Women Speak Out On Their Unique History In Male-run Music Industry: An Airplay Airplay Monitor Black History Month Special

In most stories of the black music industry, the heroes are male: Berry Gordy, Dave Clark, Jack Gibson, Jerry Wexler, etc. But a more thorough history of the business reveals the contributions of several crusading women who carved out impressive achievements in an industry dominated by males.
To bring a different perspective to Black History Month, we asked several key women at record labels and in broadcasting to share their experiences of breaking into the industry and their firsthand viewpoints on the historical development of women as a force in the music business and the degree to which things have changed for women in the industry. Their stories confirm both the best of the human spirit and the worst in business trends, as the industry's boom/bust cycle has limited the growth of African-American women into executive jobs and even weakened some of the bonds among colleagues, who say that a network among women is tenuous at best.
'50s & '60s: SECRETARIES & SALESGIRLS
Mike Bernardo, a veteran promotion woman who now runs the 331 Foundation to benefit Washington, D.C.-area children who lost their parents to violence, got her start in New York packing records in a warehouse. She soon moved on to work for the Scepter, Roulette, and Tico labels. 'Whenever there was a job available in something in the industry, I moved on. And there were no other black women in the business that I saw. I think there was one woman, Bunny Jonz, who worked for Scepter, but mostly the women were secretaries or saleswomen at the time,' says Bernardo, who was last senior VP of R&B promotion at Mercury.
'I was always fighting because I was black and from another country,' adds Bernardo, who is from Haiti by way of Canada. 'I think I might have opened the door a little bit and paved the way, because I was determined I wasn't just going to be a saleswoman or a secretary. I was going to be a good promotion person.'
'Mike Bernardo was one of my mentors, and (Universal president of black music) Jean Riggins was another one who helped me out a lot at Capitol,' says Barbara Lewis, another veteran promotion person who is currently MCA's Southeast field promotion manager. Lewis was a college graduate with a degree in psychology, testing children in New Orleans, when a college girlfriend, Jackie Ward, asked her to help out with Ward's growing indie promotion company. In 1978, Lewis began working accounts for United Artists, Warner Bros., CBS, and others, setting up in-stores, hanging posters, visiting radio stations, and even organizing daylong picnics in Baton Rouge, La., for radio personnel and their families on the record company's dime.
While Lewis counts Bernardo and Riggins among her mentors, those relationships came later. In the early days, when she taught herself to promote records, 'the fellas were doing promotion then: A.D. Washington, Bill