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Charles W. Henderson is an American media executive, technology executive, and journalist. [1] [2] [3] [4] He is president of media and technology companies NewsRx LLC and ScholarlyMedia LLC. [1] He was co-founder of Video Concert Hall the first nationwide music video TV network. [5] A USA Today cover story named him one of “6 Who Made a Difference.” [6] He has also been on the cover of Billboard magazine. [7]
Henderson was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia, beginning his media career at eleven years old as a paperboy for the Daily Tifton Gazette . [1] In 1964, the campaign manager for the Lyndon Johnson-Hubert Humphrey presidential election heard from a Democratic Party official about fifteen-year-old Henderson's involvement in civil rights and contacted him to arrange a meeting with Humphrey in Tifton; this led to Henderson's selection as an inaugural staffer with the federal Project Head Start, which began in 1965. [8]
At 18, he enrolled in the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, [1] where he wrote news releases at the university's News Bureau, the university's Office of Public Relations, and, over the summers, the Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta. [9]
While an undergraduate at University of Georgia, he also attended Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, as a grant-funded special student where he first encountered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) located on the Emory campus. [1] [3] An Emory researcher took Henderson to the CDC where he participated in meetings concerning the center's activities. These contacts helped Henderson later when he began publishing medical newsweeklies.
In addition to his 1971 undergraduate BA in Journalism, Henderson holds a 2006 MFA in English (Creative and Professional Writing) from Western Connecticut State University, Danbury. [10] He was selected for the first week-long Yale Publishing Course. [11] He started working on a doctorate in education at the University of Sussex, and in 2014 completed his PhD in creative writing at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, UK, studying under British playwright Dic Edwards.
In 1971, Henderson launched a magazine, Real Estate Atlanta, renamed Business Atlanta. [12] Henderson later published an urban community weekly newspaper, Buckhead Atlanta.
Henderson served as press spokesman for the Atlanta city government as director of the Community Affairs Division in the Department of Community and Human Development. [1] Subsequently, Bert Lance, then president of The National Bank of Georgia (part of Bank of Credit and Commerce International), appointed him the bank's first director of public relations and communications. [9] He coordinated press activities while Lance moved to President Carter's cabinet as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. [12] Henderson left the National Bank of Georgia when Lance left the White House in 1977. [9] He then contributed to Atlanta magazine. [9] His bylined articles appeared on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s front page. [13] In 1978 Henderson was selected “Atlantan of the Week” by the Atlanta Gazette. [9] He moved to Washington, D.C. to be staff correspondent for Bloomberg BNA for two years, reporting for Washington Financial Reports and Daily Report for Executives. [1]
TriStar Pictures, shortly after it was created as an independent motion picture company, hired Henderson as its National Publicist, and then as vice president of TriStar Studios. [9] [14] While at TriStar, he was one of three PR professionals selected in 1979 by the News Analysis Institute to receive membership in the “Over-100 Club.” [15] [16] Henderson was said to represent “outstanding accomplishment…and his leadership in the creation, preparation and communication of public relations news.” [16]
Shortly before TriStar was sold to Columbia Pictures and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola in 1982, Henderson left to expand his own media company, Henderson-Crowe Communications, Inc., which founded and produced Video Concert Hall on November 1, 1979. [17] [18] This was the first nationwide music video television network, referred to as the precursor to MTV and VH1. [5] [17] [19] Before then, it was too expensive to secure copyright privileges to air productions. Record labels featured music videos as “promotional ventures” for new albums, and Henderson secured rights to air them on national cable television. [5] It was understood that the airing would help record companies show viewers popular records in order to increase album sales. [5] [17] Content on the TV network included concert footage, studio productions, and guest artists. [17]
According to media reports, by May 1980, the show appeared on more than 400 cable TV systems in 48 states, accessing about 2.5 million homes. [5] [20] While with Video Concert Hall, Henderson was executive producer and writer for the nationwide broadcast TV premiere of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album's first video, Billie Jean . [14] The company also produced the syndicated broadcast TV show Pre-Awards Special, an annual video show concerning the Grammy Awards. [21] After the sale of Pre-Awards Special TV programming to Metromedia, the remaining assets of Video Concert Hall were sold to Georgia Public Television, including the studio equipment at Henderson-Crowe Productions in Atlanta. [21] [22]
In 1984, Henderson returned to news media and created a series of newsweeklies based on the CDC. [3] [23] NewsRx, Henderson's medical newsweekly publishing company, began with the production of AIDS Weekly in 1985. [12] [24] [25] In 2008, Henderson added VerticalNews, a division of newsweeklies that covers non-health related fields. [26] As of 2011 [update] , NewsRx publishes 194 newsweeklies on topics including education, finance, aerospace and science. [27] [28] Henderson is executive editor of the 194 newsweeklies. [4] In 2011, Henderson started book publisher, ScholarlyMedia, and its imprint, ScholarlyEditions, which published 3,500 reference book titles in 2011. [29] [30]
In 1984, Henderson was co-executive producer of Halloween Thriller, taped in Hollywood and Atlanta. The TV special aired in the top 20 TV markets and much of the U.S. in October 1984, including TV stations WNEW (New York), WFLD (Chicago), KTTV (Los Angeles), WPLG (Miami), WQTV (Boston), and WXIA (Atlanta), for a total of 150 TV stations. Some disagreed with Henderson’s claim that the TV special contained no violence and no offensive clips although it targeted a mature, 18- to 49-year-old audience. Henderson’s promotional literature said, “Elements include video music of the spirit of Halloween – no violence and no Satanic clips.” [31] The one-hour television special was the national broadcast TV premiere of Thriller album's first video hosted by Thriller album voice, Vincent Price. [32] [33] The showing incorporated the “Billie Jean” cut from Thriller and an appearance by the original cast of the cult-movie classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show , who performed the song, “Time Warp.” Ozzy Osbourne also performed “Bark at the Moon” on the national broadcast.
Henderson was criticized for starting the AIDS Weekly newsweekly because the non-governmental publication included policy, research, and statistics that some considered exclusive to the government. [34] Also, the publishing staff included journalists rather than medical professionals. [12] [35] Others praised Henderson for being what the Boston Globe called a necessary “watchdog” publication providing needed information to the public. [28] Henderson strongly opposed influence by pharmaceutical companies and stood against premature reporting of experiments. [36] Henderson reported that on at least five occasions, research on the causes of AIDS and other viral diseases at the CDC might have been tampered with. [37]
In 2010, Henderson's NewsRx branch, VerticalNews China was the subject of a denial of service cyber attack as a result of controversial news that had been reported in the publications. [38] The cyber attack was halted when the company's IP service identified the source and blocked it. [34]
Henderson was press spokesman for Kalani Rosell and his family during a Hawaii school admissions policy controversy, [14] in which Hawaii's Kamehameha Schools, founded to provide education with preference to students of native Hawaiian ancestry, admitted a non-Hawaiian student (Kalani Rosell) in 2002 for the first time in 40 years. [39]
Almost Famous is a 2000 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe, and starring Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, and Patrick Fugit. It tells the story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1970s, his touring with the fictitious rock band Stillwater, and his efforts to get his first cover story published. The film is semi-autobiographical, as Crowe himself was a teenage writer for Rolling Stone.
Thriller is the sixth studio album by the American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records. It was produced by Quincy Jones, who had previously worked with Jackson on his 1979 album Off the Wall. Jackson wanted to create an album where "every song was a killer". With the ongoing backlash against disco music at the time, he moved in a new musical direction, resulting in a mix of pop, post-disco, rock, funk, and R&B sounds. Thriller foreshadows the contradictory themes of Jackson's personal life, as he began using a motif of paranoia and darker themes. Paul McCartney appears on "The Girl Is Mine", the first credited appearance of a featured artist on a Michael Jackson album. Recording took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a budget of $750,000.
Jeffrey Marshall Foxworthy is an American actor, author, comedian, producer and writer. He is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, with Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, and Ron White. Known for his "You might be a redneck" one-liners, Foxworthy has released six major-label comedy albums. His first two albums were each certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Foxworthy has written several books based on his redneck jokes, as well as an autobiography entitled No Shirt, No Shoes... No Problem!
WANF is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of locally based Gray Television and is co-owned with independent station WPCH-TV and low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate WKTB-CD. WANF and WPCH-TV share studios on 14th Street Northwest in Atlanta's Atlantic Station district, while WANF's transmitter is located in the city's Woodland Hills section.
The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia houses U.S. President Jimmy Carter's papers and other material relating to the Carter administration and the Carter family's life. The library also hosts special exhibits, such as Carter's Nobel Peace Prize and a full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it was during the Carter Administration, including a reproduction of the Resolute desk.
Frederick R. Newman is an American actor, comedian, composer, SFX artist using his voice, and former talk show host.
Frederick Hickman was an American sports broadcaster with CNN, TBS, YES Network, and ESPN. He was later an anchor and managing editor for the evening newscast of the African-American cable news channel Black News Channel. Hickman was an original co-host of the CNN show Sports Tonight in 1980. He received CableACE awards in 1989 and 1993, and was a New York Sports Emmy Award Winner in 2004. Hickman died on November 9th, 2022 in Kissimmee, Florida. He was just 66 years old.
WPCH-TV, branded on-air as Peachtree TV, is an independent television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is owned by locally based Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate and company flagship WANF, and low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate WKTB-CD. WPCH-TV and WANF share studios on 14th Street Northwest in Atlanta's Atlantic Station district, while WPCH-TV's transmitter is located in the Woodland Hills section of northeastern Atlanta.
Video Concert Hall (VCH) was launched in 1978 or 1979 on the USA Network and on Showtime, featuring an unhosted rotation of music videos. Often credited as being the precursor to MTV, Video Concert Hall was reportedly the most popular programming on QUBE, a cable television unit of Warner Communications. VCH, as it was often called, was created by radio and cable television executive Lloyd G. Crowe and Charles W. Henderson, a journalist who would later work for TriStar Pictures. Video Concert Hall was produced by Henderson-Crowe Productions and the company Video Concert Hall, Ltd. at studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Crowe and Henderson served as executive producers of Video Concert Hall, as well as other top-rated syndicated musical variety TV specials.
The following is a list of media in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
The Now Explosion was an early experiment in music video produced in Atlanta, Georgia in 1970, more than a decade before MTV was launched. The program was televised in Atlanta on WATL-TV and, later, WTCG-TV.
Bally Sports Southeast (BSSE) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout the southeastern United States, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Atlanta, Tennessee, and Charlotte.
Kalilah Antonette Enríquez is a Belizean journalist and poet. She currently resides in Kingston, Jamaica, where she co-hosts the popular current affairs radio programme, Nationwide This Morning on Nationwide News Network.
Chiller was an American cable and satellite television network that was owned by NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group subsidiary of NBCUniversal, all owned by Comcast. It later opened its own film production company as well. Chiller specialized in horror, thriller and suspense programming, mainly films.
Derrick Stacey Borte is a German-born American filmmaker known for the dark comedy The Joneses (2010), which he wrote, directed, and produced. The film was his directorial debut.
Kerwin Swint is an American political scientist and author, known for his research and writing in the fields of political campaigns, mass media, and political history. He or his work has appeared in a number of national and international media, including CNN, FOX News, the BBC, the ABC program The View, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The Toronto Star, The Daily Mail (UK), The Guardian (UK), National Journal, Mental Floss, Publishers Weekly, Salon, Slate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and numerous other media.
TBS is an American pay television network owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It carries a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy, along with some sports events, including Major League Baseball, Stanley Cup playoffs, NCAA men's basketball tournament and professional wrestling show AEW Dynamite. As of September 2018, TBS was received by approximately 90.391 million households that subscribe to a pay television service throughout the United States.
NewsRx is a media and technology company focusing on digital media, printed media, news services, and knowledge discovery through its BUTTER platform. In 1995 the company was the world's largest producer of health news. The company publishes 194 newsweeklies in health and other fields, which are distributed to subscribers and partners including Factiva, the Wall Street Journal Professional Edition, Thomson Reuters, ProQuest, and Cengage Learning. C W Henderson founded the company in 1984 and its first publication was AIDS Weekly. In the early 2000s, the firm added the imprint, VerticalNews to publish newsweeklies in non-health fields. Now based in Atlanta, Georgia, the company reports through its daily news service and publishes reference books through its partner, ScholarlyEditions. NewsRx launched its BUTTER platform in 2015, which is a knowledge discovery engine that delivers its content to academics, researchers, and professionals.
Michael Jackson's Halloween is a one-hour animated television special that premiered on CBS on October 27, 2017. It was produced by Splash Entertainment.
John S. James, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941, is a pioneering US LGBT rights activist and the writer and editor of AIDS Treatment News, one of the first and the most influential publications focused on documenting cutting-edge, science-based AIDS research and treatment. AIDS Treatment News was founded in 1986 and published until 2007. It was widely read by people living with HIV/AIDS, policymakers, clinicians, researchers, and activists. The newsletters were later collected into two volumes and published by Celestial Arts Press in Berkeley, California. A selection of the newsletters is available in the archive of the University of California San Francisco.