Keyon Jackson-Malone, a talk show host and community organizer well known in Milwaukee's Black community, died suddenly Monday.
Jackson-Malone, 47, had a weekly show, "The Man Show" on WNOV , which listeners remember as a "safe space" to discuss life.
"They talked about everything under the sun," said Michelle Bryant, fellow WNOV radio host. "The men now don't have that space in terms of talk radio. I grieve for that, for our community, because it was a therapeutic couch that they all came to. And it didn't matter from what walk of life — everybody was willing to come and talk to him about issues from depression to marriage to health."
Jackson-Malone, who also produced Bryant's show for almost eight years, brought something different to the show every time he was on-air.
"He would always push the needle," Bryant said. "He'd always force you to think about something from a different perspective."
She also noted Jackson-Malone's impressive knack for matching music to the mood on-air.
"This man had a music collection that could rival any DJ anywhere in the world," she said. "And he was able to listen to a topic, I don't care what we were talking about, and he had the perfect music to complement the mood, the message, the meaning of whatever the issue was."
Off the air, Jackson-Malone worked at Wisconsin Voices , a grassroots organization that aims to amplify underrepresented voices. Co-executive director Tomika Vukovic knew something was wrong when he didn't show up for work Monday morning. She asked police for a wellness check, and they found him dead in his home. The office has been "somber" since, she said.
"He was 100% about the community," Vukovic said. "His goal was making people know that Milwaukee is a great place to live."
In addition to his work at Wisconsin Voices, Jackson-Malone led his own nonprofit, the Village Group. He used food to bring people together and helped organize a food pantry in his neighborhood of Atkinson Park.
"I'm going to lose a lot of weight now that he's no longer with us, because he would cook breakfast for me just about every single morning for our 7 a.m. show," Bryant said with a laugh.
Carmen Alicia Murguia, a friend of Jackson-Malone's who met him while working at Milwaukee Times Printing and Publishing, said he would often stop by with ribs or catfish.
Radio host Sherwin Hughes said Jackson-Malone was always available to drive Hughes to work when his car broke down.
And Bryant recalls a day when they had been up since 5 a.m. hauling supplies, but Jackson-Malone was immediately ready to help someone move when they returned to Milwaukee that night and heard about the need.
"He was just somebody that was there for you," Hughes said.
Reactions to Jackson-Malone's death have poured out on social media, and community members hosted a balloon release event to honor him Wednesday night.
Bryant said she has never seen so many men outwardly expressing grief than at that event.
"He was proud to care for his city, he was proud to care for his community and he was proud of being Black, and instilled that in young people," Murguia said.
Jackson-Malone was interested in radio at a young age, he said in 2020 interview . He attended John Marshall High School to participate in the media program there, but didn't get back into radio for another 20 years.
Jackson-Malone was funny, Bryant said, and used to joke about his time in the gifted and talented programs in school. But that humor reflected a core belief.
"He just believed that, if God trusted you with intellect and abilities, you were supposed to use them for the greater good," she said. "They weren't supposed to be selfish and only about advancing yourself. Those gifts were meant to move the entire community forward."
A prayer vigil in honor of Jackson-Malone will be held 7 p.m. Aug. 22 in Atkinson Park, 936 W. Atkinson Ave. The event was originally planned for Aug. 15 but was postponed a week due to weather, according to a social media post from state Rep. Dora Drake.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: '100 percent about the community': Milwaukee radio host, organizer Keyon Jackson-Malone dies
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