In Black America; Bob Law, Host of National Black Network's Night Talk

That's it. I'm John Hansen, join me this week on in Black America. It is simply a process of providing information and access to the airways of people who have information. What we say is that night talk is a free exchange of ideas and information. And we want to continue that process. Bob Law, host of the National Black Network Night Talk Radio Program this week on in Black America. This is in Black America, Reflections of the Black Experience in American Society.

We are in the industry, it is very much where we are in the society, but we have there are some of us who have some very visible positions, particularly in the communications industry. If you look at television news, there is a black news, there is a black anchor man or woman everywhere, but they do not set policy and their news does not reflect a black community consciousness so that when the negative reporting of all of the things that we do wrong, we make mistakes in our community and our kids do incorrect things and all of that is what gets on the air and the black reporters and black anchor people are either not in the position to change that or to even have any influence in terms of saying something good or reporting

the whole story. Bob Law, host of the National Black Network's Night Talk Radio Program. Night Talk is the first nationally broadcast Black Oriented Telephone Talk Show. Bob Law is known for his innovative approach to broadcasting, he has distinguished himself as an active concern communicator and community leader. He was the former field secretary and student organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Community Affairs Director for Radio Station WRL in New York City. I'm John L. Hanson Jr. this week Bob Law, host of the National Black Network's Radio Program Night Talk in Black America. Bob Law, host of the National Black Network's Radio Station WRL in New York City.

Bob Law, host of the National Black Network's Radio Station WRL in New York City. Night Talk is instrumental in organizing the National Economic Development Council and we're going to be working in various cities in Chicago and Philadelphia, St. Louis and Atlanta with community development and economic development projects and so we're really excited about the possibilities of a national economic development council and the role that we can play in making people aware of it and help it to energize it and we have a campaign to reclaim our young.

We've been trying to get it off the ground effectively for the last year or so and I would like to see that really take off and slide and we'll see we want to be at the we want to be on the cutting edge of the movement to raise the consciousness of African American people and so that is what we would try to do and it's it is simply a process of providing information and access to the airways of people who have information what we say is that night talk is a free exchange of ideas and information and we want to continue that process. For more than 15 years Bob Law has kept that process alive. His nightly talk show on NBN is the first nationally broadcast like oriented telephone talk show. He has built an audience of loyal listeners from around this nation. Bob Law's night talk family has rallied together to lend support to a number of important causes. Bob Law began his broadcasting career at W.R.O. Radio in New York City as director of community affairs.

His weekly black dialogue radio program was one of the most popular and provocative shows on the air. That popularity led to him being named program director. As program director of radio station W.R.L. in New York, Bob Law skillfully blended R&B, jazz and ballots with exercise, news, talk and health features on the label of the progressive AM. I recently spoke with Mr. Law regarding his innovative approach to broadcasting. I wanted people who can truthfully say I got my job through the civil rights movement. I was involved with some political action organizations and we were working with at this point we were working around a concern for drugs in the black community and we had begun to approach radio stations to get their help and getting our anti-drug message across. But also there was a concern that radio stations, particularly around the time of the Superfly movie and music, there was a concern based on our involvement with young people.

That there was a kind of romanticizing, the life of a cocaine dealer and we approached radio stations about that concern and the role that they were playing in making the Superfly concept popular and in doing so I came in touch with the black radio in New York City. And I brother in Bernie McCain who was a public affairs director at WWRL and he endorsed and fully supported our effort and put us on the air and at the point where he was promoted and moved to another city here since I thought I knew how radio stations ought to function. If I'd like to work for one and arrange for me to replace him as public affairs director at WWRL and that began the career radio. You mentioned you started doing a civil rights movement addressing some of the stereotypical portrayals we were being betrayed in the motion pictures and television.

From that period up to now what would you consider some of the major accomplishments you have brought to the forefront as far as black issues in New York and on a national basis? Well I think that we have been able to at the most significant is establishing a sense of community nationally among the people who do respond to my talk for instance. We have just completed the organizing process of a National Economic Development Council and it was promoted on the air and people have come together from about five to six cities so far to form a National Economic Development Council and a Board of Directors and to begin to develop a National Agenda for Economic Development and they are willing to do that as they are put in touch with each other over a period of years we have come together to raise money collectively for a number of issues from saving mountain value Mississippi

from being auctioned off to a liver transplant for a Kansas City teenager and in that process the national audience has seen that it is entirely possible to work together as a national family and so that sense of community has been one of the things that we have been able to develop and I think that is one of the things that is particularly valuable we raise a lot of issues and hopefully have raised the consciousness of people who listen to us regularly but one of the tangible things that we can really point to is developing that sense of community among the African-American community nationally. I notice when a caller calls in for your national syndicated talk show they say I respect you brother. When did that come to be a standard of your program and why? We are before I was doing night talk as public affairs director at the WWRL in New York we began a project called the Respect Yourself Campaign and it worked really very well

in fact it was funded by the New York City Youth Board when it was no longer a summer project for the radio station and we continued to implement the Respect Yourself Campaign in high schools around the country around the city really and one of the people who was real instrumental in that was Mel the Moore. Mel the went to high schools with me spoke to students and he was really a part of the Respect Yourself Campaign and the greeting for the Respect Yourself Campaign when it operated in schools was respect yourself or I respect you when we meet each other as a person saying hey what it be like it was happening and all the kind of things we say that don't have any meaning. We had said to young people say something that is significant and so something that suggests something that is that is in your best interest and so the greeting was I respect you and as a reminder that you ought to make sure that you are always really a respect when Mel did my show as when I began to do night talk she came on and said respect yourself just kind of you know reminiscing with me just kind of you know old times sake and the audience

said what is what is she what why does she say that the same thing you said that is the way the audience responded and so we explained that they used to be a respect yourself campaign and the audience said we need it now and you've got to reorganize that again and so we did and we now have a national respect yourself campaign it's a summer project is to reclaim black youth and so and when we began to reorganize that campaign we did respect yourself t-shirts and I talk about the efforts of the respect yourself campaign out of film workshop in media workshop in Atlanta learning center that we support in Kansas City a music workshop that we have in New York City which has produced the respect yourself youth choir and so respect yourself is a bit more visible now and people just use the old greeting from the old days okay being a national talk show host one of the few who addressed their particular topical issue to a black community when did you begin night talk and the response you have gathered over the years or the Richter your night talk

began about I guess about seven years ago and it was the idea of the national black network who asked me to come and and host the show I don't know all the people who were involved and actually developing the idea the people that I'm aware of the the principles I would imagine a six smalls and then say it isn't who developed the idea and then asked me to come and do it and both the second part of your question what do you all try to achieve from that from that program in response you have garnered over the years I think that what the intention is to provide a networking process for disseminating information nationally the black community isn't in real need of information and this is the information age as declared by the United Nations and as declared by reality and the people who are going to

survive and do well in the 21st century other people who are going to be prepared with sufficient functional information there are people that the most creative people right now are the scientists who are developing more sophisticated methods for disseminating information microwaved satellites all kinds of things and they are engineers are doing the most creative work they are moving so quickly that they make one process absolutely even before you have a chance to buy you know beta max is out and before you can even get a beta max VHS is made beta max absolutely and so that you know that the engineers are the most most creative and it is all about the dissemination of information and so there's a need really in the African-American community for a handle on much more information the information network becomes critically important the part of the problem is that most black radio stations are still reluctant to take information seriously and so you have just the only thing that is on 24 hours

a day at the black community is black radio and my concern is that much of what is on the radio is a song song lyrics and dance steps and we need that song how many stations currently are part of the national black radio network that airs night talk on a nightly basis the I think there's some maybe 200 stations that are part of the national black network and I don't have a definite figure for how many of those stations carried night talk I just got a call last night from Jacksonville Florida with a station that just joined us and so there and sometimes we get calls from people who who say we've been carried your program and they're there in being affiliates and they make a decision to carry night talk it without always letting us know and so I really don't know we're in some significant markets you know Chicago New York Atlanta Detroit St. Louis a number of markets can this to the end 10 many more South Carolina we're in significant markets

around the uh primarily at this point it is from the Midwest to the East Coast okay when you go about during the program is it more or less an open line type program or invited guests invited on the program and they have an opportunity to interact with your guests it is both we have a guest almost every program and we deal with a particular subject but the program is on for five hours a midnight to five a.m. Eastern Standard Time and the uh there's usually two to three hours on each program that is what we call an open forum after the guests have gone and we just kind of open the lines and open the forum and we talk about whatever people would like to talk about one feature that we do is called meteorite where we ask people to uh share the front page of the newspaper or any material in the article and the information that they have come across in the media uh to read it and share it and do an analysis of it with uh with the audience so

that people who live in Chicago can hear the editorial in the Atlanta Journal Constitution the people who live in Detroit can hear the uh what was on the front page of the uh Detroit news of free press and part of my concern is that as we push that we get some participation but there's not an awful lot of people who have actually read a newspaper or a magazine it's then it is indicative of the extent to which we are we are not pursuing information. Is it an issue or item that will be address more urgently in the future of trying to make black owned and operated station or black formatted station realize that we're an information age and more information uh need to be put forth to the public. Well I will be pushing that at the Black Radio Exclusive Convention in Los Angeles this weekend uh I will be pushing it along with the support of Jack Gibson and uh his family of Public Convention in August.

Uh there's some of us in radio who uh at the uh uh screaming it now you know that uh black radio really really has to get serious uh I did an article in Cash Box Magazine thanks to Bob Long who is now a vice president there made some space available for an open letter to black radio where uh when I said essentially if that black radio really must grow up it's got to keep up with the black community the black community is uh talking about you know political empowerment economic development is a black man seriously running for the presidency the United States there's economic development happening in cities around the country there's re-gentrification there black people developing looking for ways to develop a a survival motion and black radio is a major source of uh of information or can be a major source of ideas and information and we've got to provide more than the top 10 records now you mentioned night

talk is on for five hours is there a steady stream of of callers doing that time period absolutely they know this the night talk family okay and there they are there there are people who will call me at the time between four and five and say that I've been trying to you know you you're a guest said so and so and they'll repeat what the guest said and the guest said that between twelve and one okay you know and they say I've been trying to get through it uh or I heard somebody say yesterday uh and but they heard somebody say something yesterday three you know in the beginning of the program and this president is calling in the last hour the audience really does not uh fall off until the show is over it's not like we have a lot of audience at midnight and less audience at five a.m. but the phones are as active at five a.m. as they are at uh twelve midnight this may be a difficult question to answer but in your opinion who have been some

of the livelier guests or the guests to uh gone of the largest response good or bad well it depends really on the uh I can easily identify the guests but I think it has to do with the uh the subject matter at a particular point in time there's of course uh Jesse is on and everybody wants to talk to Jesse you know and when he's in 1984 uh with he's running for the presidency hit the most pictures is around Jesse we uh when he went to Syria for uh Lieutenant Robert Goodman he called Night Talk from Syria and with an update just before he went just before Lieutenant Goodman was released to him when he was in Rome with the Pope he called us from Rome and so there's many truth of course in his activities that there's a great deal of interest in uh economic development in health care in uh in relationships with the family structures so that when we have uh and and the audience absolutely love psychics so that okay if we have

June Gatlin a psychic from Los Angeles on the phones begin to ring uh immediately as soon as I say our guest tonight is June Gatlin the phones light up and when we have Alvinia Falcon on from Chicago talking about health care there's a great deal of interest other personalities who uh who get a lot of phone response or uh Dick Gregory and if we happen to talk to anybody who is really hot at a particular point in time and we talked to Eddie almost from Miami Vice and so right as we talked to him before he did Miami Vice promoting a film that he did call the bout of Gregorio Cortez and he got good response and my audience went to the movie with him in New York so he went to see uh his film but the second time or the third time he was on most recently now this is after Miami Vice where he plays the uh forgot the lieutenant's name but he is the uh the lieutenant who's the boss on Miami Vice and so now Annie also has a movie standard deliver

that is current and so the phone reaction of course is even more now that he is uh even better known so it usually is uh uh uh based on the person being hot at that point in time or one of the subjects relationship is the most popular subject i have ever seen the relationship between men and women we can be sure of on for five hours i have gone off the air after a five hour conversation with people still on the phone and holding on to continue to talk to me for another hour even though we're not on the air when we have talked about relationship in an honest opinion is it difficult to sit down and do a five hour talk show yeah it's it's so hard i want to get twice as much money being in one of the media capitals with the media capital more than likely over the world in New York City and having an ear or at least some type of input into some download

addressing some of the issues affecting black america in your opinion uh where do you see the state of black america in 1988 the state of black america is on the uh threshold i think black america is on the threshold uh uh a significant move in it in a uh due direction in terms of uh uh the empowerment goals that we seek political and economic empowerment stability in the black community i think that we are at a real critical point we're on the threshold of either moving forward into a significant new direction with new energy or we will go uh kind of not really into oblivion but uh we just what's at risk is that we make kind of drift into a a kind of uh business as usual kind of get misled you know during the civil rights movement there was

great creativity the civil rights movement was a significant development for the black community in terms of the leadership the uh we we we might look back at the movement now and say that you know we no longer need to pursue those things but when we did that though in the at 1960s that was some of the most creative energy and some of the brightest leadership we'd ever produce the idea for uh demonstrations and the kinds of things that we raised and the kinds of questions that we raised and uh a black preacher taken a position against the war and Vietnam and all of the things that was the real the citizens and challenging the system and confronting the system that was real creative leadership there's uh uh there is a need for another level of creative leadership the methodology of the 1960s is not applicable now and what we have is uh people who came at the end of the movement and and are continuing to push the same they're pushing you know demonstrations and uh man real hard rhetoric but I think that

that's what we're beginning to see as an emergency for some more sophistication in terms of the pursuit of political power and but the online is holding on to its old attitude and whether so the real question is whether or not the people who say that they want new people and younger people and new involvement are ever really going to be honest about that and actually allow new people and younger people to get involved and you hear a lot of politicians say we want new blood and young folks to join our organization well try it you are young try and join one of those political organizations try and work for a politician and see if in fact they really want your ideas and your input and your new direction and so the challenge is for young people this generation of young people to uh pick up the torch black people are young people in snake and the Panther Party those people were 15 they were 17 they were I mean Jim Farman was considered the old man of snake and he must have been about 25 do you think today there's a lack of understanding

and appreciation of of what went on and during the 1960s and early 70s that's the civil right music move here yeah I'm I think there's a lack of understanding or a lack of appreciation they are uh people who you know as I say with the young people and and the 60s dropped out of college in order to free black American uh I guess they Jim Farman was considered the old man and he was about 25 years old so the people there were 20 and 18 and 19 and they were organizing across the country they were going into Mississippi Delta risking their lives of voter registration they were challenging a system that was protected by the national god to share with the police the president it took great great great courage and they opened doors and made some things possible even now and what happens now is that since there are people who never had to face the humiliation of the segregation so for people who never had to face it is real easy to light off a struggle for integration I think that there are some things that we lost as a result of

integration you know we lost black business who we lost more than half a new in Atlanta you know but uh but we there are some things that were absolutely necessary at that time and so the the movement for integration and challenging voting right to the kind of thing was really necessary it is and those young people put their lives on the line and now it is necessary for young people to take the movement to the next level so the doors are open and now you can you can sleep anywhere you want to in Atlanta now it is necessary to uh rebuild or be an avenue in terms of economic development and now having created opportunities for young people in cities around the country to work wherever they are qualified to work in many many cases it is now their responsibility to move the movement to the next level and try to reach back and and help to stabilize the uh black community and I think that uh there's yes people think that they have their jobs because they were talented but they have their jobs because some people knocked their doors down you may be

talented enough to do the job but it was not talented got you the job because it was just the question of being talented then Paul Robson would be the host of the tonight show he's the most talented of all and so has never been simply about talent you know that King Cole would have had a his own television show forever not a little trial run you know it look you can look at all the people we've always produced extremely talented people but the opportunities and even now if you look at the film industry as talented as we are the only people who are allowed to emerge are slapstick comedies so you've got any mercy and before any mercy you've got uh Richard Pryon uh before Richard Pryon you get uh Sidney Portier there's always one at a time and now you have to be a comedian and you have to be particularly appealing to uh to write audience and and you have to curse a lot and you got to be a wise crapper you know this got to be you know you've got to be a certain kind of sophisticated menstrual man and so that we have not really made the uh significant progress uh even now although there are some opportunities that

did not exist before you know red uh red fox uh when red fox was Eddie Murphy's age he was as funny as Eddie Murphy right but there was no opportunity for red fox and it was nothing that it is not that Eddie Murphy is talented it is that the uh the doors have been smashed open but every time we open it uh they close it so that only one person can get through and so we have a need now to move our struggle in a different direction toward building some institutions of our own that will serve us our people and that this generation then has the uh most significant challenge of all Bob Law host of the nationally syndicated radio program night talk broadcast of the national black network if you have a comment i would like to obtain a cassette copy of this program write us the address is in black america longhorn radio network ut austin austin texas 7-8-7-12 for in black america's technical producer Cliff Hartgrove

i'm john ale hence in junior please join us again next week you've been listening to in black america reflections of the black experience in american society in black america is produced and distributed by the center for telecommunication services at ut austin and does not necessarily reflect the views of the university of texas at austin or this station this is the longhorn radio network