Before streaming, social media, and even MTV, one of the only ways Minnesota musicians could gain more exposure was on the radio. In the 1960s, local garage bands like The Trashmen and The Castaways found airplay on the pop music station KDWB.  

Around that time, the funk and soul music coming out of North Minneapolis and Rondo found a home on KUXL. Based in an old motel in Golden Valley, the small community station scraped by on donations and advertisements from local Black-owned businesses. It was on the dial at 15-70-A-M.

Despite a broadcast range of only about a mile, KUXL was the place in the Twin Cities to hear Black music on the radio. If you tuned in, you’d hear a mix of soul and R&B music from artists like Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Minneapolis’ own Maurice McKinnies. In between songs, Jack “Old Daddy Soul” Harris became a celebrated host. The young radio DJ – who recorded his own music under the name Jackie Harris – was also a record label entrepreneur.

Harris — like many — observed discrimination and a lack of representation in the club scene and local press. He set out to change that and became a driving force behind bringing Black music to the forefront in the late 1960s. In direct response to the Connie Awards, which primarily recognized white men and some white women in the upper Midwest, Harris developed the Jackie Awards. The goal was to put the spotlight on Black musicians. 

Harris didn’t stop there. Inspired by the James Brown song, he launched a new label, Black and Proud Records, which put out some of the grooviest and most innovative R&B music to come out of Minnesota.

When Jack Harris staged a six-hour concert featuring more than 30 entertainers at the St. Paul Holiday Inn in 1969, the mainstream press took note.  

Glowing coverage of the show in the St. Paul Dispatch newspaper included this quote from a satisfied listener: “There’s a helluva lot of talent here and they put on a great show.”  

It was one of the first times that Black musicians had been acknowledged by either of St. Paul’s newspapers. 

This attention provided a spotlight on a thriving music community ready for attention — and being discussed for its content and merit.  

You can learn more by reading the chapter about KUXL and Jack Harris in the book Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound by Andrea Swensson, published by the University of Minnesota Press.