Friday mornings on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning have a tradition all their own — hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God call it “Love Supreme Friday,” and this week’s edition lived up to every syllable of that name. From a conversation about the soul of North 24th Street to a celebration of community wins both big and small, Season 4, Episode 53 was the kind of morning that reminded you why local matters.
The show opened on a note of warmth that set the tone for everything that followed. Viewer Aeros 402 shared a personal milestone in the chat: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” The room — virtual and otherwise — felt it.
Before diving into the morning’s main conversation, Paul B. and Buddy touched on the aftermath of local primary elections. Buddy the God didn’t sugarcoat his feelings about the political landscape. “Politics, how ugly it gets,” he said. “The energy and emotion around people’s policies separate people, drive wedges, cause enemies. It’s a dirty, ugly game.” Paul B. offered a grounding counterpoint, reminding listeners that civic participation is still essential: “You still do for self, and then you vote so it can be supported and uplifted. You vote so what you’re doing for yourself isn’t undermined by those in office.”
The conversation then shifted to one of Paul B.’s signature frameworks — what he calls the “secondary matrix.” The idea is simple but powerful: behind every action or mission lies a deeper purpose. “In Dana Murray’s case, he teaches kids music,” Paul B. explained, “but the secondary matrix is to create critical thinkers, people that can go further in their fields because they have the discipline of musical training.” It was a concept that would echo throughout the rest of the morning.
That’s because the episode’s centerpiece was a rich, wide-ranging conversation with Dana Murray, director of the North Omaha Music Academy — NMA for short, formerly known as Love’s Jazz — located at the historic corner of 24th and Lake. A South Omaha native who spent eleven years honing his craft in New York City before returning home, Murray has spent two decades teaching music in Omaha. His presence on the show felt less like a guest appearance and more like a homecoming.
Murray spoke with clarity and conviction about what North 24th Street can and should become. “The area that has the most history and the one that can claim ‘we are a cultural and arts district’ for real is the North 24th Street corridor,” he said. But he was quick to acknowledge the challenge: “We’ve been so far removed from that — not even what the rest of Omaha views North 24th Street as. I’m more talking to the people that are there who are so far removed from what that was that it is hard to build momentum from within when a lot of the community can’t relate to the power of what was.”
His vision for the corridor is both practical and ambitious. He outlined the fundamentals — housing, parking, laundromats, eateries, gas stations — as the backbone of a self-sustained district, and then pointed to what would make it truly magnetic. “You have to have destinations: entertainment, restaurants, lounges, things that are going to be your bread-and-butter attractions to draw people into the community. It would be great to have a hotel — with a hotel, now you can throw larger attractions, music festivals, conferences right in the community.”
Some in the community have questioned Murray’s standing as a South Omaha native leading an institution on the North Side. He addressed it directly and without defensiveness. “If you’re Black and you’re in Omaha, especially in the 70s, early 80s, everyone had a shared relationship with North Omaha. That was the Mecca for us.” He went on to describe his deliberate effort to make NMA a beacon for all of Omaha — and the skeptics who told him it couldn’t be done. “People don’t have any problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come down North 24th Street to hear jazz music.”
Paul B. noted that NMA’s performance space has been transformed into something special. “It’s set up like the Blue Note New York now,” he said. “And it’s that level — that level of sound quality and everything there.” Murray confirmed that the physical space is just one piece of a much larger ecosystem. NMA operates as a youth music academy, a live performance venue, a broadcast lab, and a professional training ground — all under one roof. “We also teach kids live sound, broadcast, live streaming. We have a broadcast lab where we do podcasts and interviews, and we get the kids doing interviews of some of these artists. It’s not just teaching them, ‘oh, you can be this.’ No — you can be this right now.”
Viewer Derek Higgins summed up what many were feeling in the chat: “Congrats, Dana, and what NMA is doing.” And viewer Pops offered a piece of living history to underscore the corridor’s cultural roots: “Artists like Fats Domino used to stay at your grandfather’s home when he came to town to perform. More infrastructure for the artist around the Deuce corridor would be a godsend.”
Murray’s long-term vision for NMA is nothing short of transformational. He’s planning a capital campaign with a first phase of $20 million, with an eye toward building a full NMA campus. He pointed to Omaha Performing Arts — which generates $40 to $50 million in annual revenue for the downtown district — as a model for what a North Omaha anchor institution could become. But his most striking argument wasn’t about dollars. It was about recognition.
“What we have to sell in most Black communities is our culture. Because if we don’t monetize it — and 99% of the time we don’t — the rest of the country monetizes our culture for us. The sooner we understand that our culture is equity, that our brilliance and our artistic genius is equity, the better off we’re going to be.”
NMA is also actively seeking music instructors who can do more than teach scales. “Anyone can have the X’s and O’s of teaching,” Murray said, “but unless you’re able to inspire a young person, they don’t really have the attention span for the X’s and O’s of music.” Interested instructors can reach Murray at dmurray@northomusicmusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomusicmusic.org.
Coming up on NMA’s calendar is NMA Fest, a four-night live music festival benefiting North Omaha Music and Arts. Viewer Mark Manor was already excited about one of the acts: “Mono Neon is bringing one of the last relevant connections to Prince. I saw Mono Neon a few years ago — he’s awesome. Do not miss that.”
Buddy the God closed the morning the way he often does — with a challenge wrapped in encouragement. “The lanes are running. The lanes are wide open. Just get in where you fit in and make it happen.” On a Love Supreme Friday like this one, it felt less like a sign-off and more like a starting gun.
If you missed this morning’s show, do yourself a favor and catch the replay. And join us back here Monday — because in Omaha, the conversation is just getting started.
