A black owned, operated and focused news network has been needed for a hell of a long time and now Florida A&M University is stepping up to the plate and is launching the first African-American news network through its school of journalism.

The channel will carry the name “The Black Television News Channel” (BTNC) and is based in Tallahassee. It should be opening in Feb. 2018!

On Friday a ribbon cutting event took place and Tallahassee Mayor John Marks was brought to tears, addressing the crowd he said:

“This has been a long time coming,”

“I really feel so proud to be a part of what I know is going to be revolutionary as well as evolutionary.”

The station will of course report the news but also plans to fight negativity and tell “the rest of the story.”

Marks added:

“You’re talking about the unemployment rate for African American males being like 15 percent, but guess what the employment rate is about 85 percent. You don’t hear from that perspective,”

This is very exciting!