Robert Johnson's Spare Rib Talks BET, Raises Ire

This is news to me, and perhaps I am not well read enough to know. But from the stories I always read in the business media, it was Robert Johnson who started Black Entertainment Television and it was he who ultimately sold it to Viacom in a massive cash out.

But I was wrong, and I blame the media for keeping me in the dark. In an "I don't know quite know the point of this interview" interview, Sheila Johnson tells us that it was a joint idea to start the cable network, and she pulled off this creative effort WHILE teaching.

My former husband, Robert Johnson, and I got the idea of starting a cable network targeted to African-Americans. We founded Black Entertainment Television while I was still teaching. We based our business plan on a proposal for a television program for seniors that had been rejected. We modified the proposal and in 1980 obtained funding from John Malone of Tele-Communications Inc. We took out a loan to rent office space and started with two hours of programming a week. I knew how to get teenagers talking and developed a program called Teen Summit. We eventually sold BET to Viacom.

Nothing like having the ex-wife come out and try to steal your Johnson. The corollary to this interview is that Bob Johnson would have been a peanut farmer or middle manager if his wife had not contribued her half of the ideas that made his fortune. Believe it! (You know, because it's in the New York Times).

And nevermind the title of the piece, called "The Discipline of the Violin". It's strictly a diversion.

(Note to self: After billionairehood, and when divorcing, make wife sign a perpetual confidientiality agreement to avoid being annoyed the rest of my life).