Black Information Network

On June 29, 2020, 15 iHeartMedia radio stations in markets with large African American populations (including AM, FM, and HD Radio subchannel stations) ceased their regular programming, and began stunting with clips of speeches by prominent African Americans, such as Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet" address, interspersed with messages stating that "our side of the story is about to be told", and promoting a major change in their programming at 12:00 p.m. EDT the next day.{{cite news |date=June 30, 2020 |title=Several iHeartMedia Stations Stunting With Speeches, New Format To Be Announced Tomorrow |work=All Access |publisher=All Access Music Group |url=https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/197805/several-iheartmedia-stations-stunting-with-speeche |access-date=June 30, 2020 }}

On June 30, 2020, at 12:00 p.m. EDT, iHeartMedia officially launched the Black Information Network (BIN) on the 15 stunting stations, carrying national news coverage catered to African American communities. The service draws from other iHeartMedia services for local traffic and weather updates, and promotes podcasts oriented towards the audience. The network will be carried by additional stations over time, and is also being distributed on the iHeartRadio streaming platform.

BIN also serves as the provider of news content for iHeartMedia stations carrying formats that predominantly target African-Americans, including hip hop, R&B, and gospel.{{cite web |last=Spangler |first=Todd |date=June 30, 2020 |title=iHeartMedia to Launch BIN: Black Information Network on Radio, Digital Channels |url=https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/iheartmedia-bin-black-information-network-launch-1234694146/ |access-date=June 30, 2020 |website=Variety |language=en }}{{cite web |date=June 30, 2020 |title=iHeartMedia Launches Black Information Network |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/189803/fifteen-iheartmedia-stations-stunting-ahead-of-new-network-launch/ |access-date=June 30, 2020 |website=RadioInsight |publisher=RadioBB Networks |language=en-US }} Stations not owned by iHeart may also subscribe to the service, with newscasts available at the :00 and :30 mark each hour.

Alongside traditional advertising, BIN is also being backed by a group of "national founding partners", including Bank of America, CVS Health, GEICO, Lowe's, McDonald's, Sony, 23andMe, and Verizon Communications which will air outreach towards African-American communities on the network. Currently, the number of minutes each hour devoted to commercials is considerably lower than most radio networks.

On September 10, 2020, iHeartMedia announced that it would acquire WWRL in New York City, a station that had historically carried formats serving the African American community, to carry BIN beginning November 2. BIN programming was previously available in the New York radio market via 105.1 WWPR-FM's third HD Radio subchannel.{{Cite web|date=September 10, 2020|title=iHeartMedia Acquires WWRL New York For Black Information Network|url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/197424/iheartmedia-acquires-wwrl-new-york-for-black-information-network/|access-date=September 10, 2020|website=RadioInsight|language=en-US}} On December 2, 2020, iHeartMedia announced that it would acquire Fort Worth's KHVN and its simulcast partner KKGM, with an intent for them to be BIN's stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, replacing their existing Black Gospel format.{{Cite web|date=December 30, 2020|title=Heaven97 Bids Listeners Farewell|url=https://texasmetronews.com/7363/heaven97-bids-farewell/|access-date=September 16, 2021|website=Texas Metro News|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Jacobson|first=Adam|date=December 3, 2020|title=DFW AM Duo Acquired By iHeart For BIN Home|url=https://www.rbr.com/dfw-am-duo-acquired-by-iheart-for-bin-home/|url-status=live|access-date=September 16, 2021|website=Radio & Television Business Report|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222214716/https://www.rbr.com/dfw-am-duo-acquired-by-iheart-for-bin-home/ |archive-date=December 22, 2020 }}

The network currently has 60 affiliates in 49 markets across the United States.

• Asterisk (*) indicates HD Radio broadcast.
• Gray background indicates low-power FM translator.

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• {{official website |https://www.binnews.com/ }}

{{IHeartMedia}}

{{All-News Radio}}

{{American broadcast radio}}

Category:IHeartRadio digital channels

Category:Radio stations established in 2020

Category:African-American radio

Category:2020 establishments in the United States