In June this year, the city of Detroit launched its first all-Black-led sports radio station. Rob Parker, a former Detroit sports presenter, founded Sports Rap Radio on AM 1270, making it the first Black-owned radio station featuring all Black hosts not only in Detroit but throughout the country.
Parker told CBS Detroit, “[This is] history-making. [It’s] groundbreaking, [and] we just believe that the time has come.”
He added, “Just four years ago, there were no Black full-time sports hosts on the radio in Detroit. In a city that’s nearly 80% black, I looked at that as a problem.”
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Once the trailblazer realized he couldn’t do it alone, he put together a group of co-owners that included his old friend Dave Kenney, former NBA player BJ Armstrong, and Maurice “Moe” Ways, a wide receiver for the University of Michigan and a former Detroit Country Day football champion.
Even though Ways’ hopes of playing in the NFL were dashed four years ago due to an injury, he said Sports Rap Radio will allow him to share his opinions and fill a vacuum in the sports radio industry.
Ways expressed his excitement saying, “Life has an amazing way of showing you signs and dropping seeds and coming full circle. So, [I’m] very humble, very grateful, and ready to get to work.”
The station had an all-local lineup from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on air Monday through Friday, with some local programming available on weekends.
However, after nearly three months of operation, Parker announced that Sports Rap Radio on AM 1270 had ceased operations. According to Barrett Media, Sports Rap Radio stopped broadcasting and went officially off the air at 5 p.m. ET on August 27.
The station was broadcasting from Detroit’s WXYT-AM. After Sports Rap Radio went off the air, the radio station switched back to BetQL Network programming, which occupied that space before Parker launched the station, according to
“Sadly, our second round of funding didn’t come through, making it difficult to continue,” Parker stated. “Sports Rap Radio, the idea and concept, is viable and serves the underrepresented Black community in sports-talk radio. I’m proud that we were able to launch the first all-Black sports talk station in this country. I’m proud of the product the staff delivered. But I’m devastated that I couldn’t deliver this for our culture. I failed my people.”
