BET projects manager explains detail-oriented, high-profile job to NPC colleagues

Many broadcasters will begin telling their professional history with something like "It all started in a 5,000 watt radio station."

Not so, one of the newest members of the National Press Club Broadcast Committee Sonji Robinson Joyner. She started her career with 15 years in New York City in the fashion industry as a stylist at some of the top houses, the likes of Polo and Ralph Lauren.

She told members of the committee that the experience taught her that she was very detail oriented and when she moved to Washington "without a road map," she ended up at Black Entertainment Television. There she is manager of special projects. In fact, she took an hour off for Thursday lunch at the Club from hectic production meetings in connection with the Saturday taping of the "BET Honors" show being staged around the corner at the Warner Theatre. The program will be telecast Monday, March 14 at 8 p.m.

Joyner's job entails being the liaison between BET and the production company that stages the ceremony. She deals with the unions and with the writers, she orders the trophies, coordinates the nominations process and enforces the standards -- in essence "anything logistical."

She has also worked on the "BET Awards" program; "Rip the Runway", a fashion show; and the "BET Hip Hop Awards." For the "Rip the Runway" event she implemented the unique use of a $70,000, 360-degree TV camera to shoot the stars as they arrived on the red carpet. It "made things pop," she said.

Joyner's eye is to the future as she is exploring ways to monetize the digital play for BET programing as more millennials and others "cut the cord" and watch programs without a ratings-generating connection. She finds that today's viewers are interested in "all things reality." She's learned not to stream an entire show on the Internet, because that dilutes from the cablecast ratings. Instead, the network streams video of briefs, such as the stars getting their manicures.

When not rubbing shoulders with 2016 "BET Honors" winners former Attorney General Eric Holder, producer Lee Daniels, Dreamworks Animation Chair Mellody Hobson, Epic Records Chairman L.A. Reid and singer Patti LaBelle, Joyner is mentoring director for Women in Cable Television's Washington/Baltimore chapter and a graduate student in the School of Communication at American University.

The NPC Broadcast Committee meets monthly at the club, usually for lunch on the first Thursday. Any member is free to join by contacting Chairman Mark Hamrick at [email protected].