Over the course of an illustrious career spanning 37 years, the opportunity to be bold and innovative has always been paramount for Rob Parker, ’86. A journalism major at Southern, as well as a sports fan, Parker went on to work at a number of newspapers and was the first black sports columnist at the Detroit Free Press in 1993 and the first black sports columnist at Newsday in New York, as well as the first-ever on-air host hired at WDFN in Detroit.
And now, another first for Parker — on June 3, his vision for the nation’s first sports-talk radio station completely owned by and featuring African American talent will become reality when Sports Rap Radio goes live on AM 1270 WXYT, based in Detroit, Mich.
According to the mission statement on its website, sportsrapradiodetroit.com, “We will entertain and inform. We will chronicle the best and the worst of Motown’s hometown teams. … We will give you both young and fresh and experienced voices, talking with you, not at you. This will be that barbershop convo that made you fall in love with sports from the very beginning.”
Parker was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in August of 2023.
Read the full story in the Detroit Metro Times: “Black-owned Sports Rap Radio readies to launch in Detroit” (by Jim McFarlin, May 28, 2024)
