Is Black Radio Poisoning Our Kids?

Black radio is worth saving, but the artists out there really need to take a deeper look at how their content is affecting the youth that listen to it. There really needs to be some kind of revolution in the music business that makes it more positive. Until then, my MP3 player will continue to run the music in my vehicle.

And I really hate the fact that I sound like my parents right now! LOL. I’ll never forget how much trouble my brother and I got in for sneaking into the house the brand new Dr. Dre album “The Chronic.” My parents made us sit down and listen to every lyric so they could break down exactly what it meant…Lord, have mercy. I know I’m going to have to do the same with my kids if this foolishness keeps up.
.-= Harriet´s last blog ..Introduce Yourself to Yourself! =-.

I agree with the above posters. It’s gotten so bad, we don’t even listen to it in the morning. I’ll listen to Steve Harvey or another alternative type radio station.

I am probably not qualified to comment on this one, since I stopped listening to music radio years ago, but when I visit my god-kids we listen to it. The only benefit for me has been the discussions that have been sparked by a song that I don’t understand.
.-= Carlton´s last blog ..God’s Man | Job 29 | The Blessed Home =-.

It all boils down to money. Sex sells. Think about it – the artists who make socially conscious music (like Mos Def & Talib Kweli) don’t get any airplay because radio would lose listeners. Then they’d lose advertisers, which means they’d lose money. We are the ones with the power! So I don’t think anything’s going to change until the BLACK AUDIENCE changes their music preferences. Until then, they will continue to play the sexed up music our people buy.
.-= Tiffany´s last blog ..Mo’Nique and The Other Women =-.

Is Black radio even “black” anymore? They play what sells. I have been protesting black radio and Black TV for years now. No quality in the programming. Maybe I am just a nerd. I read an interesting blog last year related to a similar topic. http://www.theroot.com/views/black-radio-doesnt-deserve-our-help

Thank God there are people out there who agree with me!!! I am only 25, and married with three children (5,4,18 months). I consider myself young and trendy, but this music…WTH??? My daughter was humming “Bedrock” and I wanted to die! My initial reaction was to fuss at her but then I thought, “Whose fault is this–MOM?”. So now I keep the car radio tuned to classical music or the oldies station. I never thought I would turn into my mother, but I officially have and I’m proud of it. My children will NOT join the legions of preschoolers making it clap, rocking that thang, or doing any of that other crap these so called artists are singing about these days.

It is sad to see when we compromise ourselves and others for the sake of money. It’s a business. Sex sells…values do not. Getting over on others sells…compassion does not. This is what happens when you step away from the sound principals God has set before us and set our own standards. There is a tide that is coming ashore that we cannot stop – a tsunami of filth and violence of sorts. People are unwilling to sacrifice for the greater good because of the pervasive humanisitic attitude. I don’t mean to get on the ‘religious’ soap box…uh, I take that back, yes, I do. That is what we need to get back to but we can’t even do that.

It is a sad day when you cannot support Black radio/television because of the compromise in good values. This is the same thing we experience with Black business…why should I reward those that post store hours 9a – 5p and the door is still locked at 10:45a? Don’t get me wrong…I try hard to forgive and understand things happen but daily? C’mon!

Hip/Hop and R&B is just plain disgusting and embarrasing. I have stepped away from secular music now for almost 7 years though I can appreciate jazz. When I hear something in passing – barbershop – like R. Kelly I feel shame!

Go ahead and call me ol’ school, grandpa, whatever. My integrity is all I have and I am not giving it up for anything or anyone.

I enjoyed reading the posts.

GREAT! I’M HAPPY A LOT OF BLACKS AND ESPECIALLY YOUNG BLACKS AGREE WITH ME ON THIS! THANK GOD! THERE’S STILL HOPE!
.-= EDDIE MATHENEY´s last blog ..SIGN OF THE TIMES? =-.

I do agree with the posts above, but we have to realize that black radio has not changed since the 1990s. To those of you who used to listen to the radio as kids/teenagers in the 90s and 2000s, what about you has changed? The 1990s had 2Pac, Biggie, Janet Jackson, R. Kelly, Jodeci, Adina Howard, and a host of others who were just as explicit as they are today. Let’s not act like this is a new phenomenon. For those of you who used to listen to raunchy music, and don’t act like you’ve been sanctified forever, how did you turn out. Yes, most of the music is bad, but it is nothing that hasn’t been on the radio for the past twenty years. I only go back to the 90s, because those were my formative years. I didn’t listen to much radio in the 1980s to have an opinion.

My point is, this is the same conversation we’ve had about black radio, hip hop, and BET for years.

@Tara- My point is that we need to accept and admit our own hypocrisy. The question was, “Is black radio poisoning our kids?” My response is no more than we (we meaning around 30 and younger) were. I remember listening to Adina Howsrd, for example, on the radio on the bus to middle school in the morning. Everyone was singing along. So in Oklahoma City, where I’m from, yeah they played that type of music all day.

But your post does inadvertently highlight what I think is the real problem. With more and more radio stations being owned by corporate entities, including Radio One, the sense of community standards and accountability are gone. Corporations don’t care about your kids. When programming was controlled locally, the local djs and program directors knew what was acceptable. Now it is all national. Steve Harvey is a joke and Michael Baisden is a misogynist. I don’t listen to Tom Joyner to hav e an opinion about him,

The contributors and commenters on this site really care about their families and raising their kids in a positive environment. That is something we should celebrate, but let’s not act like radio didn’t also poison us and we turned out ok. I’m in no ways excusing their behavior, but let’s not pretend that this is a new issue. What does it matter what time a raunchy song came on, if you admit to listening to it. Filth in the morning is filth in the afternoon is filth at night. If you take your kids to school, you need to control the radio. If you catch music on your kids mp3 player that you disagree with, handle that situation in a positive, proactive matter.

@Bryan – Author Denene Millner wrote an excellent post about black radio a few weeks ago. I would encourage you to go to her site (www.mybrownbaby.blogspot.com) to check it out. In it, she was talking about songs like Trey Songz newest single, “Neighbors Know My Name.” In a certain context, songs like that are fine. I’m an adult. I know what he’s talking about. But little kids? No – it sounds exciting – sex so good you’re breaking headboards and what not? They have no context for that sort of song.

I don’t think this raunchiness would be such a problem if parenting standards were a little higher. Some parents think nothing of letting their kids listen to Gucci Mane all day. Why did I hear a mom call in to request Gucci Mane’s single for her kids, who were shrieking in delight in the background? What?!?!

You’re right – corporations don’t care. But I do. Which is why I wrote the post. I don’t care how it’s been before or how long this is going on or what I used to listen to when I was younger. It doesn’t make me a hypocrite to demand better for my kids.

Good convo. I love it.
.-= Tara´s last blog ..The Young Mommy Goes to Washington – and I need your help! =-.

I pretty much stopped listening to current top 40 music sessions because of the dirty lyrics and how uncomfortably they made me because I was chauffering my little boys and I love having radio on. So I tend to listen to old school hoping for the more positive R&B.
The blame for filth on black radio can be spread far and wide – starting with the consumer! If more parents start tuning off the station, it will affect their advertising dollars and this hits them where it hurts – money. Folks can also do social networking protests about the radio stations – it works! Latest research shows a higher percentage of blacks on social networks than other groups, online protests are the in thing because companies want to protect their brand. Start and or join pages protesting the music rotation at some stations – you never know what you might start.
Some stations are not owned by minorities but that doesn’t matter – money is the common denominator – find a way to bleed it out of their revenue and you’ve a good change coming!
.-= Relationship Education´s last blog ..Achieving Your 2010 Goals With The Change Model =-.

@Bryan – Well, if this is how you sound when you’ve been up with a newborn all night, I’d hate to be in a conversation with you when you’re well rested.

I don’t think you CAN make someone parent the way you think they should parent. I do worry about the influence other kids will have on my little ones. Already, my daughter is in preschool and I can see how it will be really easy for her to try to fit in and be like her friends.

I want to raise her and my son in a way that they never stray from the values that their father and I instill in them.

But still, you make another good point about actually doing something about it. I love how Lamar and Ronnie got fed up with negative images of black marriage and they created this BRAND. I was tired of the stereotypes surrounding young motherhood (young moms can’t be good moms) so I started my blog and the associated book. If we complain about what’s out there, we need to be able to a) identify existing alternatives or b) make our own alternatives. I have XM now and my kids listen to a steady diet of Dora the Explorer and Princess and the Frog, even if it does drive me crazy.
.-= Tara´s last blog ..The Young Mommy Goes to Washington – and I need your help! =-.

Greetings Ms. Jefferson,
You ask: What do you think? Is black radio worth saving?

I feel that that the sexually perverted, and violent music is actually the least of our problems. Yes, you read that correctly. I believe the music is a symptom of a larger problem. If you scan CDC’s website or the Census website to look at what’s going on with our population, our media could be better used to promote messages of collective empowerment. Also, there is a great deal of black woman bashing, homosexual bashing, and belittling of marriage as a noble facet of life. I don’t hear any positive marriage, parenting, workplace, or educational programming at all. We hear so much about what is wrong, and not enough about people who are doing good things! Black Radio could be used for this.

I only listen to the radio station owned by the Seventh Day Adventist community, and the gospel channel with Yolanda Adams. I also listen to NPR. I stopped listening to the other channels YEARS ago. Any parent who allows their children to listen to rap, hip-hop, and even some of the other genres must be out of their mind.

Peace.

Just a couple of weeks ago during our morning ride to school I turned off the black station and turned on 70′s light rock. My 7 year old son asked about the change and I explained to him that I had recently noticed that our black station talked about sex FAR too much. He asked if the 70′s rock didn’t talk about the same topic and I could only mutter that “no, they talk about other things sometimes.” “Maybe they won’t today. Let’s turn it back and see?”, asked my son. So we did and not 10 seconds later some sexually explicit lyric played. Early a.m. is not the time for these lyrics!

You do not have to be a parent of small children to take note of the recklessness of the artists and the radio stations at times. I cringe at the thought of a chorus of “sex therapy” coming from the back seat. Little ones often times do not recognize what they are even singing about.

I wish some responsible adult would consider who is being exposed to these lyrics. To a small child it is the joy of music. A potentially beautiful song is tainted by adult themes and symbols. I have noticed that some of the offending artist, once they become parent change their tunes. Too little, too late.

I contacted my local station some time ago and requested that Myriah “Touch her body” after the kids have gone to bed. No long thereafter, another song with lyrics that leave nothing to the imagination, takes it’s place.

Perhaps the solution is a serious effort to rate music. (LOL) This would give radio stations concrete guidelines/perameters on acceptable/unacceptable music to play.

If these songs were not available on free radio, they would find their way into the mainstream. The onus is shared by the producer of this product and those that throw it to the wind in hopes of a huge windfall. Parents have just one more ‘worldly thing’ comprised of mixed messages and smiling faces to navigate amidst the media storm swirling around our children.

I love music, just about any kind of music. Someone is out of order, so we are forced to tune out. Maybe this is what will drive black radio out of business.

Lest we get it right.

As an entrepreneur when these types of blows affect your business, you have to ask yourself how can I triumph over this or how can I transform my business. Maybe this is a wonderful opportunity for Cathy Hughes Radio One network to play more positive uplifting love music by musicians that most mainstream Black America isn’t familiar with. Either the radio can pay them less fees or maybe these artists based on a mutual agreement would just be excited about having their music exposed to millions of listeners. Its an opportunity to repair our communities and transform our values through the music we listen to.

wbli is known for pushing this crap. its influencing 13 year olds to have sex and kill.
in addition the music is not good. its computerized trash by untalented black gangsters. jayz is one who cant sing. these guys are boring and annoying. the fray, knickelback, three doors down, train, maroon5 green day are all good bands.
and just so nobody thinks im a racist i loved marvin gay, smokey, billy preston
jimi hendrix ect.. i think wbli needs to be kicked off the air. these kids really need to go back in time and listen to the beatles, stones to learn what talent is.

Cheers to James Miles and to a Mike ….. We really need to examine the so called owners of these radio stations. They are as much to blame as anyone. Some of them want us to rally behind them when they have done very little for the community. Outside of street festivals, holiday concerts and the occasional community clean up where is evidence of a radio station’s contribution? The larger black stations that are “Number One” for hip hop and r&b, are the very stations that are playing Usher’s ‘Little Freak’. Still giving out movie passes but rarely encouraging good grades. Contests for America’s Next Model but what about the next bio chemical engineer. I may have stretched the point but the point is – yes, they are poison and they see anything wrong with it. Joyner is in Texas, Baisden is in NYC and so is Harvey, yet they represent our community? The concept is cool but there are way too many communities and issues for those guys to handle. Radio owners need to be reminded who they are supposed to be serving.

Cal, It is cathy hughes who is the problem in itself, she is not going to stop the minstrel show when she knows it keeps her company afloat, this is a self introspect/mental issue many in our community have to address.