Growing up, local Black radio stations were a massive part of Howard Robertson’s life.
As a child, he would lay on the floor at night and listen to programs like Rufus Thomas’ "Hoot and Holler" on a large Philco radio. As a teenager, he had his own fire-engine-red transistor radio, which he kept in a tan leather case. Black radio was where he and others first heard the work of legendary singers and groups like James Brown and the Temptations, before they were played on white-owned stations. When he was a junior in high school, a neighbor burst into his family’s home during dinner and said Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot, after hearing it on the radio. When he marched in support of the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, he heard instructions on where to line up through the radio.
For Robertson and many in the Black community, Black radio was more than just a source of entertainment and news. It was a form of communication, a critical connector that brought — and kept — people together.
As Robertson launches his next venture, memories of his relationship with Black radio remains top of mind.
“That motivates me,” he said. “Because so much of what Black radio is, of what Black music is, evolved and started right here [in Memphis].”
The new app: Play Ode
Robertson is the creator and CEO of Play Ode, a new app that aggregates Black-owned radio stations and podcasts from across the country so that people can listen wherever they are. Currently, there are about 15 stations available on the app — a number that’s set to grow — and they have a variety of focuses.
For example, there are hip-hop and rap radio stations. There are R&B, classic R&B, and smooth jazz stations. There are both traditional and contemporary gospel stations. There is a fictional podcast called “It’s Still Your World,” a continuation of the famous radio soap opera “It’s Your World,” originally part of the "Tom Joyner Morning Show." Play Ode has also partnered with iHeart Radio, to offer its BIN: Black Information Network, a 24/7 news service that provides continuous news coverage with a Black voice and perspective.
There is “something for everyone” on the app, Robertson noted, and it gives people the chance to listen to radio stations from other cities that they might not otherwise hear.
“How in the world, other than an app like this, could you hear an AM radio station from Atlanta?” he said.
A digital bridge for Black radio
Play Ode is a division of Trust Marketing & Communications, the local marketing and advertising firm owned and led by Robertson and his wife, Greater Memphis Chamber president and CEO Beverly Robertson. And, for him, the creation of the app comes after a career steeped in radio and music.
Robertson began his career as a publicist for Stax Records. After this, he was a sales manager for the local, Black-owned radio station WLOK. In the late 1990s, his company, Trust Marketing, bought Mid-South Media and turned it into Spotset Radio Network, an unwired radio network that has partnered with the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) for about 20 years.
The idea for Play Ode, Robertson’s latest foray into the radio world, stems from his attendance at a 2018 NABOB conference in Washington D.C. He was listening to a presentation given by representatives from Nielsen, who were saying how much Black audiences were listening to radio on digital devices. As Robertson was aware, many of the people sitting in the room with him were owners of AM radio stations — which, at the time, weren’t likely to have many opportunities for a strong digital presence.
And this troubled him. How could these stations find success in the future, if that future was increasingly digital?
“You’ve got a lot of young people who don’t even know what AM radio is,” he said.
Robertson left to take a walk, and wound up at Shelly’s Back Room, a restaurant and cigar lounge. He called his friend and fellow Memphian Larry Robinson — who was also at the conference — and asked him to meet there to discuss the issue and potential solutions. Robinson is the founder and CEO of the digital content company Kudzukian, and for hours they ate, drank, smoked cigars, and created the concept that would ultimately become Play Ode.
Now, the goal is for Play Ode to become a digital bridge for Black radio — the medium that has always been a part of his life.
“Our tagline is ‘Hear us here,’” he said. “This is a platform that celebrates Black radio, Black information, and Black entertainment."
