Conversation with Curtis Symonds: Why HBCUs are the Future of Advertising and Media Growth

Curtis Symonds, President of HBCUGO.tv, has been in marketing ever since he "walked out the door" of HBCU Central State University in Ohio, because, he says, "I've got a very good gift for gab." His gifts as an engaging conversationalist and influential voice of the Black media community for the past three-plus decades make him an obvious conversation partner on my Legends & Leaders series. Curtis, a veteran Continental Cable, ESPN and BET senior executive, wants the media and advertising community to recognize and recruit talent from HBCUs, sharing his own experience as he prepares for induction next month into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. "It says to the world that there's a value in attending an HBCU," he says." The advertising community could really assist the HBCU schools … by exposing the professors and students to the new opportunities available to them."