Childhood memories spark local businesswoman’s latest endeavor

7th March 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

For several decades beginning in the 1950s, Larry McKinley discovered and amplified thousands of Black voices, including his own, in New Orleans.

First as a co-founder of influential early rhythm and blues label Minit Records – through which he scouted and promoted groundbreaking musicians like Ray Charles, Ernie K-Doe, Chris Kenner and Irma Thomas – then as a popular and mellifluous radio DJ, and manager for several local stations, including WNNR, WMRY and WYLD, McKinley staked out a stellar career that resulted in his induction into the Black Radio Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Now, thanks to the efforts of his daughter, Glenda McKinley English, a successful local businesswoman and community entrepreneur, one of the landmarks at which Larry acted as a beacon of hope and happiness for the New Orleans Black community will be brought back to life.

In December, McKinley English purchased the property at 1639 Gentilly Blvd., which in the past has been home to several radio studios and broadcasting operations in New Orleans, including WNNR, for which Larry McKinley took to the air as a DJ in the 1970s. The building has been largely unoccupied since its most recent occupant, WBOK radio, moved to its own new headquarters at Xavier University last year.

McKinley English purchased the property from Bakewell Media of Louisiana, the Los Angeles-based media company that operated WBOK before selling the station in 2020 to Equity Media, which then shifted WBOK to Xavier last year, leaving the property on Gentilly Boulevard available.

McKinley English said that the sale was finalized on Dec. 13, which would have been her father’s 95th birthday. Larry passed away in 2013, less than a week short of turning 86.

As the new owner of the property, which is located at the intersection of Gentilly Boulevard and Fortin Street in the Esplanade Ridge Historic District, McKinley English plans to refurbish and renovate the 5,036-square-foot building into a new broadcasting and recording studio complex that will revive the spirit of WNNR and Larry McKinley and the indelible mark he left on the city.

“I bought the building to make it a space that recognizes his contribution to communications and broadcasting,” she said. “The purchase of the building is very personal to me. My father liked to broadcast from that building, and he created political organizations spawned by that. It felt like an opportunity to use that space to honor my father.

“There’s a lot of history there,” she added.

McKinley English said she wants the revitalized property, which she has re-dubbed The McKinley, to emulate her father’s work and honor his memory and legacy.

“From the moment you walk into The McKinley, you will feel my father’s contributions to the music and communications industries, as well as his talent for bringing good people together to make big things happen,” she said.

McKinley English aims to turn the building into a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose facility focused on attracting and nurturing the best in talent, especially young artists and entrepreneurs, in the recording and broadcasting industries.

The first floor will feature rental, co-working spaces for creatives “to develop a collaborative energy and supportive environment for writers, designers, illustrators, editors and others,” McKinley English said. She added that monthly programming will be offered “to stimulate creativity and professional development, which is a nod to his commitment to the community.”

Other spaces of the structure will include the renovation of the existing studio and control room areas into two modern recording spaces for the production of radio commercials, voiceovers and podcasts.

While McKinley English is buoyed by her familial pedigree, she also comes to the renovation project backed by her own track record of success, primarily as an advertising and public relations executive. As founder and president of GMc+Co., an integrated communications firm, McKinley English has garnered several accolades for her ventures – in 2011-12, she received the Top Executive of the Year Award from the New Orleans Ad Club – and the firm has earned accolades for managing the annual Essence Festival in the city. The company is the city’s largest and oldest minority-owned digital advertising agency.

Like her father, Glenda also continues to also be active in community uplift and preservation of local heritage. She was the spokeswoman for the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail project, and she has also contributed to start-up ventures aimed at nurturing tech development locally.

McKinley English said she wants to employ the skills and experiences she’s gained as a businesswoman to enhance a place that her father helped make so vital to the community.

“The building is a natural fit for what I’m developing,” she said, “so it’s easy to keep costs in line, which is typically where businesses get into trouble. I’m not reinventing the wheel. I’m just leveling up by taking a building in a great location, with great bones and even greater stories to preserve a legacy. If we don’t tell our own stories we merely become footnotes in someone else’s.”

While Larry McKinley established his name as a record executive and radio host, his career and impact reached far beyond the confines of a sound studio. He served for many years as “the Voice of Jazz Fest,” welcoming festival-goers to the Fairgrounds each year with his sonorous words as music fans arrived to take in the sounds, sights and tastes of New Orleans.

In addition, as a broadcaster and DJ, McKinley engaged listeners with political and social discourse and brought the messages of numerous local political candidates and campaigns, and bolstering the public consciousness became a key part of his influential career.

Local leaders lauded the transfer of the property and McKinley-English’s plans for the building’s repurposing, and they expressed optimism that the reborn building and its new activities will be welcomed by the New Orleans community.

City Councilman Eugene J. Green said her efforts will harken back to the important work and cultural impact of her father.

“It is great news that my long-time friend Glenda McKinley is purchasing the building,” Green said. “That the building will be named after her father, Larry McKinley, a legend in New Orleans communications and political circles, is an additional reason for excitement. That Glenda, a successful communications professional in her own right, who happens to be an African American, is making the investment heightens the reason for celebration.”

Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. told The Louisiana Weekly that the purchase of the old radio station property by McKinley-English will be a boon for the local community by reinforcing the city’s tradition of strong Black media.

“Music is so important to the New Orleans community, culture and our economy,” Carter said. “With this new transformation of the former WBOK building we can celebrate our past and the importance of Black radio, remember the legacy of Larry McKinley, and then look to the future. We must bring back our cultural economy and create jobs, including the music industry, to help it be stronger than it ever has been before.”

McKinley English said work on the renovations are underway, with a focus on adapting its new uses to its unique location adjacent to the Fairgrounds, adding that she hopes the new operations can be up, running and open within six months or so. Her advertising firm will also be based in the building, which she described as a mid-century modern style property.

She added that the technology of the facilities will all be cutting-edge. “It will be completely modernized with a nod to the past,” she said.

McKinley English hopes that, especially with the massive annual celebration of local culture and heritage that is Jazz Fest, The McKinley can be a nurturing space for artists and entrepreneurs, a mission that connects back to her father.

“It was a way to tell a story in the space where [the story] happened,” she said.

This article originally published in the March 7, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.