Griffin Media has pledged Langston University the most generous gift in the history of the institution. At LU’s 17th Annual President’s Student Scholarship Gala, the University made the announcement that the media giant will be gifting its News 9 media complex on North Kelly Avenue - an over $10 million asset - to the Journalism Department of Langston in January of 2023. The gift of the News 9 building includes all of the state-ofthe- art equipment, furniture, computers, fiber optic cables, and the surrounding land.
Griffin Media Corp. has also pledged that News 9’s on-air and behind-the-scenes staff will be committed to teaching classes, mentoring students, and giving them hands-on experience with the station’s equipment in an unprecedented long-term partnership between the media company and the university.
In an interview with News 9, Dr. Kent Smith, Jr., President of Langston University said of the donation, “We began to come to grips with: Holy cow! This is life changing in the history of the university.”
The idea came to President and CEO of Griffin Media, David Griffin, when he was pondering the dilemma of abandoning the station to move to a new location in Downtown Oklahoma City. He felt that leaving the station after 70 years would leave a big hole in the community. Then it dawned on him that Langston had a journalism program. After three years of looking, they decided they wanted to become part of something larger than themselves.
“There is an incredible need for black journalists in America,” said Griffin, “so by having a historically black college with a great journalism program, it will help us all reflect what’s going into the community as a whole.”
Dr. Smith added, “This changes everything. This impacts our entire university family, because now we can think of Oklahoma City and our Oklahoma City Campus in an entirely different realm that we could not imagine before.”
Every aspect of journalism education and the profession, itself, could be impacted by this historic gift. LU President Smith