Ann Tripp: A Leading Voice in Black Radio News

By Fern Gillespie
For decades, journalist Ann Tripp has been a leading source of Black news and information in the New York metro area. As New Director at WBLS, millions of listeners from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and around the globe tune in to hear her voice of information. 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 show produced by the Police Athletic League.

A graduate of City College, Ann has also performed as an actor and singer. Throughout her career as a radio journalist, her impact on New Yorkers has been seen in many honors and awards. Our Time Press spoke with Ann Tripp recently for a reflection on her career, which spans decades of informing New Yorkers.

When you began your radio news career at WHN, a general market station, were you the only woman in the news department?
At WHN, a sports station, I was in the newsroom. I listened and studied under some really great journalists who were white men. They actually taught me the business of news and how to write. They gave me books to read.

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

When you joined KISS-FM, you were well-known as a general market news person at WHN, WNEW, WKTU and K-ROCK. What was it like being at KISS-FM focusing on news to Black listeners?
It was important. Because a lot of Black stations were not heard as widely as we were, and we wanted to make sure that the community knew that we were there for them. Bob Slade was an excellent newsman. He encouraged me to speak my real mind on radio.

Bob said “We have a political show and I’d like for you to be on it. I want you to say what you really think. We want the real you.” It made me popular with my own people.

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

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

As a Black journalist, what do you feel is a major issue facing Black New Yorkers?
Unfortunately, police brutality. It’s not as bad as some other cities, but it’s still very brutal. They still don’t know how to treat people of color, particularly those having problems of disorientation or mental issues. The last thing you need to do, in most cases, is call a policeman. Police are not psychologists.

They are not sociologists. Whenever something is done like that they say “We are going to be retraining the police.” But how much retraining can you do? It’s not just about retraining, it’s about who you hire and it’s about how the written test. How the questionnaires are done for people who want to be police officers. Why are so many Blacks not admitted to the police department? Who is giving these questions? Who are evaluating the answers?

Do you think the general market press is covering racism in New York?
No. Because it’s not important to them, we are left to fend for ourselves pretty much. If you want to find out what’s going on with Black people you have to look to Black media and Black newspapers, because that’s where they’re going to write stories that tell you what’s going on in this country as far as we are concerned.

The general market media would rather talk about Ukraine, which is valid, but you see more about Ukraine, Russia even Gaza than you see about what’s going on in Florida. That’s where Black parents have to send a permission letter to allow their children to be taught Black History.

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

I feel blessed to have access to the airwaves at this time, because its an important year and an important Presidential election. If I didn’t have access to something, I would be hitting my head against a wall.