Friday mornings have a rhythm all their own on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and this past week’s “Love Supreme Friday” edition hit every note just right. Hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God opened the show with a collective exhale after Nebraska’s midterm primary elections, choosing to steer the conversation toward community, culture, and the builders quietly shaping Omaha’s future — one young person at a time.
The decision to declare a Love Supreme Friday wasn’t arbitrary. Paul B. explained it simply and honestly: “There’s a lot of chatter going on on Friends of First Sky Omaha — friends breaking up, all kinds of stuff happening over politics — and that just is like, okay, well, we have to make a decision. It’s going to be Love Supreme Friday today.” The spirit of that decision carried the entire show.
Still, the election results were hard to ignore. Viewer Raquel Henderson had already framed it powerfully before the cameras even rolled, her words read aloud on air: “Only 339,320 out of more than 1.2 million registered voters in Nebraska showed up yesterday. Think about that for a second. And yet everybody has something to say. Everybody’s angry. Everybody’s debating policies and leadership decisions online. Where is that same energy when it’s time to organize, educate, mobilize, register, and actually vote?” It was the kind of question that hangs in the air long after it’s asked.
Buddy the God met it head-on. “None of this really matters if everybody voted,” he said. “It’s the missing piece — as far as people having to fend for themselves — and the reality is until we do that, we’re going to have to keep building our own ecosystems.” That word — ecosystem — became the quiet backbone of the morning. Viewer Kimber Snipes added a layer of nuance to the conversation, sharing that in her talks with folks between the ages of 20 and 35, “most of them don’t really know what to do and know nothing about the candidates,” arguing for more education and deeper community discussions rather than shame.
But true to the Love Supreme spirit, the show quickly pivoted toward the builders. And one builder in particular took center stage.
Dana Murray, founder and director of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), joined the hosts for a wide-ranging and deeply thoughtful conversation about music, culture, youth development, and the untapped potential of the North 24th Street corridor. A South Omaha native who spent eleven years in New York City before returning home, Murray has poured that experience into something remarkable right on the corner of 24th and Lake.
Paul B. set the stage beautifully with what he calls the “secondary matrix” concept. “The idea is that there’s always a deeper meaning to what it is that you’re talking about doing,” he explained. “So in Dana Murray’s case, he teaches kids music — on the surface that’s what it is — but we all know that when you learn music, your brain synapsis starts firing in different ways in order for you to understand other things better as well.” Murray couldn’t have agreed more.
“We’re not only raising musicians, but more importantly we’re raising more critical-thinking human beings,” Murray said, “because all these young kids are not going to become musicians by choice. Some will become doctors, some lawyers, some business owners. Whatever they choose to do, they’re going to be better because they were aligned with artistry.”
Beyond instruments, NMA offers electives in live sound engineering, broadcasting, podcasting, and media production. Murray described a broadcast lab where students don’t just learn about the industry — they work in it. “It’s not just telling them they can be something — it’s letting them be it right now,” he said. “Once you remove those barriers, the sky’s the limit.” Viewer Senator KML summed it up from the chat: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
The conversation grew even larger when Murray turned to the future of North 24th Street itself. He spoke with the passion of someone who has both studied a problem and rolled up his sleeves to fix it. “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, adding that too many in the community have lost the connective tissue to what that stretch of street once represented. His vision is sweeping — housing, eateries, services, parking, a hotel, and entertainment destinations — all working together to make the corridor self-sustaining and magnetic.
And he’s already proving it’s possible. “People told me it was going to be very hard,” Murray said of drawing crowds to NMA’s jazz performances. “And 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.” Viewer Mark Manor backed that up from the chat: “When I go there it is the same people at shows at Waiting Room, Slow Down, and the Jewels. So people are coming from all around town and getting down at NMA, which I find impressive as well.”
Looking ahead, Murray revealed that NMA is planning a capital campaign with a first phase of $20 million, with the ultimate goal of building a full NMA campus. He drew a deliberate comparison to Omaha Performing Arts, which generates $40 to $50 million in annual revenue for its surrounding area, and made the case that North Omaha deserves its own economic engine of that scale. “Money is not our issue really in North Omaha,” he said plainly. “It’s transformative ideas that are going to allow us to be not only sustainable but gainfully active.” And then, with the quiet confidence of someone who has thought about this for a very long time: “Our culture is equity. Our brilliance, our artistic genius, is equity.”
For music educators interested in joining the NMA faculty, Murray emphasized that technical skill alone isn’t enough. “The instructors we bring in have to have in their arsenal the ability to inspire another human being,” he said. Interested parties can reach Murray at dmurray@northomahamusic.org or assistant Andrew Bailey at abailey@northomahamusic.org.
The show also made room for a moment of pure joy. Viewer Ariel 402 shared the sweetest news of the morning: “On a love note, my only daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter. They are both new and good. I feel blessed.” It was a perfect Love Supreme Friday moment — a reminder that new life and new possibility are always arriving, even on the complicated mornings.
Paul B. closed the loop on the whole theme with the same warmth he opened it with. “I’ve always called it the most important black corner in Nebraska,” he said of North 24th Street. “And we got to serve it. We have to be of service to it.” That spirit of service — to each other, to the next generation, to the community — was the heartbeat of the entire morning.
If you missed it, do yourself a favor and catch the replay. And if you want to be part of the conversation live next week, 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning will be right here, bright and early, ready to go deep on the stories and people that make Omaha worth talking about. Don’t miss it.
