Friday mornings have a certain energy on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and this past week’s “Love Supreme Friday” edition was no exception. Hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God opened the show with intention, steering the conversation away from the emotional weight of Nebraska’s midterm primary results and toward something more generative — community, culture, and the kind of building that outlasts any single election cycle.
“We have to make a decision,” Paul B. told viewers early in the broadcast. “It’s going to be Love Supreme Friday today. And we’re going to change our mindsets over to something else — because it’s real easy to let your emotions take over when there’s so much to be emotional about.” It was a gentle but firm call to focus, and it set the tone for everything that followed.
Buddy the God, never one to shy away from a hard truth, kept civic accountability on the table even as the conversation pivoted toward positivity. “None of this really matters if everybody voted,” he said plainly. “It’s the missing piece.” Paul B. echoed the urgency, reading aloud from a post by community voice Raquel Henderson: “Posting on Facebook is not enough. Awareness without action changes nothing.” The chat lit up in response, and the hosts used that energy to bridge into something they clearly believe in deeply — the power of building from within.
That bridge led directly to their guest: Dana Murray, executive director and founder of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located on the storied North 24th Street corridor. A South Omaha native and jazz musician who spent eleven years in New York City before returning home, Murray has been quietly doing something remarkable — turning a performance space into a pipeline for critical thinkers.
The conversation opened with a big question: what should North 24th Street actually be? Murray didn’t hesitate. “Really, 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. “And we’ve been so far removed from that.” He outlined what a thriving district actually requires — housing, groceries, parking, services — and raised the idea of a hotel as a game-changer, one that could anchor larger music festivals and conferences right in the heart of the community. “I hear a lot of talk about revitalizing the area,” he added, “but unless those metrics are there, it doesn’t matter.”
Some have questioned whether Murray, as a South Omaha native, has standing to lead in North Omaha. He addressed it directly and without defensiveness. “If you’re Black and you’re in Omaha, especially in the 70s and early 80s, everyone had a shared relationship with North Omaha,” he said. “That was the Mecca for us.” He pushed back on what he called a “false sense of pride” that sometimes keeps the corridor from opening itself up to the broader city. “People told me it was going to be very hard” to draw crowds to North 24th Street, he recalled. “And people don’t have any problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come hear jazz music. That taboo about the area and its ability to be an attraction was false. We’ve proven that.”
Viewer Pops chimed in with a piece of living history to underscore the point: “Artists like Fats Domino used to stay at your grandfather’s home when he came to town to perform. So yes, more infrastructure for the artist around the Deuce corridor would be a godsend.”
Murray’s vision for NMA is ambitious, and deliberately so. He pointed to Omaha Performing Arts as a model — not just as a cultural institution, but as an economic engine generating $40 to $50 million in revenue annually for its surrounding area. “That’s what we’re trying to be for North Omaha,” he said. A $20 million capital campaign is the first phase of what Murray envisions as a full NMA campus. “Money is not our issue really in North Omaha,” he said. “It’s transformative ideas that are going to allow us to be not only sustainable but gainfully active.”
Beyond instruments and performance, NMA offers electives in live sound, broadcasting, live streaming, podcasting, and even student-led interviews with visiting artists. But Murray was clear that the right instructor matters more than any curriculum. “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,” he said. “They don’t need us for the ‘what’ — they can go to YouTube and see anything we’re trying to teach them. The ‘why’ they’re doing it is everything.”
Paul B. framed NMA’s deeper mission through what he called the “secondary matrix” — the idea that everything the organization does carries a layer of meaning beneath the surface. “In Dana Murray’s case, he teaches kids music — but the secondary matrix is to create critical thinkers.” Murray agreed wholeheartedly. “We’re not only raising musicians but more importantly raising more critical-thinking human beings,” he said. “Whatever they choose, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.”
On the state of education broadly, Murray was candid. “We are in crisis,” he said, “not just with young Black kids, young kids period — because we are losing the ability to inspire them.” Rather than fight the digital world young people live in, he said NMA tries to meet students there. “We have to figure out how to inspire them within the world they live in,” he explained. “We are the students.” Viewer Senator KML echoed the sentiment in the chat: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
“I love this interview. This brother’s vibe is so cool and his intentions are admirable. First Sky loves the kids.” — viewer Pops
The warmth of the morning wasn’t limited to the main interview. Viewer Aeros 402 shared a beautiful personal moment mid-show: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” And viewer Kimber Snipes flagged an exciting opportunity for local artists, noting that the North Omaha Trail will be issuing an open call for artists to contribute work along the corridor — with a community discussion in the works and dates to be shared soon.
Those interested in connecting with NMA — whether as a student family, a potential instructor, or a supporter — can reach Dana Murray directly at DMurray@northomahamusic.org or his assistant Andrew Bailey at ABailey@northomahamusic.org. The upcoming NMA Fest is also on the horizon, so keep an eye on North 24th Street.
It was exactly the kind of Friday morning Omaha deserves — honest, hopeful, and rooted in the belief that community is something you build together, one conversation at a time. Tune in Monday for another week of 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and bring a neighbor with you.
