MTV...

I mentioned today that other television channels play more music than MTV. Since we were talking specifically about MTV, which is understandable due to its undeniable significance, I began wondering about other channels (more specifically BET). Though I am not necessarily a huge fan of the music that is played on this channel, I wanted to see what they were about considering it is "Black Entertainment Television". What I found is that it began with African Americans as the target audience. This seems obvious, but what I really thought was interesting was that it was created by lobbyist who wanted to reach black audiences in 1980, and music videos by black artists were played (there were no threats needed). It is clear though that seeing white people is rare on that channel; also while doing research I saw that many people asked why Hendrix isn't even played, even though he is black. I guess my question(s) would be, what makes a music channel respectable in the eyes of a viewer? What sacrifices do these channels have to make in order to maintain viewers (does Hendrix have to be ignored because he really isn't hip hop or the same genres as other artists played)? And why is this double standard acceptable considering we criticize MTV for not originally playing Michael Jackson?