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Apr 30, 2018 · Biography. Broadcast executive Frank Mercado-Valdes was born on May 18, 1962 in New York City to Frank Mercado and Linda Valdes. At the age of fifteen, Mercado-Valdes became the Florida Junior Olympic boxing champion, and won the state’s Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship in 1979. He graduated from Coral Gables Senior High School in 1980 ...
His syndicate, the African Heritage Movie Network, became a hit, grossing $7.5 million last year. Mr. Mercado-Valdes now is looking at producing movies and running a cable service. "We view ...
Apr 1, 2005 · Mercado-Valdes gained instant industry respect in 1993 as the first black man to go to movie production houses like Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal to license black-oriented television and ...
- Sought Business Opportunities
- Launched African Heritage Network
- Started Ethnic Television Empire
- Focused on The Future
- Sources
Born on May 18, 1962, in New York, Frank Marcelino Mercado-Valdes was raised by his mother, Lidia Valdes, and her Cuban grandparents. His Puerto Rican father, Frank Mercado, was absent from the picture. At the age of 11, Mercado-Valdes and his mother left their tough South Bronx neighborhood for an equally tough barrio in Miami, Florida, where the ...
“I loved watching old black movies,” he told Black Enterprise, “but I never could find any of them on local television.” Nor on video store shelves. An idea began to form. If he could buy the syndication rights to films such as Cotton Comes to Harlem, Porgy ’n Bess, and Shaft, he could package them into a movie-of-the-month format and offer them to...
Mercado-Valdes’s next coup came in 1996, when he successfully negotiated the weekend syndication rights of the popular police drama New York Undercover. With the $8.5 million purchase, the African Heritage Network made history, becoming the first minority-owned company to purchase a major network series for syndication. By 1998 Mercado-Valdes had s...
Mercado-Valdes had developed THN into a force to be reckoned with. Some high-powered media players in Harlem discovered this in 2003, when the entrepreneur wrested syndication and production control of the long-running Showtime at the Apollo from its original creators. Percy Sutton was considered an icon in Harlem for having restored the historic A...
Periodicals
Black Enterprise, February 2001; January 2003. Crain’s New York Business, August 31, 1998, p. 9. Hollywood Reporter, January 28, 2002, p. 12. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, February 18, 2003.
On-line
“40 under 40,” Network Journal, www.tnj.com/articless/tnjevent/40/mercado.html (December 23, 2003). “African Heritage Movie Network Finds Niche,” Black Enterprise, www.blackenterprise.com/Archiveopen.asp?source=/archive1997/08/0897-08.htm (December 23, 2003). “Black Programming By Any Other Name,” Black Enterprise, www.blackenterprise.com/Archiveopen.asp?source=/articles/01232002jj.html (December 23, 2003). “Young Millionaires Part II,” Entrepreneur Magazine, www.entrepreneur.com/mag/article/...
Broadcast executive Frank Mercado-Valdes was born on May 18, 1962 in New York City to Frank Mercado and Linda Valdes. At the age of fifteen, Mercado-Valdes became the Florida Junior Olympic boxing champion, and
Broadcast executive Frank Mercado-Valdes was born on May 18, 1962 in New York City to Frank Mercado and Linda Valdes. At the age of fifteen, Mercado-Valdes became the Florida Junior Olympic boxing champion, and won the state’s Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship in 1979. He graduated from Coral Gables Senior High School in 1980, and received his A.A. degree in political science from Miami ...
At the time, Mr. Mercado-Valdes was producing two annual televised shows—the Miss Collegiate African-American Pageant and the S.T.O.M.P.! dance competition—and was looking for a more regular stream of cash. In 1992, he came up with the idea of licensing movies with African-American actors and themes, and packaging them for local stations.
