Tony: Kansas City Black Radio Is Better

While Johnny Dare is one of my favorites, his show is the exception to my rule that African-American radio programming in the Kansas City area is almost always more entertaining than most other local radio fare.

This assertion is backed up by news that KPRS is dumping the insufferable Steve Harvey Morning Show and focusing more on music for better PPM ratings. Fact is, whatever they come up with will probably feature more relevant humor and better music than the competition.

For the longest time, local radio insiders begrudged the popularity of Kansas City’s Black radio because they felt bias existed in the ratings system. Now that all of local broadcast radio is on PPM, what has been revealed is that a strong niche market exists despite the many ratings jealous detractors. Personally, I think it’s just better programming for the most part that sets local black radio apart.

Example: Listen to the full spectrum of local radio for awhile and you’ll notice that so many of the trends start out on so-called “Black Radio.” Those weekend retro-jam shows that dominate the FM market? They are a legacy of the “urban” radio programs on the coasts that were prevelant in the local “Black” radio market for years before they crossed over.

Also, “white radio” has yet to come up something as effective for “sexy time” as “The Quiet Storm.” And no, Delilah doesn’t count simply because she makes me want to talk about my feelings and maybe start crying while eating.

For the most part all of the jokes, gags and swagger that so many “mainstream” DJs come up with is directly pirated from Black radio. In much the same way that the history of Rock N’ Roll is pretty much just a story of theft from African-American artists. So it’s always more rewarding to simply go straight to the starting point for so many trends and when I’m not listening to Johnny Dare, I never forget to “slam that Z” and take a listen to the local African-American radio stations that provide so much Kansas City source material.

Tony Botello