It was a Love Supreme Friday on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and host Paul B. made clear from the jump that the day’s energy was intentional. “There’s a lot going on that I could be feeling kind of low about,” he said, “but it’s going to be Love Supreme Friday today, and we’re going to change our mindsets over to something else.” Co-host Buddy the God was right there with him, and together they steered the show toward community, coalition, and creativity — with one of the most compelling conversations the program has aired in recent memory.
The show opened with a frank look at Nebraska’s recent primary election results, and the numbers were sobering. Buddy the God cited figures shared by Raquel Henderson from the mayor’s office:
“Only 339,000 out of more than 1.2 million registered voters in Nebraska showed up. And yet everybody has something to say. Posting on Facebook is not enough. Awareness without action changes nothing.”
Viewer Kimber Snipes offered a measured counterpoint in the chat, writing that in her conversations with people between the ages of 20 and 35, “most of them don’t really know what to do and know nothing about the candidates,” adding that deeper civic education — not public shaming — might be the more productive path forward.
Paul B. used the moment to articulate what he calls the show’s “secondary matrix” — the idea that 1st Sky Omaha is about more than morning commentary. “Everything that we do has a secondary meaning, a deeper meaning,” he explained. “On the surface, we’re a couple of talking heads that talk about some news with the community — but what we’re really trying to do is build community, build some coalition, build a family of people that we can regularly talk to and come to some conclusions so we can get to some action.” Buddy echoed that framing with a reminder that political engagement is only one tool in the toolbox: “Political power is one lane and we talk about several different kinds of lanes — this lane of coalition building is where we’re headed next. We got to do both: build our own ecosystems and continue to fight through the political process.”
The heart of Friday’s show, though, was a wide-ranging and deeply inspiring interview with Dana Murray, founder and director of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located on North 24th Street — the corridor Paul B. has long called “the most important Black corner in Nebraska.” Murray, a musician and educator who spent 11 years in New York City before returning home to Omaha, came with a vision that is equal parts practical and profound.
When asked what the 24th and Lake corridor — what the hosts affectionately call “Peacock Corner” — could and should be, Murray didn’t mince words. “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. He laid out the building blocks of a thriving district — housing density, eateries, services, entertainment destinations — and didn’t shy away from identifying what’s been missing. “At every opportunity, we fail at taking advantage of showcasing our culture and highlighting our excellence,” he said, pointing to South Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo celebration as a model of inclusive cultural pride. “They invite everybody to be part of that. One of the things I’ve tried to do was reach out and be a beacon for all of Omaha to come down to North 24th Street. People told me that was going to be very hard. 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 was false. We’ve proven that.”
NMA, Murray explained, is not simply a music school. It’s a performance space, a broadcast lab, and an economic vision for North Omaha. He drew a direct parallel to Omaha Performing Arts and its roughly $40–50 million annual economic impact downtown. “That’s what we’re trying to build for North Omaha,” he said. Students don’t just learn instruments — they learn live sound engineering, broadcast production, and podcasting. They conduct interviews with working artists. “It’s not just teaching them ‘you can be this,'” Murray said. “No — you can be this right now.”
The conversation grew even richer when Murray addressed brain drain — a challenge that hits North Omaha disproportionately hard. His answer was rooted in identity and history. “We’re teaching who Buddy Miles was, what he represented for the community and for the world. We’re teaching who Victor Lewis was, why he’s one of the most recorded jazz drummers in history,” he said. “If you give kids context, they connect the dots for themselves.” Viewer Pops felt that deeply, sharing that artists like Fats Domino once stayed at his grandfather’s home when they came to perform — a personal reminder of just how rich that cultural infrastructure once was, and could be again.
As for NMA’s future, Murray is thinking big. A capital campaign with a first phase of $20 million is on the horizon, with a full campus as the long-term goal. But his most compelling argument was philosophical: “Our culture is equity. Our artistic genius is equity. Every music in America has been built off of our experience, from the hardest rock to the jazziest jazz to the poppiest pop. Trace it all the way back to the music brought over from Africa. That’s equity. And the sooner we look at it as equity to build and monetize for our community, the better we’re going to be.”
NMA is currently seeking music instructors who can do more than teach scales. “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,” Murray said. Interested educators can reach Dana Murray at dmurray@northomusicorg or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomusicorg. The upcoming NMA Fest is also on the horizon — details to come.
The show wrapped on a high note, with viewer Senator KML writing simply, “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.” And in a moment of pure joy that reminded everyone what community is really about, viewer Aeros 402 shared that his only daughter had just given birth to his second granddaughter. “They are both new and good,” he wrote. “I feel blessed.” The whole chat seemed to pause and breathe with him for a moment.
It was exactly the kind of Friday morning Omaha needed. If you missed it, make sure you’re tuned in Monday — because on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, the conversation is always worth showing up for.
