The Breakfast Club - IDKMYDE: The Man Who Invented Color TV... Didn't Even Own One

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

The technology behind every color screen was perfected by a Black inventor whonever received the compensation or recognition his work deserved.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. At a Morehouse college, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King's Senior.

It's the true story of protests and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Manilic Lamouba. Listen to the A building on the I-Hearton. Cart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games. a new podcast exploring NLP, aka Neurilingual Programming.

Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the on-purpose podcast. On a recent episode, I sat down with Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter, actor, and global superstar. I went blank. I hit a bad note, and then I couldn't kind of recover. And I had built up this idea that music and being musician was my whole identity. I had to sort of relearn who I was if you took this thing away.

Who am I? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What is something you've had to unlearn about love? That it's earned. That I was unworthy of love. That it needs to be forever for it to count. February is the month of love. Whether you're in a relationship, casually dating, or proudly single, it's a great time to reflect on yourself and what you want.

I'm Hope Woodard, host of the Boy Sober podcast, and each week we're looking at love from every angle. Listen to Boy Sober. That's B-O-Y-S-O-B-E-R. On the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The man who invented color TV didn't even own one. Welcome back, No-It-alls, to another episode of the most anticipated podcast on the Black Effect Podcast Network, especially in February, entitled, I Didn't Know. Maybe you didn't either. I'm your host, BDOT.

And my cash app is B.DOT TV, if anybody's feeling generous. To kick off today's episode, we will start as we always do. with three of the most useless facts you'll never need, never, not a day in life. Your first useless fact, color televisions. They didn't become widespread until the 1960s, a full decade after the technology existed. Your second useless fact, the core technology that made color TV stable and affordable, was invented decades earlier. And your third useless fact, the black man who helped make it possible,

couldn't even afford a color television himself. Speaking of color televisions, we just moved our son to his honor's dorm because he finished his first semester with a 3.78 GPA. And you would think with a GPA that he would be smart. At least I did. Until after unloading his car, we realized that he had laid his flat screen television in the bottom of his trunk. And then packed his drawers and shoes and clothes and snacks on top of the television in the trunk. And of course, we had to go over three huge speed bumps to get to the honors dorm. moral of the story is

Isaiah needs a new television but my question to you is do you know who made color TVs possible because I didn't all right let's talk about color television so when we think about it we think about family rooms Super Bowls sitcoms cartoons

culture what we don't think about is the man who made it possible Otis Frank Boykin Otis Boykin He was an electrical engineer and an inventor whose work on electrical resistors and signal control devices made television signals, especially

color signals, stable, affordable, and reliable. Now let me break it down to you like a five-year-old. Before Boykin's improvements, televisions was OD expensive. Only the rich people had them. They were unstable. The signals were jumping all over the place. And of course, they were

overheat. I mean legit fire hazards in your living room. They was inconsistent in signals, quality, watching one of your favorite shows was like watching through a migraine. Color TV wasn't just about adding color. It needed precise control of electrical currents. You couldn't just paint the signal rainbow and call it a day. Boy can invent it a wire precision resistant that improved signal clarity. It reduced interference. It lowered production costs. And the best part, it didn't catch a damn house on fire. And that last one was very important.

But the components he designed wasn't just for televisions. It was for radio. computers, pacemakers. Yeah, the thing to keep your heart beating and military missile guidance systems. This man's work is keeping Mimar alive and protecting the country. How we never knew his name? Now here's the part that makes the episode

hurt a little. Despite holding 26 patents and revolutionizing consumer electronics, oh, this boy can never own the color TV. Not because he didn't believe in it. Not because he didn't want one, but because the wealth that was just, generated from his inventions.

He didn't see none of that money. His designs was licensed. His components were mass produced. Companies got rich, rich. He got recognition late and not nearly enough compensation. See, this is the other side of innovation in America. Black inventors build a future, but don't always get to live comfortably in it. And Carter G. Woodson warned us about this 100 years ago.

If you don't document who built what, somebody else will claim. it. If you don't control the narrative, someone else will rewrite it. And if you don't own the means of production, you just produce something for someone else's means. So every time you watch a color screen, whether it's your TV, your phone, your tablet, that laptop you're pretending to work on right now. Just remember a black man helped make that possible, even if he never got to sit back and enjoy it himself. And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis.

At a Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King's senior. It's the true story of protests and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Manilic Lamouba.

Listen to the A building on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, aka Neurolinguistic Programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the unpurposed podcast. On a recent episode, I sat down with Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter, actor, and global superstar. I went blank.

I hit a bad note, and I couldn't kind of recover. And I built up this idea that music and being musician was my whole identity. I had to sort of relearn who I was if you took this thing away. Who am I? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What is something you've had to unlearn about love? That it's earned. That I was unworthy of love.

That it needs to be forever for it to count. February is the month of love. Whether you're in a relationship, casually dating, or proudly single, it's a great time to reflect on yourself and what you want. I'm Hope Woodard, host of the Boy Sober podcast, and each week we're looking at love from every angle. Listen to Boy Sober. That's B-O-Y-S-O-B-E-R. On the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Hart podcast.