Friday mornings on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning carry a particular kind of energy. Hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God call it “Love Supreme Friday,” and if you tuned in for Season 4, Episode 53, you felt exactly why. Between a candid conversation about Nebraska’s primary election results and an inspiring sit-down with a North Omaha music visionary, the show delivered the kind of hour that reminds you why community media matters.
The morning opened, as it often does, with honesty. Nebraska’s primary had wrapped up the day before, and the numbers were hard to ignore. Out of more than 1.2 million registered voters in the state, only 339,000 had shown up to cast a ballot. Buddy the God didn’t mince words about it.
“None of this — a lot of this doesn’t matter if everybody voted. It’s the missing piece.”
Viewer Kimber Snipes echoed a concern many share: “I’ve been having conversations with people between the ages of 20 and 35. What I hear the most is most of them don’t really know what to do and know nothing about the candidates. Politics also seems — because it is — very messy to them.” It’s a sentiment the hosts took seriously, weaving it into a broader conversation about civic responsibility and what low turnout actually costs a community.
Still, true to the spirit of Love Supreme Friday, Paul B. steered the ship toward something more nourishing. “We’re going to change our mindsets over to something else,” he said. “It’s an effort, because it’s real easy to let your emotions take over when there’s so much to be emotional about.” That intentional pivot — from frustration to action, from reaction to vision — set the tone for what came next.
The guest of the hour was Dana Murray, founder and director of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located on the North 24th Street corridor that Paul B. has long called “the most important Black corner in Nebraska.” Murray is a musician who spent 11 years in New York City before coming home to Omaha, and he has spent the last two decades teaching music here. He arrived with a clear-eyed vision and a quiet, infectious confidence.
When asked about the role of art in community life, Murray didn’t hesitate.
“The arts are the core of who we are as people — definitely as Black people. There’s so much shared history from North Omaha and South Omaha, and with a lot of the development going on, very little is talked about the social, people development, and healing that has to happen to even take advantage of all the opportunities.”
Murray grew up in South Omaha, not North, but he was quick to address what that means — and what it doesn’t. “If you’re Black and you’re in Omaha, especially in the 70s and early 80s, North Omaha was the Mecca for all of us,” he said. His work at NMA is, in part, an effort to reclaim and share that legacy with all of Omaha. And he’s seen it work. “People don’t have any problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to come down to North 24th Street to hear jazz music or whatever we present.”
Viewer Pops added a beautiful piece of living history to that thread: “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.” It was the kind of moment that reminds you the chat window on a community show isn’t noise — it’s memory.
Murray’s vision for NMA is expansive. He described it as a youth music academy, a performance space, and an economic engine in waiting — something he explicitly compared to Omaha Performing Arts, which generates $40 to $50 million in revenue annually for the downtown area. “That’s what we’re building toward for North Omaha,” he said plainly. The first phase of NMA’s capital campaign carries a price tag of $20 million, with a full campus on the horizon.
But Murray was equally clear that the work is about people, not just buildings. “We’re not only raising musicians but, more importantly, we’re raising more critical-thinking human beings,” he said. “Whatever they choose, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.” The academy also teaches live sound, broadcasting, podcasting, and interviewing — skills that translate well beyond the stage.
For anyone interested in teaching at NMA, Murray was candid about what it takes. Technical skill alone isn’t enough. “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. “The why you’re doing it is everything.” Interested instructors can reach Murray at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org.
Paul B., who had recently toured the NMA facility, summed up his takeaway simply: “People act like kids don’t play instruments. Well, when they got an opportunity and some people to teach them, they will.”
Viewer Senator KML put it even more personally: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
NMA Fest is on the horizon, and if this conversation was any preview, it promises to be more than a concert — it’ll be a statement about what North 24th Street is and what it’s becoming. Paul B.’s concept of the “secondary matrix” — the idea that everything the show does has a deeper purpose beneath its surface — felt especially alive on this Friday morning. Two hosts, one guest, and a community of listeners all pointing in the same direction.
And across the chat, one more note worth savoring: viewer Aeros 402 shared that his daughter had just given birth to his second granddaughter. “They are both new and good,” he wrote. “I feel blessed.” On a Love Supreme Friday, that’s really what it’s all about.
Tune in Monday morning for another edition of 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning — your community, your conversation, right here at home.
