Black Radio in Danger of Disappearing in New York City

Radio personality Bob Law says, "They've been programming scared. They've tried to play it so safe, ...they’re hardly black stations at all."

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS- When radio station WRKS (98.7 FM) was subsumed last month into WBLS (107.5 FM), there was considerable relief that the popular Sunday morning talk show “Open Line” would continue on ’BLS.

Longtime city talk radio host, programmer, restaurateur, entrepreneur and activist Bob Law thinks that’s good, too.

But Law also says too much of the discussion about the station shuffle missed the point. “The more important issue wasn't whether ‘Open Line’ would be on ’BLS, but the fact that Kiss is gone,” says Law. “We lost a whole radio station. That’s what we should have been talking about.”

Law, who spent many years at WWRL and hosted the nationally syndicated talk show “Night Line,” is no fan of the way black radio has sounded in New York in recent years. “ They've been programming scared,” he says. “They’ve tried to play it so safe, because that’s the only way they've felt they can get advertisers, that they’re hardly black stations at all.”

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