Do Black Radio Audiences Only Want Cooning and Buffooning on the Airwaves?

Do Black radio audiences expect you to talk about entertainment news, do a prank phone call, and see how vulgar or insulting you can be? Do they like explicit sexual conversations while they are riding with their children in the car? Do Black radio audiences only want cooning and buffooning on the airwaves? Why have we as Black radio personalities been programmed to think that the more negative you are, the more people will flock to your show? Over the years, listeners have been programmed as to what a morning show should sound like. You had to be goofy and kooky and see who could say the most outrageous things on the air. Who could push the envelope? Some programmers made you come up with these stupid benchmarks that you had to do every hour. Remember the "Don't Say Ahh" game, the "Battle of the Sexes," "Which One of Us is Lying?" or some goofy game to win concert tickets. I mean, every show in America was doing the same thing. In the '90s, a bunch of show prep services popped up, and everybody would just talk about what was sent to them. People tried to do their best version of the morning zoo, then the shock jock era. Then everybody had to have a comedian on their show. I did all that too, until I woke up. I definitely credit going to do mornings at KRNB in Dallas as my rebirth in personality radio. I really learned how to be myself. Sam Weaver and Ken Dowe helped me to give up gimmick radio and learn how to have a conversation and be myself. I remember when I got to Dallas and they wanted us to get on the air to practice overnight. It was the most liberating feeling I had had in years, just talking and having a conversation, just saying what you felt without fear. I learned how to get personal and revealing in those 2 years of being there. At that time, Tom Joyner was on mornings at KSOC (Radio One at that time), and I was on KRNB. Both stations had inferior signals in the market. When I arrived in 2004, it took us a year to beat Tom Joyner 25-54 in the ratings. I attribute it to our candor-driven content. Boy, we revealed a lot of personal stories on that show, and we were becoming popular. Listeners knew my wife's name and recalled things we shared about ourselves. We had no benchmarks, just content we developed. It was a talk show that played music, but we used the first exit rule in all our breaks. Listeners used to say, you guys don't talk long enough. The first exit rule is knowing when to end the break and get off the talk highway.( LOL) From that experience, I have never wanted to be a cookie-cutter, contrived radio host. I just wanted to be me on the air always. Ken Dowe told me, "I want you to just go on the air, say what you wanna say, and be a man." Even though my ending there was negative, it put me on the road to do personality radio. My next gig was in Chicago with Elroy Smith at V103. Elroy's mantra was, "Have you touched your listeners emotionally?" I use that as a guidepost today as I am developing my talking points. I have to give the people who I really am on the inside to touch who they are on the inside. When I speak, and I'm listening to myself, I am careful not to betray myself. What I mean by that is, am I really saying what I feel or what I think you want me to say? So, on the air, I say, "To thine own self be true." For clarification, I do not talk about sexual content on my show. I do not use profanity on the air. I do not say mean things about people unless I am describing something. I don't use sexually explicit innuendos on my show. I don't do pranks. I just offer myself. I broadcast knowing and accepting that I may not be the show that floats your boat. But I do know that there are people who want to hear what I have to say, and I am fine with both those realities.