In Race and Radio: Pioneering Black Broadcasters in New Orleans, Bala
James Baptiste traces the history of the integration of radio
broadcasting in New Orleans and tells the story of how African American
on-air personalities transformed the medium. Analyzing a trove of
primary data--including archived manuscripts, articles and display
advertisements in newspapers, oral narratives of historical memories,
and other accounts of African Americans and radio in New Orleans between
1945 and 1965--Baptiste constructs a formidable narrative of broadcast
history, racism, and black experience in this enormously influential
radio market.
The historiography includes the rise and progression of black
broadcasters who reshaped the Crescent City. The first, O. C. W. Taylor,
hosted an unprecedented talk show, the Negro Forum, on WNOE beginning in
1946. Three years later in 1949, listeners heard Vernon "Dr. Daddy-O"
Winslow's smooth and creative voice as a disk jockey on WWEZ. The book
also tells of Larry McKinley who arrived in New Orleans from Chicago in
1953 and played a critical role in informing black listeners about the
civil rights movement in the city.
The racial integration of radio presented opportunities for African
Americans to speak more clearly, in their own voices, and with a
technological tool that opened a broader horizon in which to envision
community. While limited by corporate pressures and demands from
advertisers ranging from local funeral homes to Jax beer, these black
broadcasters helped unify and organize the communities to which they
spoke. Race and Radio captures the first overtures of this new voice and
preserves a history of black radio's awakening.
