Radio is an interesting career; in years past, it was a specific career choice. It’s one that’s of the moment—and by that, I mean there’s a lot of passion for it. It’s exciting and fun, but the future in it is unclear.
Looking at the radio business from the outside can seduce you. Even today, in the age of social media, there are people on the outside who still want in. However, jobs like management, programming, promotions, or general manager aren’t goals until after some time in the business. Being on-air is still the prize.
The radio business isn’t like working for Ford or GM back in the day. To bring it closer to today, it’s not like working for Microsoft or Apple. There were no safeguards for retirement in radio like companies today provide employees. One benefit of the corporate takeover of radio is they brought the benefit of a 401(k) that individual owners didn’t provide.
While the Living Legends Foundation isn’t a retirement fund, when record and radio industry members find themselves in a tight spot financially for specific needs, they can be there to help. Full disclosure: I’ve been a board member of LLF for some time now, so I know firsthand the assistance they’ve given to people in the industry over the years.
But for this article, I connected with the leadership of the organization representing records and radio—current president Azim Rashid and Skip Dillard, current vice president.
Ken Johnson: Azim and then Skip, give me a little bit about your background and what you’re doing now.
Azim: I’m a lifer in the music business. I started out as a DJ and a rapper. I was a recording artist in high school and college. When I graduated from college, I started a marketing street team company that led to my first full-time job at Motown. And from Motown, I went to MCA Records. MCA, I went to Atlantic Records. From Atlantic to Capitol. Capitol, Roc Nation. Roc Nation at Columbia.
Currently, I have my own marketing company called the Alchemy Group. We specialize in helping do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs do on the outside what I was doing on the inside. Promotion, marketing, tour services, ad buys, you name it.
Skip: For me, just here at Audacy. I’ve been here since late 2021. Started out as brand manager for the Classic R&B and Hip-Hop station 94.7 The Block and now, format vice president overseeing Rhythmic Adult Contemporary, Throwbacks, and Adult R&B. Radio—that’s my thing. Outside of 2003, when I wrote for Billboard’s Airplay Monitor, Top 40 and Urban for a year, I’ve always been passionate and still passionate about the business and very passionate about the Living Legends Foundation.
Ken: Could you guys tell the folks who are unaware of the Living Legends Foundation and what it does?
Azim: The Living Legends Foundation was started in 1992 by four executives, Ray Harris, who was actually the forefather of the Black executives—the first Black executive at a major record company at Warner Bros.
Ray Harris, Barbara Lewis, the pioneer in female promotion, CeCe Evans, our treasurer, and the late Dr. Jerry Boulding, a radio guru, started the organization primarily to give flowers to their fellow executives—you know, executives don’t get Grammys and Emmys and that kind of stuff. They started it as a way to pay homage to their fellow executives in radio and records.
At some point, the organization flipped to where it started to handle the needs of some of these same executives who had fallen on hard times. That has morphed into what we now call the three pillars: service, scholarship, and preservation of the legacy of Black executives.
The scholarship- We provide scholarships to students who want to work behind the scenes. A lot of people getting into entertainment want to be in front of the camera. One of my personal mantras: there are five jobs in front of the mic, and there are 500 behind the mic. Our scholarship component is meant to help those 500 become executives and give them mentorship and financial assistance through college.
The preservation of legacy Black executives have an annual gala where we have anywhere from five to eight honorees that we give excellence awards.
Ken: What are some of the things that you guys have done to help people?
Skip: The biggest offering we provide is financial assistance. For many, it can help make a mortgage, rent, and medical payments. We’ve helped people keep from losing their things in storage.
We don’t talk about who we help outside of our small board team. Our board at large has no idea who requested help because we don’t promote names. We try to keep people from possible embarrassment.
Ken: How does the foundation sustain itself?
Azim: Back in the Ray Harris days, when we had entire Black divisions, we could just pick up the phone and call the 20 chairmen, presidents, heads of promotion and say, “We’re putting on a gala. We need assistance.”
The foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All the work is done by the board and officers for free. No paid staff. The money comes from corporate donations and individual donors.
As corporations got smaller, probably 50% of our funding is from the major labels. The rest comes from entrepreneurs, people we’ve helped, and individual donors.
Skip: We have our golf tournament on April 19. And we’re moving our gala to Atlanta for the first time on October 3.
We’re pulling from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, the South, and up the Mid-Atlantic. A large artist community lives in Atlanta. It’s a historic city for Black music and culture.
The gala and golf tournament help us maintain support for the radio and record community.
Ken: Radio and records are challenged today. How does that affect the LLF?
Skip: There are a lot of challenges. Employment and pay have changed. Artists do their own promotion or have in-house teams. Fewer artists make money.
We’ve had to expand—people in publishing and entertainment law. I see future participants from these areas.
Ken: Do you think there’s one thing that changed the course of radio and records?
Azim: Streaming affects both radio and records. Streaming is now retail. As a recording artist, my publishing checks look very different now. Streaming is subjective. You don’t know who’s consuming the music.
I tell my kids, “You used to pay $10.99 for one CD. Now, for $20/month, you have every piece of music ever made.” That changed everything.
Skip: In radio, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed everything. Small companies disappeared. They went from twenty five companies to eight major broadcasters. You had to win at one or risk being shut out completely.
Ken: I know we’ve got a golf tournament on April 19th and the gala on October 3rd in Atlanta. Anything else you want to leave our readers with?
Azim: Just a reminder: this is your organization. It doesn’t work without volunteers, donors, and members. We don’t want people to only reach out when they need help, we want them to be part of this community long before that.
Skip: Amen.
If you’re interested in the Living Legends Foundation—for the golf tournament, annual fundraising dinner, scholarships, or becoming a member—visit livinglegendsfoundation.com or follow them on social media @livinglegendsfoundation.
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Ken Johnson is an Urban/Hip-Hop columnist for Barrett Media. Born and raised in Washington DC, his career experiences include serving as VP of Urban formats for Cumulus Media, holding the Director of Urban Programming post at ABC Radio Networks, and programming stations in Birmingham, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City. He has also managed affiliate relations for the Nick Cannon show, and worked as the Executive Producer of The Hughley Truth Podcast hosted by comedian DL Hughley. Ken currently runs Mean Ole Lion Media, a content creation company and podcast network. He can be reached by email at ken@kenjohnsonmedia.com.
