BUFFALO, N.Y. — Once a warehouse, the back hall at a radio station now serves as a museum of sorts to Black music locally and around the world.

"I love playing organ piano. Okay," said Buffalo music legend Vn Taylor. "When you look at the people that play. Play? Yeah. I'm just, okay."

Taylor might be humble, but where he stacks up against other musicians is part of history, which, funny enough, is where a young Van decided he was going to be world class.

"History class, not music class. A lady asked me, my teacher, she put a globe in front of the class and said to everybody, 'come up and pick a spot on the globe. You want to be your go to'," he remembered. "'Van, why are you just sitting there?' And I said, because I want the whole thing."

His journey started one of the first Black families in a Polish neighborhood on Buffalo's East side.

"The only music around was Polka. Guess what I learned how to play first?" he said.

Supportive parents and drive eventually had their phone ringing off the hook.

"I had a unique gift. I went to the Wurlitzer School of Music. My mother sent me. I can learn. I learned to read and write there. And because I could read and write, some of the big groups, Spinners for Tops, whenever they came to town, if they needed a keyboard player, we had to call the kid," Taylor noted. "I was the kid."

Taylor's is one of the stories on display over at WUFO and Power 96.5 with countless others of Black excellence.

"Aretha Franklin. We were the first station to play her music. But in fact, Franklin's father was a deejay. I mean, a deejay, a pastor here in the city of Buffalo for 4 to 5 years. That Friendship Baptist Church," owner and president of the station Sheila Brown remarked, making her way through the 'Music Collective' in another part of the building.

The Music Collective has been years in the making, constantly evolving and telling new chapters as they unfold and keeping eyes of today on where the journey has taken us.

"In 1972, President [Jimmy] Carter ordained June to be Black Music Month, because Motown music was so amazing at that era," Brown added.

While boxes of LPs and remastered tunes on streaming services help, looking around a place like this, all this history helps inspire the next generation.

"Eras change all the time. But it's important for me to preserve our ancestors and keep their legacy alive," Brown said. 

"It's about helping people around the world, making the spirit make it a soul, making heart feel good," said Taylor.

That's history worth celebrating.

The Black Radio Collective at WUFO/Power 96.5 is far from limited to the 716. Anyone passionate or just curious about the displays, history and heritage can check it out online.