Delilah Rene Luke (born February 15, 1960 in Reedsport, Oregon), almost always known mononymously as Delilah, is an American radio personality, author, and songwriter, best known as the host of a nationally syndicated nightly U.S. radio song request and dedication program, with an estimated 8 million listeners.
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The program, known simply as Delilah[1] (or, alternatively, 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 takes calls from listeners, providing encouragement and receiving musical dedication 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. Callers are recorded during the show and replayed later, sometimes within the hour during the show. She also plays songs by direct request.
Originally heard only on weeknights, stations that carry Delilah 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.
There are several versions of the program that are available.[2] The most common formats are as follows:
The network also used to provide a three-hour Canadian content-compliant version of the show for stations in Canada, mostly the EZ Rock stations, but the few Canadian stations currently carrying the show now carry the American version, occasionally with local substitutions to comply with the CanCon regulations.
Delilah's show includes "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. Delilah also airs a "Delilah Dilemma" each evening in the first hour of the broadcast.
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. Jim Ryan, the Director of AC music programming for CBS Radio, is a consultant to the program.
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 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 addition, the version of the Delilah show that runs on WLTW is a separate specially tailored version of the show produced just for that station, with music programmed by local WLTW Programming). In 2007, longtime lovesongs host Zoe Bonet was dropped from KODA Houston and replaced with Delilah.
Los Angeles is the largest market not currently served by Delilah. 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. KOST, the Clear Channel-owned adult contemporary station in Los Angeles, currently offers a local lovesongs host in the time slot instead.
Other stations having dropped Delilah with no replacement station in the market included KESZ in Phoenix, Arizona in November 2009; and KQXT in San Antonio, Texas in August 2010.
The show's current flagship station is KRWM in Seattle, a station owned by Sandusky Broadcasting.
Usually finishing within the top three radio programs nationwide, the program is especially popular among women between the ages of 25 and 54 [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]
Delilah is a single mother of twelve children, eight of whom are adopted.[3] Delilah has been married (and divorced) three times, which she tells as a common joke on the show or she uses it as advice for her callers. She is a public advocate of adoption. Her on-air persona is said to be remarkably identical 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. Point Hope's immediate focus is on alleviating the suffering of Liberian refugees who are camped at Buduburam, a refugee camp that was established in Ghana following the Liberian civil war.[1]
Delilah has written two books, Love Someone Today and Love Matters, the latter of which was released in October 2008. Delilah lives in South Kitsap, WA with her children.[3]
She voiced Sarah in the VeggieTales episode "Abe and the Amazing Promise", released by Big Idea Productions.
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]