Sutton and Jones were joined by over fifty shareholders including legendary disk jockey Hal Jackson; Sutton's fellow "Gang of Four" member David Dinkins, who would later become New York's first African-American mayor; Wilbert (Bill) Tatum, who succeeded Jones as publisher of the Amsterdam News; future New York state senator and comptroller Carl McCall; Betty Shabazz, the widow of Black Muslim minister and civil rights leader Malcolm X; civil rights activist, journalist and congressional aide Marcella P. West; and musicians Billy Taylor and Roberta Flack.
Dorothy Brunson, who would later become the first African-American woman to wholly own an American radio station, was an executive at the company during its early years.
WLIB, owned by brothers Harry and Morris S. Novik and programmed to New York's black community, was Inner City's first acquisition, in 1972.
WBLS would experience a period of tremendous success from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s as it pioneered the urban contemporary format under program director Frankie Crocker, and the profile of Inner City rose with it.
[7] YMF Media eventually purchased 15 Inner City stations for $180 million on October 19, 2012; the firm then broke up the group in a series of subsequent sales during 2013–2014.