A Leading Voice in Black Radio News – Our Time Press

By Fern Gillespie
Journalist Ann Tripp has been one of the leading sources of news and information about black people in the New York metropolitan area for decades. As the new director of WBLS, millions of listeners from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and around the world tune in to hear her informative voice. Born in Crown Heights and raised in Flatbush, radio has been her career since she was a 14-year-old announcer at WNYC for a program produced by the Police Athletic League.

Ann is a graduate of City College and has also performed as an actress and singer. During her career as a radio journalist, her impact on New Yorkers has been evident in numerous honors and awards. Our Time Press recently spoke with Ann Tripp to reflect on her decades-long career as a New Yorker anchor.

When you started your career at WHN radio, a general news station, were you the only woman in the news department?
I was in the newsroom at WHN, a sports network. I listened to and learned from some really great white journalists. They actually taught me the news business and how to write. They gave me books to read.

They taught me the history of journalism and the inverted pyramid of journalism. I had to go out and cover stories at City Hall and places like that. Then I would come back and cut them out for the news anchor and write a story about it. I learned a lot from these older white men.

When you came to KISS-FM, you were known as a general market news expert at WHN, WNEW, WKTU and K-ROCK. What was it like producing news for black listeners at KISS-FM?
That was important because a lot of black broadcasters weren’t as well known as we were and we wanted to make sure the community knew we were there for them. Bob Slade was an excellent journalist. He encouraged me to speak my true mind on the radio.

Bob said, “We’re having a political show and I want you to be on it. I want you to say what you really think. We want the real you.” That made me popular with my own people.

At KISS-FM, you were the morning co-host of the successful Isaac Hayes and Friends Morning Show. What is your fondest memory of him?
Isaac Hayes was raised by his grandmother Rushia Wade in Tennessee. She fished him out of a well when his biological mother, who had mental health issues, threw him in the well. When his grandmother died, everyone expected him to be there.

He didn’t go. He told me: “I knew they were there to see me. I went later when everyone went home. Then I paid my respects to my grandmother. Because that was between her and me. I didn’t want to be the story.” You learn such touching things about people.

As a black journalist, what do you think is the biggest problem facing black New Yorkers?
Unfortunately, there is police brutality. It’s not as bad as in some other cities, but it’s still very brutal. They still don’t know how to deal with people of color, especially those who are disorientated or have mental health issues. In most cases, the last thing you should do is call a cop. Cops are not psychologists.

They’re not sociologists. Whenever something like this is done, they say, “We’re going to retrain the police.” But how much retraining can you do? It’s not just about retraining, it’s about who you hire and how the written tests are done. How the questionnaires are filled out for people who want to be police officers. Why are so many black people not allowed to join the police force? Who asks these questions? Who evaluates the answers?

Do you think the mainstream press reports on racism in New York?
No. Because they don’t care, we have to more or less help ourselves. If you want to know what’s going on with black people, you have to go to the black media and newspapers because they will write stories that will tell you what’s going on in this country as far as we’re concerned.

The mainstream media prefers to cover Ukraine, and rightly so, but you hear more about Ukraine, Russia, and even Gaza than you do about what’s happening in Florida, where black parents have to send permission for their children to learn black history.

What do you like about being on the radio?
If you’re on the radio, they know when it’s your birthday. People on the radio really enter the homes of the people who listen to them. Unlike people on TV. I don’t take that closeness lightly. I don’t take it for granted.

I’m glad I have access to the airwaves at this time because it’s an important year and an important presidential election. If I didn’t have access to something, I’d be banging my head against the wall.