James Brown has spent much of his broadcasting career speaking up for the underdog, which seems unsurprising for a Black man in Utah, where just 1.2% of the population is African American.
His main message through the years has been strikingly simple – that regardless of their differences, all humans are fundamentally the same.
Brown said that Black faces are all too rare in the government-sponsored meetings he attends as part of his work producing and hosting a weekly TV program, “Living & Aging With Pride.”
“Everyone’s talking about how to be inclusive,” Brown said. “But the system is not used to this Black guy coming along and talking about how to help everybody. We all have the same problems, we all face the same things.”
As a member of a minority in Utah, Brown said he recognized that he was facing a difficult task.
“At every meeting I go to, they say how do we reach the underserved, the minorities? And I’m the only minority in the room,” Brown said. He suggested that hiring minorities and having them on their boards would go a long way to solving that dilemma.
Soon to turn 80, Brown has contributed to Utah’s media landscape for more than three decades, and his work demonstrates a desire to lift people’s lives. Whether on camera or off, his trademark energy and enthusiasm enliven everything he does.
In mid-November, Brown will fly to Phoenix to receive the Governors’ Award from the Rocky Mountain Southwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for “Living & Aging With Pride.”
Not since 2015 has this premier award for the Rocky Mountain Emmys gone to Utah, and that year KSL shared the honor with the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.
Charting his own way
Born in San Francisco in 1944, Brown was raised by a single mother who instilled in him a sense of connection and care for the community at large. Many affectionately called her “Miss Eva.”
“We never thought we were poor,” Brown said, reminiscing about his childhood. “I used to call my house the United Nations because every ethnic group would come by. They’d show up to Miss Eva’s house to eat food – she fed everybody.”
Other early lessons stuck as well, including the value of hard work and maintaining a can-do attitude. As a teen, Brown delivered newspapers and cleaned a laundromat after school to bring in extra cash.
After graduating from high school and taking college courses in business administration, Brown said he then went to work for Shell Oil Company’s training and marketing department, handling 13 facilities in Washington, Oregon and California.
Not a bad beginning gig – but Brown said he soon quit that job to work as concert coordinator for Sly and the Family Stone.
Brown landed in Utah in the 1980s, and joked that he scanned the obituaries for Black people and there weren’t any, so he figured they didn’t die here.
Some of his Utah accomplishments include:
• Helping to develop Salt and Pepper Marketing. His clients included Bristol Myers, Mrs. Fields Cookies, Nintendo and Revlon.
• Hosting and producing “New Horizons,” a community-based television program that ran on PBS’s KUED for 13 years. KJZZ, ch. 14, also carried the show, along with 13 radio stations.
• Hosting and producing 47 episodes of “The Clubhouse,” a TV show about golf.
• Featured reporter for ABC4 Utah for nine years.
A Nov. 1, 1990, newspaper article described Brown’s “New Horizons” as a talk show for and about Utah’s minority communities.
Brown told the newspaper that the show was an attempt to help minorities “better assimilate into society,” noting the state could be strengthened by all groups “joining hands and collectively working to make Utah a better place.”
Brown recalled how “New Horizons” came to be.
“In the late 1990s I met with other minorities and TCI Cablevision at Calvary Baptist Church when it was still on 7th South,” Brown said.
At that time, the cable company wanted to introduce a show that would appeal to Utah’s minority population.
“The programming they suggested was ‘Soul Train,’ and I thought, ‘Oh my God, we are in trouble,’” Brown said, fearing that move would simply reinforce stereotypes rather than build understanding.
“I voiced support for ‘Soul Train’ and said I’d had a chance to be on the show with Sly & the Family Stone,” Brown said, but then added, “I don’t think that we want to get ‘Soul Train’ to be representative of the minority community. I think we need to make up a show.”
So he did. And “New Horizons” ran for well over a decade.
His latest trailblazing effort, “Living & Aging with Pride,” launched in 2021 as an issues-oriented program designed to help older Americans live their best lives. The half-hour show is broadcast Sunday mornings, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time (9:30 a.m. Mountain time) on AMGTV. (Viewers can download the AMGTV app on Roku.)
Brown said that laying the groundwork and then filming and editing each episode can span several weeks. Topics he has covered on the show have included affordable housing, autism, the cognitive benefits of music, seniors working with students, Utah’s Aging Commission, AARP and University of Utah’s health care options.
Landing the big one
While Brown received an Emmy for a panhandling story he reported for ABC – and other accolades and awards have also come his way over the span of his career – this year’s once-in-a-lifetime honor comes as a huge boost to the octogenarian.
“Receiving the Rocky Mountain Emmy from my esteemed peers has filled my heart with a profound sense of gratitude and hope. … This Emmy represents far more than just an award to me,” Brown said, calling it a “beacon of hope … reminding me that the work I do matters. It fuels my passion to continue striving for positive change within my community and for myself.”
Also, he credits the unwavering support of his children – Stacey, Sam, Seth, and Alexandra – for sustaining him through the tough times.
“Life has its moments where I feel broken, but their presence in my life lifts me up and reminds me of my strength,” Brown said. “I stand here today, grateful for the family I have and the incredible individuals my children have become.”
On its webpage, the organization describes the Governors’ Award as the “highest award our chapter bestows upon an individual, group or organization within our region (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico or El Centro, CA).”
It further notes that “historically, the Board of Governors’ Award is for truly outstanding and unique accomplishments or for achievements of some duration and durability in our industry. We seek examples of excellence in broadcasting that go beyond those normally found in individual craft or program categories.”
Building bridges, not walls
Betty Sawyer, executive director of Project Success Coalition and president of Ogden’s NAACP chapter, serves as a board member for “Living & Aging With Pride.” Sawyer said she got to know Brown in the early to mid-1990s when he was producing “New Horizons” and she was directing the state Office of Black Affairs under former Gov. Norm Bangerter.
“We had the good fortune to work together and support different initiatives that impacted our community and the state. His show helped shed light on the rich diversity of our state, share resources, and business opportunities,” Sawyer said, adding that now he’s bringing people together by sharing knowledge, resources and insights via “Living & Aging with Pride.”
“I know him to be a visionary and selfless person, giving of his time and talents to uplift and engage others,” Sawyer said. “His zest for life and positive perspective is contagious.”
Jay Jacobson, who chairs the Utah Jewish Federation’s Community Partners Against Hate, said he recently got to know Brown in connection with community conversations that Jacobson hosts at the Salt Lake City Public Library regarding hate crimes and “how we learn about them, report them and respond to them.”
“Our partners include leaders from every minority group,” Jacobson said. During one of their early summer meetings, the group discussed the 2012 shooting attack on a Sikh Temple.
“James showed up and was the only Black American in that audience,” Jacobson said. “I was very struck by that and James has a very infectious smile. He’s just a passionate, effusive, positive individual.”
Former state Sen. Scott Howell, a current board member for Brown’s “Living & Aging With Pride,” said he’s known Brown for more than two decades.
“He volunteered on some of my campaigns. I was so impressed with what he was doing to bring about a greater collaboration of the LDS Church as well as the community, … He’s very passionate about creating win-wins,” Howell said.
Howell likened Brown to Abraham Lincoln “in the sense that people got mad at him because he was so kind to his enemies.” Lincoln is quoted as saying “the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”
“That’s James Brown right there,” Howell said.
