Delilah Rene
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Delilah Rene (born February 15, 1960 in Reedsport, Oregon), almost always simply known as Delilah, is an American radio personality, author, and songwriter, best known as the eponymous host of a nationally syndicated nightly U.S. radio song request and dedication program, with an estimated 7 million listeners.
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[edit] Radio show
[edit] Format
The program, known simply as Delilah[1] (or, alternately, as Love Songs with Delilah or Delilah After Dark) begins at 7 p.m. and ends at midnight local time, although a few stations (such as WRCH) air the show from midnight to 5 a.m. She doles out relationship advice between musical requests and describes herself as "the queen of sappy love songs."
One of the cornerstones of Delilah's show is its use of callers. Most of the time the caller tells Delilah their situation or story and then Delilah chooses the song that she feels best matches the caller's situation. She also plays songs by direct request.
Originally heard only on weeknights, stations that carry Delilah now have the option of carrying the show six or even seven nights a week, with most stations doing so at least one night of the weekend (usually Sunday) in addition to the weeknight show. Usually, the weekend version is a replay of programming recorded the previous week.
There are several versions of the program that are available[2], and in some cases, radio stations are free to substitute their own songs into the playlist. The most common formats are as follows:
- Soft AC: This is the most widely distributed version of the show between January and early November. It airs mostly the usual adult contemporary music. This is the version heard on most stations, including WLTW, KODA and WRCH.
- Hot AC: This version of the show is geared toward a younger audience (such as that of WMYX) and thus features more current hits.
- Gold-based AC: A version of the show that features several older hits. Stations which air this version include WBBQ in Augusta, GA, and WSAM/WSAG in Saginaw, MI.
- Canadian: A specially formatted version specifically for stations in Canada. Because of Canadian content requirements, this version has several songs by Canadian artists substituted into the regular playlist. This version was initially only three hours long (although it has since expanded to regular full-show length) and airs on EZ Rock stations such as CJEZ in Toronto and CFMG in Edmonton.
- Christmas music: This is the only version that is produced live between the Friday before Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. It features all Christmas music, mainly because most of the stations that carry the show switch over to the format. Stations that do not switch to Christmas music at that time can receive repeats of previous programs. Likewise, those who change before the Friday before Thanksgiving (such as KOSY-FM) can get repeats of the previous years' Christmas shows until the changeover takes place.
Chevrolet has a sponsorship deal with the show.
A more recent addition to Delilah's show is "Friday Nite Girls", a "fan club"-style feature in which Delilah honors groups of her regular female listeners with prizes. She occasionally also calls certain "Friday Nite Girls" chapters and speaks with them live on the air.
[edit] Distribution
The show was originally syndicated by Broadcast Programming in the late 1990s, which was later bought by Jones Radio Networks. Delilah moved to Premiere Radio Networks in 2004, where she remains to this day.
Many of the stations carrying Delilah's show were owned by Premiere parent Clear Channel Communications, which led to speculation that Clear Channel would drop similar locally-produced "lovesongs" programs in New York and Los Angeles in order to place Delilah on the air in the nation's top two radio markets. In November of 2006, WLTW in New York began carrying Delilah, after longtime evening hostess J.J. Kennedy was laid-off as part of a major company-wide layoff at Clear Channel. In 2007, longtime lovesongs host Zoe Bonet was dropped from KODA Houston and replaced with Delilah.
Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, and Detroit are the four largest markets not served by Delilah. KOST in Los Angeles, WLIT in Chicago, KYXY in San Diego, and WNIC in Detroit currently have local evening lovesongs shows on their schedule, although WNIC's competitor WMGC airs John Tesh and had previously aired Delilah from 2001 to 2004. (Delilah is available in parts of the Detroit area via WCRZ in Flint, Michigan and WWWM in Toledo, Ohio.) Also, KBIG-FM 104.3 in Los Angeles carried a modified version of Delilah custom-fit to the station's rhythmic AC format from January to September 2007; when the station switched formats, Delilah was dropped. Delilah had aired on WLIT in Chicago for approximately eight years until the program was dropped in favor of a local host in November 2007.
Boston MA doesn't have a "official" Delilah station, however suburban stations that penetrate the Boston metro do carry the show. Also, an affiliation change occurred in Atlanta shortly after Christmas 2006, when Delilah was dropped from Clear Channel-owned WLTM-FM (which was then "94.9 Lite FM" and changed soon afterward to a country music format) and immediately picked up by Cox-owned main rival WSB-FM ("B98.5FM").
The show's current flagship station is KRWM in Seattle, a station owned by Sandusky Broadcasting.
[edit] Audience
Usually finishing within the top three radio programs nationwide, the program is especially popular among women between the ages of 25 and 54, the prime demographic in American advertising [1]. Delilah says that her show is a "safety zone where listeners take off their armor, slip into a 'Mr. Rogers' cardigan, sit around the electronic hearth and share their secrets."[1]
[edit] Personal life
Delilah is a single mother of eight children, five of whom are adopted. She is a public advocate of adoption. Her on-air persona is said to be remarkably similar to her real personality.[3] Because of her personal experience with the foster care system, Delilah has established a foundation called Point Hope as a voice for forgotten children everywhere. The immediate focus of the Foundation is on refugee children in Ghana and on special needs children in the foster care system nationwide and in her neighborhood of White Center in Seattle. [1]
Delilah has written a book called Love Someone Today and recently opened a restaurant called "Delilah's Kozy Kitchin" in South Kitsap.[3] Delilah lives in Port Orchard with the four youngest of her eight children.
[edit] Awards
In 2007, the show was nominated for the Syndicated Personality/Show of the Year award by Radio & Records magazine. Other finalists included Blair Garner, Steve Harvey, Kidd Kraddick, The Lia Show, and John Tesh. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Show information page from Premiere Radio Networks
- ^ JS Online: Rancor tinges Rather's departure
- ^ a b Yes, that Delilah lives in South Kitsap. Kitsap Sun. 24 February 2008.
- ^ "2007 Industry Achievement Awards", Radio and Records, Sept 28, 2008.
[edit] See also
- The Lia Show -- a country music show based upon the Delilah format, also based in Seattle
- John Tesh -- Delilah's most significant national competitor
