Director of Operations, WKKC Radio
When Marv Dyson first attended what’s now Kennedy King College, John Kennedy was an unknown political commodity, and something of monumental racial importance was taking place at a certain high school in Little Rock, Ark. Fifty years and a vast radio empire later, Dyson, the director of operations at WKKC Radio at KKC, returns to the place that helped launch his communications conglomerate. While Dyson has acquired lots of education and expertise in the communcations field, it was his wife’s nudging that birthed his entrepreneurial spirit.
“I got into radio station ownership because my wife said [since] I was making all this money for these companies, [I should] make it for [myself],” says Dyson, who owns 24 small-market radio stations in places like Toledo, Ohio; Alabama and Alexandria, La. “I thought, ‘well, if I’m going to do something, I might as well do radio.’ I thoroughly and completely enjoy it.”
Dyson enjoys radio so much that he felt compelled to volunteer at the state-of-the-art radio station at KKC, working to create a curriculum in media communication. Thus far, it has been a unique experience – however, it’s not the first time Dyson has used his talent to effect change. He was instrumental in getting Harold Washington to become Chicago’s first and only African American mayor. “That was probably the most glorious time in the history of Chicago politics. It was just so amazing that the black radio stations literally elected a black mayor in this town,” he recalls. terry shropshire For more information, log onto www.kennedyking.ccc.edu. – terry shropshire
