every day, people are always going to wake up and they're going to want their local news, they're going to want their weather. That's why I bought the Weather Channel. And they're going to want their true religion. NFL football, NBA basketball, college sports. That's why my business is stronger than a thousand acres of garlic. Okay? Because you're never going to wake up and not want local news. You're never going to wake up and not know want to know what's going on with the weather. And you are for sure going to watch the NFL football game, college sports and NBA game. You're gonna watch it, and I'm presenting that to you. And what are we doing as we go and we expand and we go and we buy BuzzFeed and we buy HuffPost. That's news, right? Tasty. That's food. You know, it's one of the biggest reasons people go to the Internet and search food recipes. So I think that, you know, that's why I also went and got hundreds of television stations to put their local news at Local now, our streaming app, Local Now. So Local now is free. I had dinner one night with Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix. And I said, reed, what keeps you up at night? And he said, YouTube. I go, YouTube. He goes, yeah, Byron. He goes, if they start delivering premium content for free, how do I get people to pay me whatever, XYZ per month? And I was like, got it. So I said, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to aggregate premium content and I'm going to make it free. That's the world's favorite word, free. Free and streaming. And we, as black folks, we are the leaders in consuming free streaming. I'm like, okay, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go in here and I'm going to aggregate this content. I'm going to make it free, and I'm going to really emphasize that connection with the community.
- [78:02]
Charlamagne tha God
I know you've been, you've been there for a while. So we. I got a couple more questions.
- [78:05]
Byron Allen
No, no.
- [78:06]
Charlamagne tha God
You fight a lot of corporate fights, right?
- [78:07]
Byron Allen
Yeah.
- [78:07]
Charlamagne tha God
And I know you reached a settlement with McDonald's over the $10 million lawsuit that you filed in 2021. You said that they discriminated against black owned media companies. Yeah, they discriminated against black owned media companies. Why do you think corporate America is comfortable profiting off black culture but hesitant to invest in black ownership?
- [78:25]
Byron Allen
You know, obviously I can't speak on the McDonald's settlement because that was a $10 billion lawsuit. And part of the settlement is don't ever speak about it again. Here's what I would say. Here's what I would say about white corporate America in general. So the greatest trade deficit in America is the trade deficit between white corporate America and black America. And until we close that trade deficit, we cannot achieve one America, which is what Martin Luther King died for. He was attempting to achieve one America. You know, Coretta Scott King was a friend of mine. And I wanted to learn a lot about Martin Luther King. And I really wanted to learn through, from her point of view. And she said to me, byron, they didn't kill my Martin over the I have a Dream speech. They killed him over the speech that he gave at Stanford University in February of 68. They murdered him two months later in that speech. He gave that speech, which was the other America. And he said in that speech, there are two Americas. One America has access to opportunity and economic inclusion, and two Americas will not survive. We must achieve one America. At that point, he had already achieved civil rights. He was pushing for economic inclusion and education for all Americans, especially poor white Americans. And they were like, if this dude pulls together poor white people and black people, we got a problem.
- [79:58]
Charlamagne tha God
That was the next model, the Poor People's March.
- [80:01]
Byron Allen
That was. Yeah, he was going to deliver half a million poor people to the nation's capital. And I am, I'm making a movie about that right now. And that they said, the generals said if he delivers half a million poor people to the nation's capital, this, there could be an overthrow, that he could overthrow the. There could be an uprising. He could overthrow the country. He cannot deliver half a million poor people, mainly white people, to the nation's Capital. We must kill him where he starts. So, you know, Avery DuVernay and I, we're working on a. She's right. She's written an amazing screenplay. And we're writing about the whole trial of what happened and how 70 people walked into a courtroom and testified as to what they did to organize the murder of Martin Luther king. And after 12 jurors, six men, six women, six blacks, six whites, listened to this testimony, a case no one knows about, that actually happened in 1999, the verdict came back that the United States government murdered Martin Luther King. Wow. That's the verdict. That's a trial nobody knows about. So Ava has written an amazing screenplay. We're making a movie about it. But in that speech, he said, there are two Americas, and we have to achieve one America. And that's the issue. And I. And I remember Coretta Scott King telling me that. And I said, you and Martin, you know, because they murdered him at age 39. I said, you and Martin, you did more than enough. It's our turn, this generation, to achieve the fourth and final chapter. Because she said, byron, as black people, we had three major challenges. Number one, end slavery. Number two. Right. Number one, that's a big one. Achieve, you know, end of slavery. Number two, achieve civil rights. Right. Number three, she said. And she starts to. Like, she starts to tear up. You know, she gets. She got really emotional, you know, when she said, you know, these. Because she grew up with this part that really. She was born picking cotton. She picked cotton as a little girl, and she used to sit on the porch and listen to them talk about who got hung that she knew. So it was number one. I'm sorry. It was number one in slavery. Number two, end Jim Crow. That was really personal because as a little girl, she worried every day about her father being lynched. Number three, achieve civil rights. And then she choked up again, like, she choked up about her father. She said, number four, achieve economic inclusion. And I said, we will deal with the fourth and final chapter, economic inclusion. So she said, she laid it out. Slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights. And it was simple. It was clear as day when she laid it out to me. It's never been black or white. It's never been black or white. We've always thought black and white. It's always been green. Green was the color. Not black, not white. Why did they bring us here from Africa? They brought us here from Africa to build the wealth, the greatest wealth on planet Earth. Why did they start the genocide against us? Because we were freed and they did not want to compete with us for the green. So what did they do? They started the economic genocide by using. You will not have access to education. No education. You won't have access to economic inclusion. Bank loans, money. That's not predatory. Economic inclusion. You won't have it. That's genocide. That's economic genocide. I will squeeze you out through lack of education and lack of economic inclusion. It's economic genocide. And I've always said this country did
- [84:08]
Charlamagne tha God
base that over race, though. I mean, there was a caste system in this country.
- [84:11]
Byron Allen
Oh, absolutely. But it was about. The whole thing is money, money, money. Don't. Don't compete with me for the money.
- [84:18]
Charlamagne tha God
Absolutely.
- [84:18]
Byron Allen
And if you don't have an education, you're not going to compete with me. And if you don't have access to capital, that's not predatory. You're not going to compete with me. So it's just. It's real. I brought you here to make me rich, not to compete. Why would I bring you here to compete? I'm not giving you any of this great American economic pie. You are here to make me rich and to be a consumer. So you have to decode all of that. And I've always said, they kill us in the, you know, in the school room by making sure we don't get a proper education. And they kill us in the boardroom by making sure we don't have economic inclusion. And they kill us in the courtroom by making sure we don't have equal justice long before they kill us in the streets. More brothers and sisters are taken out in that schoolroom, in that boardroom, and in that courtroom than you can ever imagine. Far greater than the ones taken out in the streets. Those are the ones we see and those we witness. And that's horribly violent. But it's equally as violent when you say, I'm gonna make sure you don't have a proper education, and then go, oh, look at that. I got all these young brothers and sisters doing smash and grabs and running into stores and stealing bags for 50 cents. Made for China. Made in China for 50 cents. And I'm like, I don't want to hear about your crime. Don't talk to me about crime until you lean in and you invest in education and you make sure each and every one of these kids get a proper education. And then you make sure each and every last one of these kids have a pathway to be integrated into corporate America. And you make sure each and every last one of these kids are not getting 30% longer sentences than their White counterparts do that. And then we can talk about crime. But you and I both know you have designed the system for us to fail. You and I both know you make more money off of incarceration than education. And you have structured it so that we fail and not succeed and don't compete. So let's talk about crime. When you educate every kid in this country to the fullest extent. Look at my life. I'm not sitting here. My mother got pregnant with me when she was 16. A black girl getting pregnant in 1960 with a black baby in April of 61. Who's betting on that? But what changed the game was her brilliance. She got into UCLA and got her master's degree. And then what changed the game was because she went into that parallel, she's able to expose her black child to a Johnny Carson firsthand. If that doesn't happen, I'm not sitting here with this success and controlling the Weather Channel and billions and billions of dollars in assets in cbs. Late night Education's everything. But it's designed for us to fail, not succeed. And by the way, that's not just black America. That's most of America. Most of America is struggling and should not be because we're a small tribe. We're only 330 million people out of 8 billion. There are other tribes around this world who see a world where we don't exist. We have to become one, as the great Martin Luther King taught us in order for us to succeed. If we don't come together as one great American tribe, as the great Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King taught us, we will perish. You're watching us implode because we are divided and because we're not positioned to fail. I need everybody to be their best and I need everybody to be their best for the American flag and for the human race. It's important you bring your A game. It's important you are positioned that you are here and you are bringing everything you have. That's why God put you here to shine, not fade, to be great, not suffer, to flourish, not flounder. That's why you're here. You're here to contribute. You have something to contribute. You're special. You're unique. You have to step up and we gotta get out of your way and make sure you can step up. We gotta sometimes help you up. Everybody needs help. I need help. Even to this day, everybody needs help. So that's what I believe is so important that we lean in and that we hold people accountable. And all I said to white corporate America is you can't have a situation where you take money out of our community and you don't do business with our community. We're not a charity, we're not a handout. You don't, we're not. Because when, when white corporate America looks at black America, they go, well, I don't, I'm not a donation. Well, I do that, I don't care. Don't take photos with little black babies. I don't need all that. What's the business you're doing with us? I, you know, so if we're 15% of the population, I want your budget, your ad budget to go 15% of that ad budget to go to black owned media. Okay? I can tell you where black America will be 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 40 years from now, with one data point. What's the black student population at the major universities that white corporate America recruits from? And if we are 1%, 2%, which is what we are at best, then nothing will change in black America. Right. You got, you have to appreciate the Asian community. Brilliant. They sued Harvard to get more Asian kids into Harvard. Standing ovation. Brilliant. Who we suing? What universities are we suing to get more black kids to be more commensurate with our population in this country? When will I be comfortable with these universities? When we are 15% of the student population that white corporate America recruits from? That's the game changer. So what is it? What is your outlook on. I know you gotta go. Your outlook on. I have to go anywhere. I'm hanging out with you. What is your outlook on HBCUs then? Well, I'm a big investor in HBCUs. I am one, I am the largest. You know, I control more HBCU sports than anybody. I control like 97 of all HBCU sports. What I did was, is I looked at the HBCU go, right? Yeah. I started HBCU go. And so I went and started buying the sports rights from these colleges. And I said, look, this is crazy, like we are the best talent out there. But you know, Deion Sanders said to me, byron, he said, I'm mowing the lawn at Jackson State. I'm mowing the lawn. We have rat infested practice facilities, okay? And I'm like, okay, this is ridiculous. So I went and bought the sports rights, started producing the games, putting them on broadcast television, putting them on our cable network, the Griot, putting them on our streaming platform, and I'm investing more and more in HBCUs. No, because you mentioned, you mentioned, you know, businesses going to the top tier schools, right? And you say more black students need to go to those top tier students, kind of like Asian students. No, no, I'm saying. And that's not instead of our black schools. I'm saying that's not instead of. I'm saying you can't because our schools only have so much capacity, right? We have 107 historically black colleges and universities. We only have so much capacity. But what I'm also saying is you have these other schools where we, as black folks, we're only 1 or 2%, right? We need to be closer. I want everything commensurate with what we represent. I want 15% of your ad budgets to go to black owned media. I want 15% of those chairs in these schools to go to black students. Okay? This is what, you know, when I went to Obama and you know, and people, you know, and I, and I really do love Obama, right? I do love the brother. And I have enormous respect for him. And I didn't say a word when he was first term, when he became second term, I said, listen up, brother, I need a couple of things from you. And this is when he and I, this is when I became critical of him. And I said, look, you control two things that are easy to do. All you have to do is say to the banks, hey, banks, you're not lending money to black people. And I'm gonna audit you. And I'm gonna see if you're lending money to black people. And you will see that black people can't get home loans, car loans, business loans, student loans. That's important. Just say that. Just say you're gonna audit and make them live up to the laws that are on the books. And I said, I only need one other thing from you. The government has a $1 trillion government worker pension fund. A pension fund of government worker money. It's a trillion dollars. It's a t. Not a million, not a billion. It's a trillion plus from people who worked at the government. I said, I want 15% of that money allocated to African American investors. 150 billion to go and invest in you and you and you and you. And I said, if you take that $150 billion that should be allocated to the African American community for investment and marry it with banks overnight, the black community has the ability to buy $1 trillion worth of businesses. That 150 of equity and another, you know, 850 or so of, of bank loans. And carry from seller financing. That puts us. That changes the game. That's the fourth and final chapter of black America. Economic inclusion. Number one, slavery. End it. Number two, Jim Crow ended. Number three, civil rights. Achieve it. And number four, economic inclusion. That's the fourth chapter. And we can't do it without education. We can't do it without access to capital. That's not predatory. We have to be owners. The way we were in Africa. We owned it. We have to be the same owners here in America.
- [95:11]
Charlamagne tha God
You know, I know what you're saying is true. I mean, I know why you're saying it's true because it's true. But, you know, when you look at the Supreme Court ending affirmative action and college admissions in 2023, and then you see, you know, black students at top schools, the percentage of black students at top schools dropping because of that.
- [95:26]
Byron Allen
Yeah.
- [95:26]
Charlamagne tha God
You know, they want to keep us out of.
- [95:28]
Byron Allen
Absolutely. Absolutely. Because that's the pathway to success and economic inclusion. That's it. You know, it's like. It's a game changer. Look at my cfo. He went to a hbcu. He went to an hbcu. He went to Hampton. That's the best one. Okay, so he went to the best one. You went there. There you go. To my little Hampton. Yeah, there you go. So he. So Chris Malone went to an hbcu, but he also went to Harvard and got his mba. But I met him when he was at a private equity firm managing billions of dollars. He loaned me the money to buy the Weather. Weather Channel. Now, would he have gotten that job if he didn't have that Harvard as well? So it was great that his pedigree and his foundation is an hbcu. Hampton. But it's also great that that MBA is from Harvard. Boom. He's ushered into a private equity firm. He's sitting in a room where they're talking about moving billions of dollars, just
- [96:23]
Charlamagne tha God
giving people the game. Byron, it is a game. You just telling them how.
- [96:26]
Byron Allen
I don't. It's good. And this is how you and you can't play the game. I'm not here to play the game. I'm here to own the game. If you play the game, it's rigged for you to lose. If you own the game, then you own the game. Every day I wake up, I'm about owning the game. What can I buy today? Because when I buy it, I control it. And when I control it, then it's going to go the way it should go. Black images will be better. Black images Will be. Will be elevated in a powerful, uplifting way. Right when I trusted my white counterparts to do it. I'm dancing around talking about, look at this DNA test. Check this out, baby. Check out this DNA. All right, baby, I got away with this one. Alrighty. Yeah. I've never heard of a condom, so that's why I'm worried right now. Oh, yeah, baby. No, that's not right. That's not it, baby. That's not it. We own the game. If you. And why aren't you going to own the game? And that's what the Internet does. I'm so proud of all of these music acts out here. Jay Z and, you know, and Beyonce and Drake and Kendrick Lamar, like, sizzle, like, you're going to be billionaires. Why are you going to be billionaires? Because you're direct to the consumer. People are going to download that music. They're going to go straight to you. They don't need anybody. Yeah, you're going to be a billionaire. You. Because they're going to come to you. Because they love your intellectual thinking, they love your critical thinking, they're going to come to you. You have four and a half billion connected devices, and you're real and you're authentic and you're lifting us up. You're it. This is important. This is our moment. This is our moment to invest. I'm like, I'll sit there and I said, you know, I know if I buy a publicly traded company, others in our community will start thinking publicly traded and they're going to grow them and they're going to. They're going to invest in them, and it's a pathway for us to own a piece of something as a community, whether it's a publicly traded company I control or it's a publicly traded company you control or another one that you like. You know, you'll wake up one day, you'll be the largest stockholder in iHeart. A year ago, for $20 million, you would have been the largest stockholder in iHeart. It's a different feeling when you walk in this building and you say, I own 10 of this place. It's a different vibe. Next thing you know, like, I wouldn't mind sitting on the board. It's a different vibe. God knows they're making a bunch of money off of you. Why not have a seat on the board? Why not have equity?
- [99:09]
Charlamagne tha God
You should be on the board of Black Effect.
- [99:11]
Byron Allen
Byron Allen, already.
- [99:14]
Charlamagne tha God
No, never mind. We'll talk about that.
- [99:16]
Byron Allen
I'll do anything to support you, but I just want us to think that way. We have to be education, banks. You gotta. You gotta lean in on here. Equity. Own it. Own it with scale and even smaller. Whatever size, whatever it is, just own it. And by the way, we are the largest. We are the largest employer of black people ourselves. We employ ourselves. I think about my grandfather. I'm like, yeah, all those kids, grandkids, we're all working at the skating rink. That's how we took care of ourselves. We invested. And it's important that we look at it that way. So when I went after these corporations And I filed 50 billion in lawsuits. $50 billion in lawsuits. And I'm undefeated. And I'm undefeated. Let me say that again. I'm undefeated. But what is it? Because Coretta Scott King said to me, byron, the truth is our greatest weapon. And if we bring the truth like you do every day, she said, if you bring the truth, if we bring the truth, we will always win. What is it about me that a young black man at that point, suing the biggest corporations in the world for $50 billion and you couldn't get the case dismissed? What is about me? I'll tell you what it is. I'm just the first black person to come along with the Constitution, willing to invest tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars in legal fees to hold you accountable based on what the great Coretta Scott King taught me. The fourth and final chapter, economic inclusion and bring the truth. So I brought the truth. I said, hey, you're not doing business with us. And you know how you can get my case dismissed? Walk somebody black into this courtroom and say, you're wrong. I'm doing business with her. Ooh, you couldn't find that black unicorn. So now my case is not dismissed, and we get traction and we win downtown. And then you take it to the Ninth Circuit and we win there. And then you take it to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court says, okay, well, this law stands. And then you get to the table and you settle. Why did you settle? You settled because I brought the truth. Do business with us the way we do business with you, and then we can have one America. And then when we have one America with education and economic inclusion, guess what? You have to turn all those prisons into warehouses for boxes and not humans. Release all the black men and women. Because now you've educated them, now you've given them access to capital, and now we're part of the American fiber. And now the great American tribe is even greater because every American is positioned to bring their excellence. Byron Allen.
- [102:26]
Charlamagne tha God
Byron Allen.
- [102:27]
Byron Allen
Byron Allen.
- [102:29]
Charlamagne tha God
Yes, sir.
- [102:30]
Byron Allen
We appreciate you for joining us. You gotta come back more often though, brother. I know you got a lot to do.
- [102:34]
Charlamagne tha God
Nah, I like these State of the unions.
- [102:36]
Byron Allen
We even need them more often. We'll come back once a year, twice a year. You gotta come back.
- [102:41]
Charlamagne tha God
These State of the Unions.
- [102:42]
Byron Allen
I love you guys. I love your success too. I'm gonna tell everybody. Netflix $20 billion. I want 10 billion to go to them. Damn it. There we go. 20 of your 20 billion dollar budget. I want 10 to come here. There we go. I know. Where you gonna invest it in the community.
- [102:59]
Charlamagne tha God
Comics Unleashed starts this Friday, May 22nd at 11:35 on CBS.
- [103:03]
Byron Allen
You're gonna laugh your butt off. I'm gonna tell you right now before you watch the show, put on your adult diapers because you're gonna pee on yourself. Club is Byron Allen.
- [103:12]
Charlamagne tha God
Good morning.
- [103:15]
Byron Allen
Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.