- The first radio station to reach out to an African American audience with "50,000 watts of goodwill", was right here in Memphis, Tennessee.

Seventy-five years later, it's still going strong, with on-air personalities who connect to their community, and keep their fingers on the pulse of the Mid-South.

This is A Conversation with WDIA.

[soul music] I'm Tracy Bethea.

Earlier this year, I stepped into a new role as program director of Memphis' historic WDIA.

This was the first US radio station to be programmed for a black audience, seventy-five years ago as of October 2023.

It's a great legacy to be a part of.

And to talk about that legacy, I wanted to meet up with three of the on-air personalities that give WDIA its character.

Stan Bell had a long career in Memphis radio before he came to WDIA in 2022, to fill the 6 to 10 AM show left behind by the legendary Bobby OJ.

But many people don't know, his association with WDIA started many years earlier.

- It all started for me back in 1976, as a teenager reporter for WDIA.

I was a junior in high school.

And so I would say that I got bit by the broadcasting bug, '75, '76, right in there.

And then I had the opportunity to become a WDIA high school reporter back then in '76, '77.

And that's when it all started for me.

- And what was that like being a reporter?

What did you do?

- Well, when I got back, when I got back to school after our reports were aired on WDIA, I was like a celebrity.

It was because I got to mention all the wonderful things that were happening at my then high school, Northside.

So when WDIA would record us on Saturdays, my mother would take me Central Avenue to record our 62nd reports, you know, sixty seconds of fame, if you will, just to talk about the good things that we're happening in the school.

Who were the top couples?

Who best dressed, who dressed best?

What was the band doing?

They're traveling to New York, Mardi Gras and New Orleans or wherever.

And we had got an opportunity to say some things about our school.

So we would recorded at WDIA every Saturday morning, and then they would play it back like the week, the next week.

And that celebrity kinda status came when people would hear you.

And then that's when I realized the power, and the influence, and the magic of radio.

- And so you have since then gone through several stations that were connected to WDIA from WHRK, to KJMS, even Hallelujah FM.

- Yes.

- And now you have made your way to a station that you grew up listening to.

- Yes.

- But most importantly, the seat that you fill of the late legendary Bobby OJ.

- Yes.

- When you got that call- - Mm-hmm.

- That you were the one out of the hundreds of candidates that literally applied for that position all over the world, what was that like for you?

- Well first of all, I don't take it lightly, nor granted, or for granted that I am the successor of such an iconic radio personality like Bobby OJ.

First of all, it's a blessing.

It is an honor, and it's a indeed a challenge.

You know, when you come behind someone like the great Bobby OJ, who is now in the celestial city, as I like to say, you have a huge, it's a heavy lift.

Because one, the audience is with great anticipation of what you're gonna do, how are you gonna carry on, how are you gonna quote, unquote fill his shoes.

We're just waiting.

So working at WDIA is an honor.

I had no idea I would be the successor.

I try to stay focused on the main thing, which is the station where I'm employed.

You mentioned K97, then we moved on to 101, and then 95.7 Hallelujah FM, and then onto WDIA.

You know, I have a saying, Tracy, "Unless you move beyond what you've already mastered, you never grow."

- Hmm.

- So life is about the three C's, change, chance, and how would I say, taking a risk, you know, having the courage, you know, to take that risk.

So, courage to change.

And if I could add another one, it would be consistency.

So, leaving K97, I started in 1986 as a part-timer, right.

And then I went, once I got on 15 years later, 2001, I moved to V101.

And then as mentioned, then Hallelujah FM, playing gospel, which I had no problem with that.

And then they said, "Well, tag your it to succeed Bobby OJ."

And just last year.

In fact, I started officially June 27th.

It was right after, I remember, right after the Juneteenth commemoration, if you will, last year.

And I was like, "Man, do I really wanna do this?"

Because technically, it should have happened earlier in terms of me accepting that call as you mentioned.

So now here we are.

We're in the seat AM 1070 WDIA.

But I'm gonna share one thing with you.

One other thing with you, Tracy.

When I left K97 in 2001, I went kicking and screaming.

I did not wanna go.

Because I was so, so attached to the young people who was primarily my listening audience.

And when they asked me to move to 101, I was like, "Oh no.

The music is too slow.

I'm a hype kind of guy."

The kids, you know, kind of need me, at that time.

So all of this has, I think has happened for a reason.

- And so who did you listen to?

Because I did mention that you listened to WDIA.

- Yes.

- Who were some of the radio personalities that you mentioned?

- Ooh, girl.

That's a good question.

Yes.

I listened to Max Fortune.

We don't hear his name a lot, but he was one of the great DJ's on WDIA in the mid '70s.

Of course, my mentor was Herb The "K, Yo Leader" Kneeland.

- Mm-hmm.

- Who was my supervisor when I was a WDIA teenage reporter.

And that's how I really got bit by the bug, because I became, I was not only a member of the organization, but there were several other students from all around the city, be it Melrose, Hamilton, Tech, Northside, Booker T. Washington, and Manassas, they all represented their high school.

So I became the president of that organization, which represented the school, and then I had to represent WDIA.

Herb Kneeland was the one who really got me in this radio business on WDIA.

I grew up listening to Robert "Honey Boy" Thomas, who was another educator.

- Mm-hmm.

- And most of the announcers, radio talents, air personalities, whatever the title might be, they were educators.

- As yourself.

[laughs] - Yes.

- Absolutely.

- Yes.

And all of that rubbed off if you will.

Nat D. Williams - Mm-hmm.

- A.C. "Moohah" Williams, the educator.

So I grew up listening to these people.

Nat D. Williams was my Sunday school teacher at St. John Baptist Church on 640 Vance Avenue.

Little did I know, he was this big guy on the radio.

But I'm listening to him, you know, for scriptures and for to be taught.

And later they told me that he was an announcer on WDIA.

And I'm sitting right before him in the pews, and he's teaching Sunday school classes.

- So now that you're in this place, now that you are a part of such a legendary and historic station, what is your legacy?

What would you like your legacy to be?

As we close out, what would you like for your legacy to be for WDIA?

- If I could say what the legacy would be, was to, knowing that I stand on the shoulders of so many before me, like the A.C. "Moohah" Williams, the Nat D. Williams, the Robert "Honey Boy" Thomas's you know, the Bev Johnson's of the world, the Mark Stansburys of the world.

And to say that I was an educator, but yet I was a teacher, - Mmm.

- And a broadcaster at that.

So having fun on the radio, playing the hits, the jams, and be able to create that awareness of what WDIA really stands for.

And that's music, goodwill, and great information to the community.

[soul music] - (Tracy) For more than 30 years, weekday afternoons on WDIA have belonged to Holly Springs native, Bev Johnson, earning her nickname "The Queen of Talk".

- You know, it's, interesting, because I never gave myself that title.

The fellas that I worked with at the station, started calling me "The Queen of Talk," or "Queen," Queen."

And I was thinking, I said, "WDIA had a queen, Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg."

And so I said, "Oh good, because she is my mentor."

And so I became the second queen of WDIA.

And at first I didn't like it, because I said the station had a queen.

And then after people started calling me "The Queen", it just stuck.

And so now I'm used to hearing "Queen".

- "The Queen of Talk".

- "The Queen of Talk".

- And so your journey to WDIA, what was that like for you?

- I've always had a passion for news talk, but, when I started radio, I started off as a disc jockey spinning 45's and 33's.

[Tracy laughs] I had the midnight to six shift at WJMI.

So I started off spinning records.

And did not want to be in radio.

I wanted to be in news.

I wanted to be a television reporter.

Forty-seven years later, I'm still in radio.

[Tracy chuckles] - And you do it so well.

- Thank you.

- You're invited into homes.

I tell people we don't realize that we're in homes, and people listening to us that we may never meet.

And so the impact that you have had, particularly now at WDIA, what was that like?

Because you, before you had your own talk show, - Mm-hmm.

- Tell us what you were doing.

- I was the news director at WDIA.

When I was hired by John, I was a news reporter, news anchor.

And John left.

And I was offered a job as news director by Ernie Jackson, who was the general manager.

So I had a passion for news.

And one day, our program director, Bobby OJ, said, "Well, I'm gonna do a talk show like Oprah Winfrey."

Oprah had started in 1986.

And Bobby had the idea, "We could do that on radio."

And he said, "Bev, I want you to do it."

And I, and I said, "Bobby, I don't wanna do that.

Just let me do the public affairs news."

He says, "No."

I said, "No."

I just kept saying no.

He says, "You're gonna be fine.

You're gonna be fine.

We're gonna do it."

And it was his idea to do "The Bev Johnson Show", a Oprah Winfrey on radio with me.

And I didn't wanna do it.

Thirty-six years later, I'm doing "The Bev Johnson Show".

- And so what does WDIA mean to you?

Because it's such a historic radio station.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I asked the question, before WDIA, what did we have when it came to music and information?

DIA was that source.

- Was that source.

I can remember, Tracy, as a kid, listening to WDIA.

I was thinking about, listening, I was a small kid, listening to Rufus Thomas.

'Cause Rufus came on at night.

And he had the "Hoot and Holler Show" - "Hoot and Holler".

[Bev laughs] - "Hoot and Holler."

Yeah.

I remember hearing Rufus.

I remember listening to WDIA.

And it so happens that, I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and born in Memphis, but Martha Jean was on WDIA, left Memphis, moved to Detroit.

And when she was there, I was, I said, "She was in Memphis."

And so I listened to Martha Jean on the radio in Detroit.

But to your question, it has been a wonderful journey.

I never thought I would work at WDIA, hearing about it, going to the Starlight Review, meeting a Rufus Thomas, meeting a Moohah Williams, meeting, Honey Boy.

I met him.

"Bless My Bones" Wade.

I remember my first interview job out of college.

Well, I was in college, and getting ready to graduate, and had an interview at WDIA, within the program director who was an attorney.

I can't think of his name.

But I remember meeting "Bless My Bones" Wade.

And he was so funny.

And he talked to me while I waited to get the interview.

So it means a lot that I am standing on some tall shoulders, educators, entertainers, it's been a wonderful journey.

- And now I'm standing on your shoulders.

[Bev gasps] Absolutely.

What is your legacy?

What do you want your legacy to be in this beautiful world?

- That I tried to do the right thing.

I treated people like I wanted to be treated, with respect.

I gave people an opportunity to talk, to hear their views.

I listened.

That in all, I was the girl next door that they could talk to.

I was their girlfriend.

- You have a lot of nieces and nephews, and sister girls I'm sure.

- Yes.

And a lot of boyfriends.

- And a lot of boyfriends.

- And a lot of boyfriends.

[Tracy laughs] That too.

A lot of boyfriends.

- So most people think that you are from Memphis, Tennessee.

- Mm-hmm.

- But, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

- I grew up in, I was born in Memphis.

- Born in Memphis.

- John Gaston.

- Mm-hmm.

- But I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

My folks left when I was in the second grade, started.

- But you are, you are a Memphian, let's just say that.

- Yeah, I am a Memphian.

I am a Memphian.

We had folks here, and would come every summer, Christmas.

So I am a Memphian.

- And so what do you say?

What about Memphis?

What is it that you love about Memphis, and what do you say to somebody that's, you know, what can you give them about Memphis?

- Memphis is a town... where people have compassion.

They're passionate, they have a heart.

They are people here who struggle to do better.

I always tell people, when thinking about radio and music, that I had the best of both worlds, when it comes to music and radio.

I had Soulsville in Memphis, and I had Hitsville in Detroit.

And it comes together, that people in Memphis who love music, but also love WDIA, because they could believe in the personalities and what they said.

They gave them the truth.

And I think about that all the time.

And one of the slogans that WDIA used to have in news, and they would end with, "And that's the soul truth."

- (Tracy) Mark Stansbury started working at WDIA when he was 18 years old.

His professional career has taken him from Holiday Inns Incorporated, to high level roles at University of Memphis, and LeMoyne-Owen College.

Currently he hosts "Sunday's Gospel", but he's remained on the air of WDIA for over 50 years.

- Well, I rode my bicycle out to 2074 Union.

That's where we were located.

And in the side of the studio, Nat D. Williams invited me in and interviewed me.

I was shocked.

I was a kid.

I was 11 years old at the time.

And he interviewed me, and then I decided that that's what I wanted to be, in radio.

And he was also a newspaper person.

And I decided that's what I wanted to be.

And later on, I was... Cathryn Rivers Johnson with the WDIA Teen Town Singers, tapped me to be a member of the Teen Town Singers.

And then brother "Bless My Bones" Wade, who was a great gospel jock on WDIA, had to have surgery.

And his doctor said that he wasn't really sick.

After the surgery, he could drive, he could work, but he could not drive.

And so the station hired me to drive him.

That's how I became at WDIA.

- And what was the core of WDIA back then?

- At that particular time, there was Rufus, Nat D., Ford Nelson, Cornell Wells, later on, Martha Jean "The Queen", you had Robert "Honeymoon" Garner, and Robert "Honey Boy" Thomas.

Did I say Cornell Wells?

They were there.

And Ernest Brazell.

- Yes.

And so was it all R&B back then?

Was it gospel then?

What was the format?

I know it was urban and soul music.

- Yeah, it was a combination.

It was a combination.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Like I heard you say recently, the music has not changed on WDIA.

- And Brother Brazell did the what, "Farm Report"?

- Right, Right, Right.

- Mm-Hmm.

So we were all things to all black folks.

- To all people.

Absolutely.

- So before WDIA, where did we get our music?

How were we informed?

- Really, we were not.

- Wow.

- We were not.

And WDIA was the voice of the community.

I remember speaking recently about, I grew up in the Foote Homes.

And there was very little activities for black children back in the day, because the town was very, very segregated.

When WDIA did movies, they brought movies to the community, to the Foote Home Park.

They had a truck, and put a screen up, and invite the kids to come out and we would watch movies.

WDIA would have events, and if WDIA said, "Go down to the Mississippi River," and if the personality said jump, the first thing they would say, was, "How high?"

And they would jump.

I'm saying "they", meaning our listeners.

- Wow.

So we were truly the voice.

- We were the voice of the community.

- Wow.

And what kind of responsibility was that like for the station?

Or did you, because it was.

- Right.

Right.

And I think they had a commitment with the WDIA Goodwill announcements.

You know, if you needed a job, WDIA advertised jobs on the radio, and if you lost something, and like Brother Wade is known for doing a commercial, or not a commercial, but a goodwill spot about someone losing his false teeth, and finding the false teeth by listening to WDIA.

- The power of radio.

- Absolutely.

- And so all these years later, let's talk about your journey, and your role in WDIA as a gospel announcer.

Did you ever do anything besides gospel?

- Well, yes.

When they hired me, they hired me to do the control board, run the control board.

I used to run the control board, play the records for the air personality.

And I also did the news.

We did what we called "News Live at 55".

Did the news at five minutes before.

And then I also was hired later on as a reporter at the station.

And I would go out, and there's a photograph of me down in Hernando, Mississippi with a great big WDIA tape recorder.

And in the photograph was Dr. Martin Luther King, and also JB Brooks, one of the WDIA engineers were there.

- And so you weren't the official photographer of WDIA, but you kind of were.

- Right.

Right.

- Because you got- - No.

Ernest Withers was really the photographer who did it.

Later on I worked with Ernest Withers.

And on this particular time, I was down representing WDIA at the time.

- Wow.

So what has your journey, like, what has that meant to you, as an African American male to know that you've played such a huge role in the progression of this city because of your connection with WDIA?

- Well, thank the management of WDIA for giving me an opportunity, and to serve as a voice in the community.

And also I've had listeners from around the country to say that my gospel music is not just me playing music, but say it's a ministry.

I've had ministers around the country call and tell me that, and that I touched their lives.

People would tell me that they wanted, or started to call me, to ask me to play this particular song.

And for some reason or another, the song comes on that I'm playing.

And it did more for them than what they wanted.

And I touched somebody's life.

And it just touches me, and glad that I've been able to be there.

And also to serve on so many different boards where I could be a voice to speak up.

And I just always tell the Lord, thank you for that.

- And so I know your catalog for gospel from Aretha Franklin, to James Cleveland, but also to this day, you still play gospel music from Elvis Presley.

- Oh, absolutely, in fact, I remember Bobby OJ was talking to George Kline on his program once, and he was telling him that I was the only person that he knew who played Elvis Presley every Sunday.

And I do.

And I have listeners even today will call.

And if I'm not playing Elvis, and they'll say, "Hey, Mr. Stansbury what's going on?

Where's Elvis?"

[laughing] - What do you want your legacy to be when it comes to WDIA?

- I just want to say that I touched somebody's life.

I didn't do what I did to get any recognition for, that was not... God put me in a position to reach out to the community and inform them.

And that's what I try to do.

And I just try to be thankful every day, and on my program, all during the program, I'm known for, "Tell the Lord, thank you."

"Tell the Lord, thank you."

- "Tell the Lord, thank you."

- Tell the Lord, thank you.

- And I want to thank you.

- Thank you, Tracy.

And I thank you for what you have done, as the first African-American female program director at WDIA.

You and your supervisor, and her supervisor are also females.

And I think that is great.

I was mentioning recently that one denomination had voted recently not to have female preachers.

And I said that, "Look at WDIA.

"We are the heart and soul "of the Memphis community, and our leaders are female."

So, congratulations and thank you, Tracy.

- Well, thank you.

We all got to tell the Lord, thank you.

- Absolutely.

- (Tracy) It's a privilege and honor to be part of the WDIA family.

It's been a lot over the past 75 years, not just to listeners in Memphis, but nationally, as a media pioneer in serving the black community.

The facilities have changed and modernized over the years, but WDIA's on-air personalities continue to connect with the local listeners every day, cementing the special legacy of this groundbreaking community institution.

I'm proud to be a part of it, and to share its stories.

[soul music] [acoustic guitar chords]