Bounce, Brown Sugar to Carry Memorial for Aretha Franklin

By Jon Lafayette
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Bounce TV and its Brown Sugar streaming service plan to carry the memorial service for soul singer Aretha Franklin live on Friday.

WXYZ-TV, the Detroit station owned, like Bounce and Brown Sugar, by the E.W. Scripps Co., will provide coverage and commentary of the event.

Detroit was Franklin’s hometown and the funeral will take place at Greater Grace Temple there. Performers during the services are expected to include Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Chaka Khan, Ronald Isley, Yolanda Adams, Shirley Caesar, The Clark Sisters and Marvin Sapp.

Smokey Robinson, Rev. Jesse Jackson and President Bill Clinton will be among the speakers.

A special, Celebrating the Queen of Soul is set to start at 9 a.m. ET. WXYZ anchor Carolyn Clifford and Glenda Lewis, who were longtime friends of Franklin’s will host the hour-long program, which will include highlights from her life and career as well as live reports.

The memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET.

Bounce is a digital broadcast network serving African Americans that is distributed over the secondary digital channels of broadcast stations nationwide. Brown Sugar is a streaming movie service that costs $3.99 a month.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.