�You can�t blow up a balloon from the inside. If you really want to see something clearly, vacate the premises.�
When It Stopped Being Fun
You may have noticed Radio Facts popping back up, or maybe you�re wondering why it resurfaced at all.
My very first business venture started off like a dream come true. Many people never experience bliss from something they created, but I did. It was an incredible high for the first few years, and I�m incredibly grateful for that. As time went on, things shifted and changed. I pride myself on being ahead of the 8 ball, and I even tried to warn the Black industry about too much syndication and leaving no room for new talent to shine and grow, but it fell on deaf ears. The more I became an advocate, the less fun it was.
The site originally shut down in 2023, and that decision wasn�t impulsive. It came after a long period of frustration and burnout. Simply put, it wasn�t fun anymore, and it hadn�t been for several years.
First, I was tired of chasing news from industry corporations that consistently refused to acknowledge Black professionals inside their own companies. Promotions, deals, executive moves. That information was rarely shared. Most of what circulated instead involved Black people dying, being laid off, being sick, or asking for GoFundMe support. I knew there was far more happening than that, and carrying that imbalance every day became draining.
Why I Walked Away in 2023
Second, the business model changed. Around 2023, labels began cutting budgets, and for good reason. They no longer needed to spend heavily on promotion when they could drop a video on YouTube and recoup their money directly. I don�t disagree with that strategy at all. It�s smart business. 98% of my income had always come from the labels and a couple of syndication companies … I rarely made any money from radio and it meant I had to start pursuing companies outside of the label system, and what followed was a lot of carrot-dangling and broken promises. That became exhausting.
Third, I kept hearing from potential clients that radio wasn�t something they were interested in. Many assumed Radio Facts was only for radio insiders. Even though the audience was much broader, I couldn�t convince them otherwise. The name worked against me, or so I thought. Rebuilding that kind of authority under Google�s algorithm would�ve taken at least five years. At the time, I hadn�t considered that rebuilding that kind of authority would take that long. I was just ready to do something else.
I�d also watched too many of my predecessors lose their Black-owned industry businesses and die broke. I saw the mistakes they made early on, and I took note. I never wanted to be that guy in his 60s begging people to buy ads at industry events. But I watched it happen. It was an incredibly sad fall from grace.
So in 2023, I shut Radio Facts down and moved everything to a new brand. The audience came with me, but the name didn�t. After nearly 30 years of Radio Facts.com and Radio Facts being synonymous with the industry, the new brand lacked recognition. Worse, starting over meant throwing away authority I�d already earned.
I tried an acronym next, thinking it would be easier to remember. It wasn�t. It had no charm, no energy, and no connection. That didn�t work either.
What I Learned Stepping Away
The real shift happened in 2025 when I stepped away for a couple of months and did a deep dive into AI. I taught myself how to program WordPress sites, do real research, automate workflows, and build systems. In the process, I realized how much money I�d wasted over the years, and how much more I�d left on the table by wasting time, effort, and energy with middlemen who were only comfortable doing business with people who looked like them. On top of that, I was paying people to do work that either wasn�t done or wasn�t done correctly, forcing me to double back and start the process all over again.
The Leverage I Didn�t Realize I Had
That�s when I took a deeper look at Radio Facts through an SEO lens, and what I found shocked me. Despite the site being down, the brand was still incredibly powerful. Major institutions, mainstream media, academic sites, and industry authorities were still linking to it, more than 40,000 of them. That kind of trust doesn�t happen by accident.
At the same time, I discovered that having too many people work on the site over the years had completely damaged the database. If there�s one thing I can suggest to anyone building something long-term, it�s this: save everything. Own everything. I was fortunate to have at least 90 percent of my digital archive intact, which allowed me to recover content that had been mishandled by people I should have taken a lot more time to vet.
Using systems, automation, and consistent conversations with ten Black men connected to the industry who are incredibly AI savvy, we constantly exchange ideas and educate each other. They are my village. To that end, I was able to do the work of twenty people and rebuild the foundation myself.
I also ran quiet beta tests with affiliates to see how the audience would respond. The response surprised me again. The trust was still there. The loyalty was still there. By cutting out the middleman and dealing directly with readers and fans, I was making more in a day or two than I used to make in weeks during what used to be considered the site�s peak.
That was the moment everything clicked.
What’s in a Name?
Think about Def Jam. It started as a street slang term for a hot song in the 80s, but it�s still here because the leverage and the brand outgrew the term itself. The brand, while under an umbrella, is still here today and has surpassed the street slang to become synonymous with a label and media conglomerate. I realized it�s not the name, it�s the offering attached to the name.
I wasn�t barking up the wrong tree because the industry didn�t support the brand. That was their choice. What mattered was that I had built something real, something with leverage, and something the audience trusted.
So no, this isn�t about bringing Radio Facts back and doing what I did before, repeating the same futile mistakes. I�m taking a different path this time, one that I control. And yes, I feel the bliss again. Stay tuned.