It was a Love Supreme Friday on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, and hosts Paul B. and Buddy the God brought the kind of energy that makes you want to pull up a chair and stay awhile. From local election results to a deep, inspiring conversation about the future of North Omaha, Season 4, Episode 53 was one for the archives.
The show opened on a high note — literally — when viewer Aeros 402 shared some beautiful news 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.” It was exactly the kind of moment that reminds you why community morning shows matter. People tune in not just for information, but for each other.
From there, the conversation turned to primary election results and the ongoing challenge of civic engagement in Omaha. Buddy the God was direct about what’s at stake: “None of that really matters if the people don’t vote. Even down to the Supreme Court decision, those maps and those numbers are still based on who’s registered, who’s of age, and actually who comes out to vote.” It was a sober reminder delivered with care rather than lecture.
Viewer Kimber Snipes offered a compassionate counter-perspective from the chat: “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. I don’t think we should be slamming people for not voting when the system is really what has caused this. I think we need to have more education and deep dive discussions.” It was a sentiment the hosts honored, pivoting the conversation toward the kind of community-building that makes voting feel meaningful in the first place.
That pivot brought them to their featured guest: Dana Murray, founder of the North Omaha Music Academy (NMA), located right on the historic 24th Street corridor. A South Omaha native who spent eleven years in New York City before returning home with a vision, Murray brought a calm, clear-eyed brilliance to the conversation that had the chat lighting up from start to finish.
Paul B. set the stage with his own deep affection for the corridor: “I’ve always called it the most important black corner in Nebraska. We got to serve it. We have to be of service to it.” Murray agreed, and then some. He spoke passionately about the untapped potential of North 24th Street as a genuine cultural and arts district — one with the history to back it up and the infrastructure gaps that need filling.
“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,” Murray said. “And 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.”
He laid out a straightforward vision: housing, services, parking, eateries, entertainment destinations — the building blocks of any self-sustaining district. He even floated the idea of a hotel, noting that with one, larger festivals and conferences could be hosted right in the heart of the community. And he pointed to South Omaha’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations as a model worth studying.
“I wish we did more of what South Omaha does with Cinco de Mayo — they champion their culture and invite everybody down,” he said. “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. But people have no problem coming from wherever they are in Omaha or Iowa to hear jazz music or whatever we present.”
At the heart of his work is NMA itself — a youth music academy, performance space, and broadcast lab that Murray describes with the ambition of someone who’s done his homework. He compared its potential economic impact to that of Omaha Performing Arts downtown, which generates $40 to $50 million in revenue annually, and made clear that North Omaha deserves its own version of that engine.
But for Murray, the mission runs deeper than economics. “We’re not only raising musicians but more importantly raising more critical thinking human beings,” he explained, “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.” Paul B. called this the “secondary matrix” — the idea that teaching music is really, underneath it all, teaching people how to think.
Murray also spoke movingly about brain drain, calling it “a killer for Omaha, period,” and noting that North Omaha — roughly 11 to 12 percent of the city’s population — feels its effects far more acutely than other neighborhoods. His answer is rooted in cultural pride and historical context. At NMA, students learn about Buddy Miles and Victor Lewis — both Omaha natives who made indelible marks on American music — not as distant legends but as proof of what’s possible right here at home.
“If you give kids context, they connect the dots for themselves and they start to see the wins and the losses — not only in black people, but in the rest of the country,” he said. “Then they can see how they can be impactful within that ecosystem. Now you’ve got a critical thinking human.”
Looking ahead, Murray described a planned $20 million capital campaign — just the first phase of what he envisions as a full NMA campus. His confidence wasn’t bluster; it was the measured certainty of someone who has already built something real and knows the blueprint works. “Money is not our issue in North Omaha,” he said. “It’s transformative ideas that are going to allow us to be not only sustainable but gainfully active. Our culture is equity.”
Viewer Pops captured the room’s feeling perfectly: “I love this interview. This brother’s vibe is so cool and his intentions are admirable. First Sky loves the kids.” And viewer Senator KML added simply: “Thank you, Uncle Dana. You’re changing lives in big ways. We are the students.”
The show also celebrated several other community bright spots: Charell Shelton’s North Omaha diagnostic lab, the Heart Ministry Center’s planned grocery store, and a recommendation for director Boots Riley’s film I Love Boosters — all woven together under Buddy the God’s rallying call: “We got to do both — build our own ecosystems and continue to do the things we’re about to talk about.”
It was, in every sense, a Love Supreme Friday. If you missed it, make sure you’re tuned in Monday morning — because on 1st Sky Omaha in the Morning, the conversation is always worth showing up for.
