Being that the Austin Weekly News is a publication mainly followed by African Americans, I wanted to send you an email regarding another black business new to Chicago.

As an African-American transplant from out of state, I’ve seen very few opportunities for black entertainment coming from Chicago and reaching out to the masses – nationally and internationally speaking. Although the city of Chicago for years was home to the Oprah Winfrey Show, Soul Train and is the setting of many African-American television shows and movies, rarely do we have big names such as Steve Harvey wanting to do a syndicated talk show from our city.

I am writing you to ask that you do a story reminding Chicagoans to get tickets to the Steve Harvey television show that will be taped live from Chicago and aired daily on NBC. I have no affiliation with Steve Harvey or the show whatsoever. But I think Chicagoans should be reminded to get tickets for the Steve Harvey Show, and we should collectively support this black entertainer that we now have in our city.

We saw what happened to the Rosie O’Donnell show when Chicagoans did not support her. As African-American Chicagoans, we need to show that we can support our own businesses. If we prove this to the world, that Chicago is a city that can support African-American talk shows, this could be an opportunity for major networks to give people like yourselves a shot at having a nationally syndicated television show. It’s all related.

Supporting black businesses, such as yours and every other professionally-run black business, will circulate more dollars among us, allowing us to attend more fundraisers. It will allow us the ability to network, and it will keep our people engaged in black Chicago. It will also create a buzz for other blacks, such as myself, to want to move to Chicago and stay in Chicago. The spin-off alone, from having the Steve Harvey Show in Chicago can do wonders for the city among black professionals.

I am sending out emails to several prominent black Chicago publications. We have to take advantage of rare opportunities like this one, and in the end it will benefit all professionally-operated, black-owned Chicago businesses. It’s no different than Mayor Rahm Emanuel recruiting CEOs from hundreds of everyday businesses who, in the end, are building relationships with one another. And they’re building more wealth “for themselves” simply by their networking relationships alone.

We need to support the Steve Harvey Show. Our small local newspapers as well as large should be contacting his PR department so they can place ads in your news publications. Again, this is a major opportunity for Steve Harvey as well as black Chicago business owners and professionals.

We need to support each other.