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Street Beat
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  • StreeBeat is a community affairs progarm hosted by Tony B on KUBE 93 FM that highlights events and people that are giving back to their community.  If you would like to have an event or topic that concerns you discussed on StreetBeat then get involved by listening to StreetBeat Sunday mornings at 8a.m to 9a.m to better understand how we get down and exactly what it is we do.  Please send all show ideas and or comments to your host of the StreetBeat Tony B at TONYBENTON@ClearChannel.com

    Don't forget to check out the Official Myspace page for StreetBeat!!

    Call Us...
    (206) 421-9393
    or
    Toll Free 1(877)933-9393
    Marlyn - The Mo' Betta Producer:
    What are you and/or your organizations doing within our community? Tell me about it. Email to CommunityRelations@clearchannel.com


For The Complete List of Podcasts...
StreetBeat in the Seattle PI

  • Tony Benton working at his Clearchannel production studio in Seattle on Wednesday.
    Voice of 'StreetBeat' still going strong
    Talk host offers black perspective, but with broad aim

    By CLAUDIA ROWE
    P-I REPORTER

    While riding the Metro bus, Tony Benton had an epiphany. He was with his 2-year-old daughter, watching two other black men talk. One was about 18, with a toddler of his own, and the other, who appeared to be in his early 20s, glanced at the little girl.

    "Your b_ _ _ _ is going to be fine," the older man said, admiringly.

    "My b_ _ _ _ is going to be a gangster," the younger man avowed with a nod.

    Benton, the voice behind KUBE-FM's talk-radio program "StreetBeat," was neither shocked nor offended. The young man clearly loved his daughter and was raising her to grow up safe the best way he knew how, Benton believes.

    To him, the conversation was simply further proof of beliefs that have guided his work in hip-hop radio for more than a decade: What his audience needs most is information -- particularly, facts about child development -- rather than the usual patter of entertainment and pop-star glorification.

    Yet he holds a slot on one of Seattle's most popular music stations, resolutely refusing to become -- in his own words -- "a 'Yo, whuz-up' deejay" trading on street slang.

    Instead, at 8 a.m. on Sundays Benton feeds his 11,000 weekly listeners a diet of thought-provoking commentary on such issues as early education, national politics, race and, lately, youth violence -- albeit delivered with his distinct perspective as a black man in Seattle.

    Insisting always on "an open and honest" dialogue, he nevertheless maintains an even-handed, cool intelligence.

    "I know that I'm a voice, an African-American voice in a city where there are few, and my experience provides a basis for discussion," he said.

    "But the show is broad. I don't necessarily try to be Afro-centric. I think these are issues that affect everyone."

    He has not always found wholehearted agreement for that approach. When "StreetBeat" started in 1993, hip-hop and gang violence were the issues of the day -- at least for KUBE's many black listeners -- and Benton's programs, peppered with live call-in comments, reflected their concerns.

    But he wanted to go broader, speaking about topics that resonated with a wider audience. Thus came more programming on subjects like AIDS, teen suicide, breast cancer and child abuse, with fewer shows specifically targeting the black music scene.

    "I took some backlash for that," he said in a recent interview. "I was called a sell-out, talking about HIV -- as if that's not a concern to the black community -- but I think people are starting to get it now."

    Jacqueline Moore, a listener and community activist deeply involved in her children's schooling, agrees.

    "It's more important information thanyou get on 'The T-Man Show'," she said, laughingly referring to KUBE's highly rated morning program, and noting her particular appreciation for Benton's civic involvement.

    "His show's about the community -- whatever's hot, he tries to talk about it with folks. And he's pretty popular lately," she said. "I've seen him at events with his family. He really tries to be out and about."

    It has been this way, more or less, from the beginning. In the early 1990s, Benton, then a musician, stepped in to lease the now-defunct R&B station KFOX -- known as "voice of the black community" -- which was in receivership. He had no experience in radio but plunged in anyway, hiring college students to do advertising and transforming himself into an on-air personality by creating a show that interspersed music with opinion.

    It soon became clear that listeners responded to his banter more than they did the songs, and in a few months when KUBE came calling -- on the hunt for a distinctly black perspective -- Benton was hired.

    He has since become the station's director of community affairs and as such, is not paid for his work as an on-air host. But he is allowed free rein to choose his own guests -- Bill Cosby is a recent favorite -- and guide the show as he sees fit.

    When Seahawks wide receiver Deion Branch arrived in the studio to chat last year, the football star spoke almost nothing about his sports career. Instead, he wept. Most of the hourlong broadcast was devoted to Branch's work combating childhood meningitis, the debilitating illness afflicting his 7-year-old son.

    In 2004, looking for ways to more actively promote the causes in which he believes, Benton founded his own events firm, Musica. Through it, he has sponsored a voter-registration drive, annual black history celebrations and several music festivals showcasing local hip-hop artists. On Saturday , Musica will hold a children's health, nutrition and early learning fair.

    "I wanted to do these things without the 'Tony B.' radio personality getting in the way," said Benton, who declines to give his age.

    "The kids' fairs are a way to use music to engage parents and youth, showing them the importance of early education, especially for people who look at school as something they don't like. If you have a message developed by a 45-year-old white man and delivered by a 40-year-old white woman, are we really reaching the people we need to?"

    Blunt talk about race may be off-putting to some, but Benton is undeterred. A good part of his drive derives from his sense of Seattle as a particularly segregated city and his frustration at deep divisions he sees within the black community itself.

    "We need to be part of the world," he said. "Nothing against MLK Boulevard, nothing wrong with watching out for our block, but we need to think broader.

    "There aren't just 'white topics' or 'black topics' or 'Latino topics.' We all need information."
    P-I reporter Claudia Rowe can be reached at 206-448-8320 orclaudiarowe@seattlepi.com.
Musica Entertainment
  • Check out Musica Entertainment for up comming events!




    MUSICA Entertainment is proud to present events and programming that focus on cultural awareness, musical expression, social engagement and on literacy, health, education and safety of children birth through 8.

    www.musicaentertainment.org
 
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