Just months after its highly anticipated launch on June 4, Sports Rap Radio, Detroit’s all-Black AM sports talk station led by veteran journalist Rob Parker, has fallen off the air. The station featured a lineup of prominent sports figures and a mix of hip-hop and sports talk.
The station – with featured all-Black hosts and ownership – had been supposed to launch in May after being announced in February, but ran into delays that pushed the product back by weeks. Sports Rap Radio was broadcasting on WXYT-AM under a Local Marketing Agreement from Audacy. Sales for the station were managed in-house.
As of 5p CT on August 27, the signal had already returned to its previous sports betting format, The Bet Detroit, carrying Audacy’s BetQL network programming.
Sports Rap Radio’s lineup included former Detroit Pistons player and NBA coach Lindsey Hunter, three-time NBA champion B.J. Armstrong, and Martin Weiss and JR Gamble, hosts of The Bad Boys. Parker’s nationally syndicated show, The Odd Couple, was also scheduled to air on the station.
With Parker’s original goal to expand the format to reach major Black markets across the country and provide a space for Black-hosted podcasts, there is no word on what the future holds for those plans.
Someone didn’t pay their LMA fees to Audacy.