“Very seldom does somebody get to do what no one has done,” said longtime sports journalist, Rob Parker.
When that opportunity presents itself, you have to go for it. That’s exactly what Parker was facing while pondering about launching his latest venture, Sports Rap Radio.
So after letting the idea marinate for years, Parker finally decided to go for it.
Last week, he announced that he will soon launch what will become the first all Black sports radio channel in history, which will become a home for new local talent, powerful voices and nationally syndicated programming.
And what better place to launch it than in Detroit, a city that according to the US Census Bureau is almost 80% Black (77.8%) and a city that Parker called home for many years.
In Motown, Parker became the first host for AM station WDFN 1130 in 1994. Not first Black host, but first overall host, period.
It’s also where Parker forged additional roots in the city as a sports columnist and sports anchor.
So while the location for Sports Rap Radio was an easy choice, the process won’t be. But it’s a challenge he’s accepted.
“I’ve had this idea for a while,” Parker told me during our interview. “Sometimes time goes by and nothing gets done. The funding is not perfect, the advertising is not perfect…but sometimes you just have to go for it.”
There are many reasons to launch an all-Black sports radio channel, but one of the biggest is to address the lazy response many general market companies give when taken to task about hiring Black talent to fill key and/or senior roles.
“We can’t find them.”
Oftentimes, that’s because they’re looking in the same places for the same faces.
But now Rob and his business partners, BJ Armstrong, Dave Kenney and Maurice Ways are creating a destination for Black talent in sports radio to be discovered and heard.
“It’s going to be sports talk radio. We’re not reinventing the wheel,” said Parker. “But the perspectives and narratives will be different.”
Parker and his team reached an agreement with Audacy to lease WXYT 1270 AM in Detroit for the show, which is the sister station of the city’s only other all-local-sports talk station, 97.1 The Ticket.
But the relationship will be complementary according to Parker, who said that they will cross-promote programming and support each other.
Most interesting is that Sports Rap Radio is headed to AM, the broadcast format that helped launch legendary Black voices on stations such as WOL in Washington D.C. and WLIB in NYC.
For those questioning the move to AM, precedent exists. The broadcast home of the LA Dodgers is AM 570 and ESPN Radio in NYC is making the move from 98.7 FM to 1050 AM this September.
This history-making venture is a great idea and fills a void that has long existed in the space.
But will it work?
