Building Leadership and Community Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.) is a newly formed community organization that spurred out of the unjust killing of Michael Brown, Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri. This young man’s death signified a culmination of historical, systematic oppression of Black people that has existed since our ancestors were brought here against their will centuries ago. Our collective concern for the well-being of our youth has led us to organize a holistic approach to healing the damage that has been afflicted upon our community.

There has been an attack on the positive aspects of the Black life. With love, we wish to build up our community to its greatest potential through education, awareness, cooperative economics, tactful action, and social media. Since our inception in August of 2014 we have been a force in this community demanding change. Some of our accomplishments include, but are not limited to, community garden, tutoring program, Black business promotion, bi-weekly meetings discussing and educating on current events, and rallies for peace, and against police brutality.

It is our understanding that WDKX was started in 1974 by Andrew Langston and formed out of a lack of positive entertainment and information for the Black community of Rochester at that time. The station emphasizes a mission to serve the community, positively educate our children, and sponsor events to include and support the community. Additionally, the station was intended to broadcast music and shows that would normally be inaccessible through public access. In a modern mission statement, WDKX also offers to provide a forum for the community to interact with local decision and policy makers.

However when listening, many of the songs that are played on WDKX come into direct contradiction with the station’s stated mission. Pertaining to the music choices, we repeatedly experience lyrics promoting self-hate, and the glorification of drug and alcohol abuse. The tracks chosen are full of explicitly misogynistic messages and are in support of a rape culture. In spite of hourly claims to be part of your family, and a family station, there are very few times of the day that provide music appropriate for the multiple generations that constitute the Black family. Listening to the audible mission statement available on your website, it is possible that the most repeated word is community. If your belief is in the community, then we see it as problematic to play songs with heavily violent concepts and content that doesn’t support positive community building.

The dialogue on shows like The Water Cooler and Teen Talk are of similar concern and, arguably, expose a significant level of hypocrisy. When listeners tune into a community station, the words and messages from actual Rochester community members have a significant effect. Discussion often becomes homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, and more pro-capitalistic than pro-community. We are also calling out a general attitude encouraging the condemnation of youth and youth culture. We hear opinions and statements accusing parents of being to blame for their children’s difficulty to “stay out of trouble” as opposed to acknowledging the dismay of our school systems, and the excessive racial profiling from the police and justice departments. By taking this approach, Rochester’s radio station, born to nourish our Black community, instead excuses a white supremacist culture. Facilitators are complacent when these issues arise thus contributing to a society that accepts this paradigm as the norm.

The following is a list of requests we believe need to be approached and eventually met in order to bring WDKX’s mission statement and Mr. Langston’s dream into reality.

1. Cease playing problematic music that promotes negative behavior and self-hate, especially during peak hours when youth are likely to be listening to the station.
2. Replace music with detrimental messages with music that uplifts the Black community.
3. Make a conscious effort to play more local artists with positive messages.
4. Offer a more comprehensive spectrum of Black life through your broadcast that represents the entire Black experience.
5. We would like representatives of the station (at least one representative from each regularly aired show as well as members of the station’s management) to attend a meeting with members of B.L.A.C.K to further discuss the concerns we have brought forth.
6. Following this private meeting, we would like for B.L.A.C.K. and WDKX to host a forum to allow members of the community to express what they need from their community station.

We recognize that having a locally owned community radio station, focused on the Black community, is incredibly valuable to our city. These requests are made in honor of that importance. If they are going to continue to be unmet, then our final request is that you at least stop calling yourself a community radio station until the claim is true.