Epilogue

O. C. W. Taylor was a visionary. He saw the slings and arrows piercing the minds and souls of black folk in the city and offered broadcast programming that obliterated negative stereotypes. In 1966, he became the first black television announcer and producer. Later Vernon Winslow transitioned from disc jockeying popular music and moved to gospel, a genre within which he had a signature voice. Before supremacists allowed Taylor and Winslow into their broadcast studios, Cosimo Matassa, who operated a small recording studio, ran a phone line from the building and connected it to the transmitter at WNOE and WWEZ. He allowed the pioneers to broadcast live from his business, J&M Recording Studio. Among the last pioneer unfolded herein is Larry McKinney who worked at WMRY, WYLD, and WNNR in 1975.

Some Black Broadcasters Spoke Concerning the Civil Rights Movement

The verdict is mixed concerning the extent black broadcasters in the city provided interpretation of issues related to the modern Civil Rights Movement between 1954–1968. The black press, owned by African Americans and relatively independent, covered civil rights news locally and nationally. For example Louisiana Weekly in New Orleans provided quotes from speeches, such as those delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. The paper also published commentary concerning the movement. Nevertheless, broadcaster Larry McKinley produced programming targeting blacks. He was so moved by a King speech in 1957 that he attempted to join the rights group CORE, but could not "turn the other cheek." CORE representatives asked him to go on air and broadcast times and locations of rallies and other public meetings. McKinley also interview foots soldiers such as CORE member Jerome Smith who was terribly brutalized by white terrorists in Birmingham during the Freedom Rides in 1961.

Race and Supremacy Contaminated Media

Racism was the dominant concept encapsulating black experiences with white supremacy in the United States. Whites considered people of European descent as being superior. Caucasians in media produced content presenting white cultural products as the norm. The bombardment of the constructed images convinced the public, including blacks, that Eurocentricity represented the standard of cultural productions. Similarly, ideological hegemony explained why blacks in media were initially presented as negative stereotypes. The theory suggested that whites intended to maintain the status quo. Non-whites needed to not be taken seriously. Whites in decision-making positions in mass media also marginalized or silenced voices of opposition. They regulated people of color to reside outside of mainstream thought. Marginalization suggested that only the ideals of the elite were worthy. W. E. B. Du Bois found the existence of a double consciousness in which African Americans navigated between a black world and a white world. Blacks mostly saw themselves through Caucasian lens and therefore accepted and internalized westernized culture.

Entertainment Content Required on Black-Focused Radio

Black leadership's penchant for non-violence during the Movement was taken seriously in New Orleans. Despite riots in 125 cities after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, New Orleans blacks did not engage in widespread civil disturbances. Announcers began playing gospel and hymns and referred to King as the gentle lamb, which contributed to near tranquillity that coalesced with black leadership’s non-violent rhetoric. The emergence of black-focused radio in New Orleans was similar to Birmingham. Later, In 1980, Inter Urban Broadcasting, the first black interest to own a local radio station, arrived, but white owned businesses, such as computer and electronics companies, refused to purchase time from Inter Urban which had acquired WYLD. A white station, WQUE, entered the market and captured black listenership. It broadcast strictly entertainment compared to WYLD which also broadcast news and public service programs. WYLD lost the battle. Blacks tuned into radio to be entertained.

The Pioneer Mixed a “Batch of ‘Congrats’”

In 1949, after WJMR fired Vernon Winslow, the black paper the Louisiana Weekly hired him as an advertising agent. He also wrote a nightlife gossip column called “Boogie-beat Jive.” In 1950 WMRY was the first local radio station to revamp its programming from white-oriented to exclusively black content. In his column, Winslow critiqued the on-air presentations of the new black DJs whom WMRY hired. He chimed about the good and the bad. George "Tex" Stephens was one of them whom he criticized and later praised. In 1957 WMRY phased out and morphed into WYLD. A year later, WBOK emerged as the city's first racially mixed station playing hillbilly music along with popular black music.

Black Culture, Music, and “Hep Phrasing” Permeated Radio

In 1947, WJBW took a bold move. It began live remotes from a black nightclub, the Dew Drop Inn. In 1949 Vernon Winslow—who would become the city's first full-time black disk jockey at WWEZ—was unsuccessful convincing WJMR's management to hire him as a DJ. The station refused to hire a black man but made Winslow a consultant who created the black trickster character Poppa Stoppa and taught white men to speak in a hip black vernacular. After firing Winslow because he went on air as Poppa Stoppa, the Jax brewery picked him up to expand its black beer drinking market. It contracted with WWEZ for which Winslow created his DJ nickname, Dr. Daddy-O, and operated his new show “Jivin’ with Jax.”

Radio Forum Evolved from Religion to Negro

Before the first broadcast of a black show in May 1946, a white local daily, the Times Picayune, identified the program in its radio schedule as the “Religious Forum.” After the first broadcast, the paper unilaterally changed the listing to “Negro Services,” effectively marginalizing the show. Approximately nine months later, WNOE attempted to change the talk show's time slot from 10 a.m.-10:15 a.m. Sundays to 11 a.m. Sundays. Taylor rebuffed. A wave of black support to keep the time slot poured into the station. Management relented. After approximately one year, Taylor changed the show's name to the “Negro Forum of the Air.” More muted Afrocentric topics, such as the significance of the black press, were added to the repertoire. As Taylor expanded to nearby cities and towns, white public officials sent notices to him warning against communist influence infiltrating his broadcasts.

Organized Action Colorized White Radio in the Crescent City

Black voices on radio provided community building opportunities for African Americans. As such, blacks created an alternative public sphere which allowed them to engage in discourse that unifies people into a collective. The Urban League on the national and local levels aided community building by organizing its members to approach radio station managers beginning in 1941. The organization's directives led to the establishment of the “Negro Forum,” an Afrocentric talk show that integrated the airways in New Orleans in 1946. WNOE station owner James Noe provided O. C. W. Taylor 15 minutes of free airtime on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Noe's decision to accept the “Religious Forum” was also influenced by his interest in gaining Federal Communications Commission approval to change his position on the dial and increase the station's broadcast power from 250 watts to 50,000 watts.

Conclusion

Sociologist E. Franklyn Frazier published Black Bourgeoisie in 1957 noting that the African American press, particularly Ebony magazine, drastically overplayed the accomplishments of the black middle class. “The Negro Forum,” which emerged 11 years earlier in 1946, did similarly, but it could not be convincingly argued that the Forum overstated black accomplishments. Frazier suggested blacks were serving their own need for attention, while Taylor provided his listeners models of black excellence and achievement. He became somewhat Afrocentric before the theory's rise in the 1980s. Afrocentricity places African Americans at the center, as the main focus of analysis of social phenomena. Nevertheless, this thick historiography of pioneering broadcasters noted that early advertisers used innovative techniques to push beer into the black communities. Future studies should consider the effects contemporary black radio announcers might have if they organized concerted efforts to broadcast conscious messages such as those intended to stop black-on-black murder.