Posted on Sunday, June 30, 2024
This Black Music Month marks 52 years that KTSU 90.9 has been influencing the culture in Houston and beyond, sharing the importance of African-American communities through the stories told in music.
“When you think of blues or jazz or gospel music or R&B, hip hop, zydeco, it’s a gumbo of music, but it touches our soul in a whole different way and the stories in the music were really important and that was part of our journey,” said KTSU General Manager Ernest Walker.
That journey has been traveled by many at KTSU, including radio legend, Rev. Rickey Williams also known as the “Radio Pastor.”
“I’m on the radio for four hours on Sunday mornings so I feel like I’m pastoring the whole town or the whole city,” Williams said.
In October, he celebrated 35 years of blessing the airwaves.
“I try and play all of the current gospel as well as some of the old gospel and I try to play music that’s choir oriented, you want to uplift people and that’s what I try to do on Sunday mornings,” he said.
Historically, gospel music helped enslaved people escape to freedom using codes and spiritual hymns as a guide…it also provided unity for Black communities during the civil rights era.
From blues and gospel to hip hop and R&B, KTSU has penetrated its way through every generation.
“We have a variety of on-air talent, we have some that have been here for almost 30 years serving our community, but also pouring back into the next generation,” said Walker.
Including one of the newest hosts, former Mr. Texas Southern and current Student Regent Taylor Getwood.
"Music is very powerful,” Getwood said. “Music can make you happy. It can make you sad. And it can unite people together as a whole and as we look at Black Music Appreciation Month and as it relates to Black history, music was how a lot of our people got through what they went through during those times and to be able to do that in today’s time, I really feel like I’m my ancestors wildest dream to be able to broadcast, to be able to inspire, to be able to empower, and to be able to continue the traditions, just in a more modern form of music.”
“To do what I do, you have to have a love for music, you have to be committed, if there’s no commitment, you won’t do it, and if you don’t love it, you won’t do it well,” Williams added.
But KTSU has been doing it extremely well and plans on continuing to showcase the power of African-American music for another 52 years and beyond.
Category: News Media, Students, Alumni, Faculty & Staff