OT: Rob Parker and Three Ex-Athletes Launching All-Black Sports Talk Radio Station in Detroit
The story in the Detroit News is paywalled, but here's the relevant part:
Former Detroit sports columnist Rob Parker and three business partners, all former athletes, have reached an agreement to lease WXYT 1270-AM from Audacy and launch the nation's first all-Black lineup of hosts. "Sports Rap Radio" is scheduled to launch in mid-May, and eventually will feature local programming from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with Parker's nationally syndicated show, "The Odd Couple" with Chris Broussard, airing from 7-10 p.m.
One of his partners is former U-M wide receiver Maurice Ways.
February 23rd, 2024 at 3:23 PM ^
I'd argue there's no market need for another Detroit Sports Talk Radio station of ANY type. Much less this one and the unnecessary "uniqueness" Parker wants to provide.
February 23rd, 2024 at 3:33 PM ^
Two words, Race Hustler says it all.
February 23rd, 2024 at 3:42 PM ^
Rob Parker is awful.
February 23rd, 2024 at 3:46 PM ^
In addition to the other problematic things in the past with Parker doesn't he have a reputation for hating or trolling on any Detroit or Michigan related sports things? That sounds like a riveting listen if I have ever heard of one. Dude is just a grade A blowhard through and through.
February 23rd, 2024 at 3:49 PM ^
This is doomed to fail, regardless of the talent of the personalities.
Radio, in general, is dying out gradually. While AM radio is dying even more quickly...especially signals like 1270, which are relatively weak and are at the end of the dial.
February 23rd, 2024 at 4:29 PM ^
Your dial only goes up to 1300?
February 23rd, 2024 at 5:41 PM ^
No it goes to 11, obviously
February 23rd, 2024 at 4:49 PM ^
i'm happy they can do this, but i can't stand rob parker. I think he may be the worst radio host on sports talk radio ever.
February 23rd, 2024 at 5:10 PM ^
Oh, good. An opportunity for the "Black people having things is racism against white people" crowd to chime in with their very important perspective.
February 23rd, 2024 at 7:34 PM ^
I think it’s obvious no one here would oppose a show or network devoted to black culture. I think the pushback would come from *if* there is an explicit requirement of a certain melanin content for employment.
February 24th, 2024 at 8:12 AM ^
Well yeah, considering that would be illegal.
February 24th, 2024 at 9:41 AM ^
C’mon, man. There is a certain subset of aggrieved white guys who love to use these technicalities as a cover any time someone wants to do something that doesn’t assume their perspective is the only appropriate one.
The people in this thread insulting Jemele Hill and comparing her to a Sasquatch aren’t concerned with the subtleties of employment law. The first comment in the thread is “Can white folks listen?” And it is +75 upvotes and counting.
February 23rd, 2024 at 5:11 PM ^
I'm happy for Ways but I can't imagine a channel's programming guided by Rob Parker would be particularly interesting.
February 23rd, 2024 at 6:09 PM ^
When I first saw the post title, my immediate thought was, "Are there really that many fans of the New Zealand rugby team in the Detroit area?"
February 23rd, 2024 at 7:10 PM ^
It’s on AM. No one listens and ad spots go for $10 for a :30 and $20 for a :60.
February 23rd, 2024 at 10:57 PM ^
I buy a lot of media in metro Detroit. There’s no fucking way I’d advise my clients to spend even $10 or $20 for a commercial on 1270 am. Maybe $5.
February 24th, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
If I bought spot, the only way I’d accept that is if they threw in the dayparts at no cost.
February 23rd, 2024 at 8:29 PM ^
I think Rob should hire Chappy Chump from 97.1 the ticket.
The PSU grad, Chappy Chump, has been using his degree for 10+ years as "mop up duty" host when all of the stars need to go on vacation or have a holiday off. And he loves it.....
February 23rd, 2024 at 8:40 PM ^
Hey Mods,
U let this go on and on but shut down political discussions?
Is very telling.
February 23rd, 2024 at 9:21 PM ^
Not sure what your point is but I suspect you are wrong.
February 24th, 2024 at 9:17 AM ^
I disagree. This is a shit show comment section that rises to the vitriol displayed in political posts. Only the bias at hand is regarding race rather than politics, and it is surprising that it is allowed to continue. I thought for sure this would have been locked by now, but I'm not ready to read anything into it about the mods just yet.
February 24th, 2024 at 7:47 PM ^
on one hand its disappointing how small minded a lot of people on this blog are, on the other a thread like this shows people's true colors, so now we know.
February 23rd, 2024 at 10:47 PM ^
Rob Parker is the worst. He is such a Michigan hater. He said that Michigan shouldn't be celebrating their "tainted" championship. Several years ago he said that Michigan is such an overrated program because they had only won a split NC since the early 1900s, completely skipping their NC's in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Fuck him. He's a troll.
February 23rd, 2024 at 10:59 PM ^
Rob Parker is pretty much the worst
February 24th, 2024 at 12:29 AM ^
I’m sure it will be upstanding, first rate sports journalism. Like Parker asking what color are your panties.
February 24th, 2024 at 5:27 AM ^
I dont like this. WHAT would the reaction be if they were starting a all white sports station? Isn't that racist. Can't have it both ways
February 24th, 2024 at 9:10 AM ^
It’s not having it both ways. White people have not historically been marginalized.
February 24th, 2024 at 9:56 AM ^
This thread is gross and should have been removed a long time ago. Basically after the first comment was posted.
February 24th, 2024 at 10:54 AM ^
GO BLUE
February 24th, 2024 at 10:58 AM ^
I can't remember Parker but I guess his WAYS, are unbecoming by some of these comments. YIKES
February 24th, 2024 at 3:43 PM ^
So much discussion of a product likely targeting a specific segment of the population. Hard to see how hiring a non-black host if your target audience is black male sports fans would help you. I think you hire your hosts based on the prospective you want the show to project. The hope being that you forge a unique target audience that you can use to attract advertisers that also want to target your audience demographics. As a listener, if the show is not for you, move on to other shows that are targeted more to your demographic profile. Capitalism. I would hope an employer that is targeting a specific demographic for their product would be allowed to hire employees to reach said goal.
February 24th, 2024 at 8:15 PM ^
The headline was written by the editor not the article writer, nor the station partners. Everyone fell for it hook, line and sinker and you can see how riled up people are. As I've said for years, race is not real, there is no science behind it. It is a social construct designed as a red herring to determine who gets the resources and wealth as are all divisions among humanity ie. cities, counties, states, countries, Dems/Repubs etc.
All sapiens lived near the equator 80 thousand years ago and had brown skin. Anything else is a mutation as are all phenotypes present in humans. Everyone with blue eyes descends from someone who lived in modern day Europe about 10 thousand years ago. There's an excellent book that touches on this by Jason Lowery called Softwar: a novel theory on power projection. He was told to stop selling it but there is a used copy on Amazon for $2,000. Clearly there is powerful knowledge contained within. MIT has a digital online version.
February 24th, 2024 at 8:42 PM ^
I can't wait for the time when there's an all- human talk radio station. But that's probably like 300 years into the future.
February 24th, 2024 at 10:19 PM ^
NO WAY NO HOW
February 25th, 2024 at 7:04 AM ^
Race is always going to be an issue in this country, and this thread has only further reinforced that fact for me.
I'm not calling out anyone in either direction, it just is what it is at this point.
February 25th, 2024 at 9:27 PM ^
I would just like to point quite a few people in this thread think this is a bad idea not because of the all black angle, but because Parker has been a blowhard troll his entire career and maybe should not be the headliner for this. I mean he was trolling just recently calling UM's title tainted, etc after all.