Using the Collection

The Tom Reed Collection can be accessed online via the UCLA Library Digital Collections platform. The sample collection items below can be viewed by clicking “Watch online.”

More Information

Featured Collection Items

About Tom Reed's "For Members Only"

From 1980 into the 2000s, former local disc jockey, “Los Angeles Sentinel” columnist, and L.A. jazz and blues historian Tom Reed created, hosted and produced his own independent African American news and magazine television program, “For Members Only.” Airing in Los Angeles on KSCI UHF Channel 18, Tom Reed's “For Members Only” offered viewers Black perspectives on topics ranging from local social issues to African American history to celebrity interviews. Guests on the program included luminaries such as boxer and humanitarian Muhammad Ali and author Alex Haley, often alongside noted politicians such as Congresswoman Diane Watson or community activists such as Michael Zinzun. Additional examples of guests appearing on the program include Emmy-winning actress Alfre Woodard and Grammy Hall of Fame Award inductee Nina Simone.

Many episodes of “For Members Only” trace African American contributions to popular music, with numerous segments highlighting topics covered in Reed's self-published book, “The Black Music History of Los Angeles — Its Roots.” At least four times a year, the magazine format of the series would yield to specially themed documentary-type episodes with titles such as “African American Women of Courage,” “Malcolm X: He Is Still Among Us,” “Smoking: A Cause of Death in the Black & African American Community” and “Mesoamerican and African American Contributions in and Near Los Angeles to 1950.”

Local television productions from the 1950s through the 1990s have a low survival rate, as most producing stations and/or local production entities did not have the budget, staffing, storage space or mission to preserve or save programming after it aired. The fact that 20 years’ worth of episodes of the independently-produced, L.A.-based “For Members Only” program survived to be preserved is a unique instance, representing a rare opportunity for the study of a single local TV series across several decades. The research value here is compounded significantly in that the “For Members Only” series was produced specifically by and for L.A.’s African American community.

Services & Resources