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For other persons named Robert Johnson, see Robert Johnson (disambiguation).

Robert L. Johnson (born April 8, 1946) is the American founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), and was its chairman and chief executive officer. Johnson is also the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, a National Basketball Association franchise.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Black Entertainment Television 2.3 Other ventures

[edit] Early life

Johnson was born in Hickory, Mississippi, but spent almost all of his childhood in Freeport, Illinois. He was the ninth of 10 children born to Archie and Edna Johnson. Johnson studied history at the University of Illinois and graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree. While at the University of Illinois, Johnson was a member of the Beta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He earned a master's degree in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1972.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Johnson worked at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Washington Urban League before becoming press secretary for Walter E. Fauntroy, who was the congressional delegate from the District of Columbia. He moved from that position in 1976 to serve as vice president of government relations for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), a trade association representing more than 1,500 cable television companies.

[edit] Black Entertainment Television

In 1979, he left NCTA to create Black Entertainment Television, the first cable television network aimed at African Americans, which launched in January 1980, broadcasting for two hours a week. Eleven years later, BET became the first black-controlled company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Johnson took the company private, buying back all of its publicly traded stock. A year later, Viacom bought BET for $2.3 billion in stock. Johnson continued to be the company's chairman and CEO for 6 years. In 2005, Johnson turned over the titles of President and Chief Operating Officer of BET to Debra L. Lee, a former BET vice president. BET reaches more than 65 million U.S. homes and has expanded into other BET-related television channels, including BET International, BET Jazz, and BET hip- hop.

While criticism of BET's programming content has grown more vocal in recent years (after Viacom's purchase), some critics believe that Johnson is largely to blame. In their eyes, as a black owner of a mass media company with programming directed at an African American audience, he had a special responsibility to air socially responsible programming, or at least not air socially irresponsible programming (or at the very least not present BET as the voice of Black America).[1]

[edit] Other ventures

Johnson also serves on the boards of US Airways, General Mills and Hilton Hotels. He is also the first African American to be the principal owner of a North American major-league sports franchise; he leads the group that acquired the Charlotte Bobcats NBA expansion franchise, which began play in the fall of 2004. He also owns the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA, which puts him in a situation that may be unmatched in sports history: His ex-wife Sheila Johnson is the president of the Washington Mystics, a team in the same division as her ex's. In addition to that, he is now the founder and Chairman of RLJ Companies Inc.