 In the mid-1990s, Lucie Salhany, head of the upstart television network by United Television and Paramount Pictures, made a modest unsolicited offer to buy the rights to the U Network name.NACB countered with a $100,000 request, which she refused, thus the network was named UPN instead of U.

NACB's board of directors was composed of students and faculty, most of whom turned over annually and whose business savvy was understandably not as mature as the industry professionals it attracted to its conferences.Its advisory board of media luminaries never met physically and was infrequently tapped for assistance.